Category: Lawal Ogienagbon

He didn’t ask me not to attempt and pursue my ambition, which is a lifelong ambition – Tinubu after informing Buhari of his presidential ambition in 2022

Today, President-elect Bola Tinubu will take the first major step towards his inauguration as the nation’s 16th leader on May 29. Before an august body, he will be conferred with the highest honour in the land, Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (GCFR), by outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari. For Tinubu, it is the path to the fulfilment of a dream; a lifelong ambition becoming reality.

He is lucky. He is not the only one with such an ambition. Indeed, he is not the only one with an ambition. We all have ambitions. It is natural to be ambitious, but its fulfilment is another thing. It takes grace to fulfil ambitions and it is this grace that the Asiwaju of Lagos and Jagaban Borgu has enjoyed.

By the time he is decorated with the sash of GCFR, Asiwaju Tinubu would join the exclusive club of Nigerian leaders who hold that distinguished honour. If my memory serves me right, the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, is the only member of the club who was not president. Yet, he earned the honour because of the inherent qualities of a leader found in him by no less a person than his political rival, former President Shehu Shagari.

Shagari’s stock grew by conferring Awo with GCFR. He did not allow their political differences to affect his decision to honour Awo. Not many leaders would do what Shagari did, not after the bitter presidential contests between them in 1979 and 1983. It is a matter of course that the president be given GCFR on coming to office, but it is not so in the case of anybody who never attained that position, no matter his innate attributes. This is why what Shagari did for Awo is outstanding,

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As Tinubu takes his place in the pantheon of leaders, it signifies the beginning of his journey with Nigerians to lead them well and turn around the country for good. It is, therefore, not only the fulfilment of a dream, but also the birth of his covenant with the people. The hood, they say, does not make the monk. So, it is not the GCFR that makes the president, but the president that proves to his people and the world that he is deserving of the honour.

This is why a school of thought believes that the conferment of GCFR on presidents should not be automatic. To this school, the honour should only be given to those who excelled while in office. For now, their argument is academic, until something happens that changes the modalities for giving the award. Tinubu’s leadership pedigree speaks for itself. For a man who governed a state like Lagos for eight years (1999-2007), he comes with an experience that should put him in good stead in leading the country from Monday.

The process began long before today. As his confidant and ally, Chief Bisi Akande, said some days ago, Tinubu is well-prepared for the task ahead. Akande should know. As someone not known to be flippant, the former All Progressives Congress (APC) interim national chairman and Osun governor certainly has some privilege information about Tinubu’s preparations for the Presidency which the public is not privy to. From the little he said about the president-elect’s plans for Nigeria, one can conclude that the country will better off under Tinubu.

The incoming president knows too well that to plan is one thing, execution is the real Mccoy! Many who are still aggrieved over the outcome of the February 25 presidential poll are waiting by the wings to see what he will do. Nobody needs to tell the Jagaban this. As a strategist, thinker and doer, he is not unaware of all these side talks about his age and health. It is not a sin to become old, which is what we all pray for anyway. Why then should being old count against Tinubu when his faculties are intact? What he still does at his age, 71, many younger than him cannot do.

Holding meetings all day long and standing on his feet to attend to people, no matter the time of day belie his age. Tinubu is a workaholic and he has proved this fact over time. He has not been idle since he left office 16 years ago at the age of 55. In the intervening years after leaving office, he devoted time, energy and money to building people and bridges across the country for a day like this. The day is here, at last. No matter the misgivings of the naysayers about Asiwaju, it is the nation’s gain that he will mount the saddle as president and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces for the next four years beginning from Monday, which is just 96 hours away.

Asiwaju’s four-year journey in the first instance begins with the first steps he will take on Monday after inauguration. As a Chinese proverb says, no matter how long a journey is, it begins with a first step. His investiture with the rank of GCFR is a turning-point in his political journey which will ultimately lead him to building the blocks for a greater and better Nigeria in our lifetime. On his shoulders lie an onerous task.

The consolation is that he is well-prepared for it, even though, as they say, uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. May the burden be lightened for him to deliver on his promises. 

FOR the 16 years that he was Principal of Ahmadiyya College (now Anwar-Ul Islam College), Agege, Alhaji Jimoh Adisa Gbadamosi (OON), popularly called Oga by his boys gave a good account of himself. Oga was a teacher, mentor, counsellor, guardian and most importantly, a father. Like a mother hen, he protected us his brood, all the boys handed over to him to train by their parents.

Oga was a born teacher, who did not joke with his job. Even as Principal, he still taught us geography and woe betide that student who missed his class. He knew almost all the students, not only by face, but also by name. Whenever he entered the classroom and some students were not on their seats, he would start calling out their names and asking for their whereabouts. “Where is so and so student?” He would ask, pointing to the person’s seat. “What about the boy (mentioning the name) that sits there?” Oga would continue, as his eyes darted across the room in search for more absent pupils.

He was a hands-on Principal which did not allow his administrative duty to clash with his teaching job. He loved teaching and it showed in the way he handled his classes. Many fell in love with geography because of the way he taught the subject. J.A. Gbadamosi bonded with his students as a way of getting the best out of them. He did not spare the rod when they misbehaved, as students normally do. But it was more of a stick-and-carrot approach. Whenever we did well, whether in sports or academics, Oga was all over the moon, praising us.

It was in an era that academics and sports were conjoined. There were literary and debating, quiz and football tournaments, especially the Principals’ Cup competition, among secondary schools then. Oga, who loved sports, encouraged us to compete in every game. Whenever we gathered on the football pitch, he was always around to watch us play before leaving for his home in Surulere. He would sit on his swagger stick, a few meters (it was yards then) away watching keenly and commenting on our performance with those around him.

Despite living in Surulere, Oga reported early at work in Agege daily. He was always around before  7a.m., and before you knew it, everywhere is abuzz with news of his arrival. Oga Oga ti de, Oga ti de (the Principal is around, the Principal is around), those who have sighted his car and perhaps, not him yet, will start passing the information down so that those still in the dormitory can dress up quickly and rush to the dining hall. Oga’s presence provoked fear and respect at the same time. Even his teachers knew that he brooked no nonsense.

Oga was firm but fair. He and the Vice Principal, the late Chief Oke Osanyintolu worked as a team. Osanyintolu lived in the staff quarters on the school premises. From his quarters, he surveyed all that was going on in the dormitory. This was 1973 when discipline was a sine qua non for learning. Oga and Osanyintolu understood each other and they ran the school seamlessly together for 10 years. Osanyintolu was Oga’s deputy from 1965-1975. Oga, the longest-serving principal of the college, held sway from 1960-1976 when he was transferred to Jibril Martin Memorial Grammar School, Iponri.

In a book authored by the Anwar-Ul Islam College Old Students Association (ACAOSA) to mark the 70th Anniversary of the school, Oga shared fond memories of his relationship with Osanyintolu. He described Osanyintolu as “an experienced, gifted and astute teacher of high integrity. A capable assistant and a good administrator and performer”. Little wonder that Osanyintolu left the school to become the Principal of African Church Grammar School, Ifako, Agege in 1975. Though Anwar-Ul is a Muslim school, it has always settled for the best, no matter their faith or tribe, whether as staff or students.

Under Gbadamosi, religion and ethnicity were no issues and they never came between either the staff or the students. Till today, this remains the hallmark of the school. Religion and ethnicity have never been a barrier to the relationship among all Oga boys. They carry on as members of the same family, upholding the motto of the school: Aut Optimum Aut Nihil (Either the best or nothing). ACAOSA is strong today because of the solid foundation of love, care, content and character moulding on which members were brought up by Oga.

The late Alhaji R.A. Balogun with who Oga swapped positions in 1976, as both of them moved in opposite directions to head the schools in Agege and Iponri, put it succinctly in his own contribution to the ACAOSA book. “Mr J.A. Gbadamosi”, he said, “became an institution in the college”. Balogun who was in Agege till 1978 when the late Mr L.O.A. Ilaka succeeded him could not have put it better. Oga personified the school, until his death on Monday at the age of 96. He was the last man standing of all the principals of his era across all mission schools in Lagos State. He was a pioneer teacher of the college when it was founded on April 5,1948.

Whenever an old student tells people familiar with the school that he attended Ahmadiyya, the first question they usually ask is: “do you know Gbadamosi?”  With the response of: “Ha, Oga, I know him”, the person will smile and start to regale you with the story of how he met our “Principal Emeritus”, an honour he richly deserved.

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The other founding staff were Balogun, the late Alhaji R.A. Folami, the late Justice Kayode Eso, the late M.A. Bamgbose and the late Justice Idowu Agoro, who was the first school clerk. Oga strove to make the school great. Through his efforts, the college was granted approval to start running the Higher School Certificate (HSC) in 1965. In 1973, the college became the first and only secondary school in the country to present candidates for the West African School Certificate Examination (WASCE) in Agricultural Science and Islamic Religious Knowledge.

Born on March 18, 1927, Oga became Principal of Anwar-Ul Islam Grammar School, Eleyele, Ibadan, in 1955, at 28. He became Principal at Agege at 33 in 1960, completing his tour of duty at Iponri in 1976. He retired in 1977 at the age of 50. Following his retirement, the late Chief Adeniran Ogunsanya, a former Lagos State Commissioner for Education, said of him: “As Principal of one of our secondary schools, he was exemplary in his administration. His personal nature made him an ideal leader of men in the midst of teachers and students alike. He is a devout Muslim and that attribute is transparent in his desire at all times to be fair to all men”.

Oga was married to a teacher, Alhaja Azeezat, with who he midwifed the birth of Ahmadiyya Girls High School, Ojokoro, in 1972. She died nine years ago, at the age of 81. Oga was buried on Tuesday, according to Islamic tenets. Here was a teacher and a principal, when comes such another?  Adieu, Oga. May Allah grant you Aljanna Fridaus.

Go-On-With-One-Nigeria. This slogan was popular during the civil war. It became a thematic and not a battle cry, of sorts, as the man from whose name the slogan was coined did all he could to ensure that the country remained united, war or not. Unity in war? What an incongruity! It is hard to believe that Gowon, he needs no introduction, was still talking of unity when soldiers were shooting and killing themselves in the war front.

GOWON is not an acronym. It is a name that we all know so well. Yakubu Gowon was head of state between 1966 and 1975 and it was his lot to see Nigeria through a war after the collapse of the Aburi talks in Ghana. Gowon did not want war, but he was left with no option after all his efforts to prevent one failed. Little wonder that at the end of the bitter enterprise, he declared that there was “no victor, no vanguished” and the process of reconstruction, reconciliation and rehabilitation (the 3Rs) began.

The process is painfully, still on, 53 years after the war and long after the nation should have put the episode behind it and moved on to greater things. Rather than move forward, we keep pulling ourselves backwards with our religious, tribal and political differences. Nothing shows these differences more than the outcome of the February 25 presidential election. With 18 days left to the inauguration of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), many of our leaders who should be seen calming frayed nerves are the ones stoking the fire. 

Agreed that in politics we cannot share the same beliefs and philisophy, but a line is expected ro be drawn where elections are concerned. In elections, whether we like it or not, there must be a winner and there will be many losers, depending on the number of contestants. The bigger the field, the larger the number of losers. There can never be two winners at any time, there will only be one. Although, losing is difficult to swallow, it is still part of the game. So, if a contestant can celebrate victory, if he wins, he should be ready to accept defeat too, if he loses.

The bile spewed over the February 25 poll is too much. Even, if the political class, particularly the contestants are ready to let go, the way many in the society, who should be peacemakers are taking things is not helping matters at all. These people abound in every segment of the society. Sadly, those in the clergy whose main job is to preach the gospel and the love of Christ in a situation like this have become the cheerleaders for one of the candidates and are openly rooting for him.

I have nothing against that as the clerics have the right to support any candidate of their choice. But what is irksome is when they delve into areas they know little or nothing about. With the election dispute now before the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC), it goes without saying that we should all be mindful of what we say. But, hey! This is not the case. It is now that many are oiling their guns to shoot. They have suddenly become an authority in law, wondering why the president-elect should be sworn in when his victory is being challenged at the tribunal.

These ‘experts’ are talking as if this is the first time in the nation’s history that we are confronted with this kind of situation. It is not. We had similar cases in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2019 and in none of these situations did those commenting now ever come out to say “do not swear in the president-elect until the cases at the tribunal are done with”. What then can be made of their positions today? Are they genuinely motivated by love for their country or are just being partisan?

If there was nothing wrong in swearing in the presidents-elect in 1999 (Obasanjo), 2003 (Obasanjo), 2007 (Yar’Adua), 2011 (Jonathan) and 2019 (Buhari), while cases were pending against them at the tribunal, what then is the rationale for demanding that the president-elect in 2023 (Tinubu) should not also be so treated? There is no precedent for the position that people like Catholic Archbishop Emeritus John Cardinal Onaiyekan are pushing that there is no sense in swearing in the president-elect while petitions are pending against him at the tribunal.

If it made sense for those elected into the same position before him to be sworn in, in their own time, why should President-elect Tinubu not enjoy the same privilege now? After all, as the saying goes, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. The justice and logic of the matter are not in not swearing in the president-elect on May 29, they are in allowing him to take the oath of office like others before him did, pending the outcome of the cases at the tribunal. Anything short of this is a breach of the Constitution which allows the president-elect  to enjoy the fruits of his victory until the final determination of any case against him.

The election may not have been perfect. There is no perfect election anywhere in the world, anyway. But you do not cure the so-called imperfection of the February 25 poll by denying the president-elect, by hook or by crook, the right to take the oath of office on the due date. That historic date is May 29, which is just 18 days away. Onaiyekan and others may feel otherwise, their feelings will change nothing. Only the tribunal now has the last say on the February 25 election and until it gives its decision one way or the other, it will do well for us all to allow the Justices to do their work without distractions.

As General Gowon advised in Abuja recently: “we need to allow the Justices to engage in their deliberations and come up with their decisions, and as the public, to be humble enough to accept their decisions as final… I think this is very important at this stage in view of the post-election litigation now going on. Let us give the judiciary the opportunity to do their work and let us accept their decision as it is”. This is the way to go and the soldier-statesman could not have put it better.

I doff my hat to the uncommon General for his statesmanship. His intervention is coming at the right time. Having seen our country evolve over the years, Gowon has spoken as someone who played and is still playing a leading role in its evolution. It will do well to listen to him. All those shooting from the hip and calling for the suspension of the May 29 inauguration should, therefore, sheathe their swords to watch and wait for what happens at the tribunal.

It is now all over. But before the Adamawa State governorship election was called on Tuesday, it was full of drama and intrigues. At the centre of it was no less a person than the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Hudu Yunusa-Ari. The REC’s duty is to oversee the day-to-day running of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state.

As the head of that office, his brief includes ensuring the smooth conduct of all elections organised by INEC. His job is to ensure that materials and men for the elections are intact and distributed ahead of time to all parts of the state, under the strict guidance of the national headquarters in Abuja.

As REC, Yunusa-Ari is expected to know all these and more. He ought to know the extent and limit of his power as REC so that he does not overreach himself. I do not know how long he has been REC or in what other capacity he had served the nation before landing the INEC job, I believe that he did the unthinkable during the just-concluded supplementary election in the state. To me, it was an intentional act and not one borne out of ignorance.

The Adamawa election was one of the two declared inconclusive after the March 18 governorship poll held in 28 states. The other was Kebbi. The supplementary election was held on April 15 and like the earlier March 18 poll, the theatrics started all over again amid allegations and counter-allegations by the camps of Governor Adamu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and his arch-opponent Hajia Aishat Dahiru popularly known as Binani of the All Progressives Congress (APC). On March 18, they ran a neck-and-neck race, which led to the election being declared inconclusive.

Its conclusion was almost thrown into jeopardy on April 16 by Yunusa-Ari, who should know better. As REC, he was aware of the circumstances that led to the non-conclusion of the poll last month. Though, he was fingered as a major cause of the problem,  the national headquarters of INEC did not pay much attention to the allegations against him. It seemed that he was given benefit of doubts in the circumstances since politicians are known for making all sorts of allegations during elections.

Politicians can do anything in their desperation to win. They will not hesitate to paint anybody, especially electoral officers black, if that is what it will take for them to win. In the first poll last month, allegations flew about against Yunusa-Ari. PDP and Fintiri blamed him for the non-conclusion of the poll. They believed that they won on the first ballot since the margin of lead between Yunusa-Ari and Binani was 31,000, while only 37,000 votes were outstanding in areas where the supplementary election would hold.

The Binani camp countered that she won the election having scored more votes than Fintiri. At a point, she was declared the winner in social media (based on results from God knows where). It took INEC’s intervention to restore order in the process, albeit temporarily. Interestingly, all these shenanigans found their way back into the process during the supplementary poll, with the least expected person, Yunusa-Ari in the thick of it. He chose to usurp the job of the Returning Officer (RO), Prof Mohammed Mele, by declaring Binani the winner,

If Yunusa-Ari did not perform the job of RO during the first election last month, what has changed to make him believe that he could do so during the supplementary poll? It is public officers like him that give the government a bad name. Earlier reactions to his misdeeds in social media were directed at the government which many lampooned for trying to manipulate the election to favour the candidate of the ruling party. Yunusa-Ari is a disgrace to the office of REC. People like him are the ones behind the mess Nigeria is in today as a nation.

Why would a REC suddenly wake up and decide to wreck the same election that he was supposed to superintend? Was he working for someone? Who is that person or party? How much was he paid for the dirty job? There is more to what he did in full public glare than the people saw? I mean is there any deliberate ploy to cause anarchy through the disruption of the Adamawa election so that champions of interim government can have their way? Yunusa-Ari and his ilk should hear this and hear it well, their plan to foist on the nation an illegal government through the backdoor will never work.

Yunusa-Ari must answer for his folly! Why for God sake did he descend from his Olympian height into the arena to show partisanship in a contest that he was the umpire? As a man under authority who exercises delegated authority, his power is not all-embracing. He does only what he is asked to do. Did he declare Binani winner because he was asked to do the job of RO? I doubt it; otherwise INEC would not have disowned him immediately.

I still believe that he did not act alone. Yunusa-Ari was acting a script written for him by those who do not have the nation’s interest at heart. Whether he names them or not, he should face the music for his REC-kless action. Having done what nobody had ever done, he must reap the consequence that nobody had never faced.

It is peacetime Nigeria, yet it seems that a war is on. A war without battle tanks, arms and ammunition. A war fought with words; harsh, bitter words. Words that pierce the heart and leave a hole, even more than a bullet. It is a dangerous kind of war because of its power of conflagration.

It can burn down everything in its way. With the way things are going, Nigeria is on the brink of the precipice. When those who should know better join a fray in which they should be arbiters rather than call the protagonists to order, you know that something is wrong. The elections held on February 25 and March 18 have come and gone, but their fall-out left a bitter taste in the mouth.

Like in every contest, the candidates had their supporters, both in high and low places. It may be safe to assume that the the lowly-placed supporters, that is the hoi polloi, have accepted the outcome of the polls. At least, they are not making the kind of noise coming from the end of the powerful supporters who openly endorsed some of the presidential candidates.

Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) was the favourite of the likes of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and America-based Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie, who rallied support for him. Many others in their camp did not want the people to know where they stood, but their reactions to the results gave them away that they too were and still are for Obi. There is nothing bad in that, but the problem is how they are couching their partisanship in an altruistic manner.

They have simply refused to accept the results and are using very strong words to denounce the February 25 presidential election, especially. When they speak, they do so as if they are speaking in the interest of the nation. They are not. They try to win others to their side by using and twisting the law, as if they are the sole authority in that field.

Section 134 (2) of the Constitution states the requirements for winning the presidential election. One of these is that the winner must win 25 percent of the votes cast in two-thirds of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. This has become the bone of contention because President-elect Bola Tinubu did not get 25 percent in FCT, but he did in 29 states.

In one breathe, these legal pundits say this is an issue for the court to decide, and in another, they interprete the provision to suit their purpose, which is to deny Tinubu his victory. As the nation awaits legal fireworks to begin, the cacophony of voices keeps rising. The letter writers are also growing. The leading letter writers’ position is well known. Obasanjo and Adichie are die-hard Obi supporters. Even before the whole results were out, Obasanjo wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari, demanding the cancellation of the election.

He claimed that the election was not free, fair, credible and transparent! Could that have come from Obasanjo, the same person whose administration oversaw the 2007 election, which the late President Umoru Yar’Adua acknowledged was flawed despite being the winner. He constituted the Uwais Electoral Reform Panel, which report has largely remained untouched and is gathering dust on the shelf where it has been kept all these years. The same Obasanjo has now written to President-elect Tinubu, asking him to embark on reconciliation and healing after assuming office on May 29.

Without Obasanjo’s prompting, Tinubu has since embarked on that mission. But, his opponents have rebuffed his peace initiatives. Nothing will satisfy them more than the cancellation of the February 25 poll. They have taken the fight to the tribunal, but they are not prepared to allow their Lordships  to do their job in peace. They have resorted to all kinds of antics, including blackmail, to get the tribunal to see things their way. Their Lordships are, however, too independent-minded to be swayed by such emotional blackmail.

Obi’s running mate Datti Baba-Ahmed’s unwarranted attack on the integrity of the Supreme Court in a March 22 interview on Channels Television was the unkindest cut of all. He spoke bitterly in that interview, alleging that the President and Chief Justice Kayode Ariwoola would be “ending constitutional democracy by swearing in Tinubu on May 29”. There is freedom of expression, but it should never be taken as licence for reckless and ill-digested statements. A man who aspired to be the Second Citizen should know better than that. No amount of provocation should have made him spew forth such bile, considering the characters that make up the support base of their Obi-Dient Movement.

Truly, the interviewer tried to call him to order, but Baba-Ahmed refused to see reason, and insisted on being “extreme” in his view because Yakubu (referring to INEC chairman) was “extreme in declaring Tinubu president-elect”. Channels unwittingly (or was it wittingly?) exposed the interviewer that day by not giving him the needed cover. Where were the producer and other behind-the-scene operators when the interviewee was going off course and the interviewer was struggling to keep him in check? The backroom managers failed in their duty to mute Baba-Ahmed and stop him from assaulting viewers’ sensibilities with his jaundiced views on air.

The deed has been done and the regulatory agency has taken the action it deemed fit, even though it acted unilaterally, without hearing from Channels. This is what happens when law and order are allowed to break down. Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka’s well-intentioned intervention is now being misconstrued by those who should know better. Baba-Ahmed went overboard on air on March 22 and he should be told in categorical terms, just as Soyinka did. Channels too which has the machinery to check his outbursts, but did not do so, is culpable. It failed not only to protect its reporter, but also the nation.

As for Adichie, it is suffice to say that this is not the time to play the ethnic card. Sadly, this is not the age of reason. Someone of her standing should rise beyond ethnic and religious inclinations  and act as the international citizen she has become. What is hollow about Nigeria’s democracy? Would her position be the same if Obi had won? Is she really sincere in her assessment that there was nothing fundamentally wrong in Baba-Ahmed’s vituperations?

What these times, as Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling said in his poem: If, call for are men who can keep their heads, when others around are losing theirs; men who can meet with triumph and defeat (the poet actually used disaster) and treat those two impostors just the same. If we as a people, can be such men, the earth and everything in it, shall be ours, as Kipling said in the second to the last stanza of the poem. May we not be blinded by our ethnic and religious biases not to see the sense in these rich words.

Yes, Daddy is the new fancy word in town. The word caught fire when the audio recording of the conversation between Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate Peter Obi and Living Faith Church (aka Winners) founder Bishop David Oyedepo leaked. It is an everyday word, which we hear often in discussions between fathers and their children.

It is also commonly used by born-again Christians in reverence to their pastors who they fondly call daddy. So, it is not strange to hear these people lovingly refer to these men of God as “Daddy GO” or daddy this or daddy that.

Following the bedlam over the Yes, Daddy audio, my mind raced to a 2021 book with the same title: Yes, Daddy, written by American journalist Jonathan Parks-Ramage. The book is about a young gay writer lured into a hot, sizzling affair by an older, successful playwright. Before he knew what he was into, he found himself in trouble. Here, a politician and a pastor are in a union of sorts. A marriage of convenience to help the politician to win election. But, it did not turn out that way.

Many pastors played a hideous role in the just-concluded elections, as the audio revealed. Please, do not get me wrong. I am not saying that pastors cannot support candidates of their choice. They can, but they cannot be too open and partisan about it because, as they know, they lead a mixed multitude. Not every member of their church shares the same political view or leaning. These pastors did not take this fact into consideration, with the exception of Pastor Paul Adefarasin.

Adefarasin told his flock that he leads a congregation with different political belief and so must be seen to be a true father (read as daddy) to all. This is how pastors should behave and lead their churches. Rather, many became cheerleaders for politicians, directing their congregations on who to vote and how to vote during the last elections. They overreached themselves in so doing. The Yes, Daddy audio revealed how far gone churches are in politics. Certainly, this cannot be healthy for the spiritual wellbeing of their congregations.

What does it say of a pastor that will leave his calling and dabble into politics by promising to reach out to Christians in Kogi, Kwara, Niger and other northcentral states on behalf of a presidential candidate? It does not speak well of such a pastor, no matter how great or godly he and his spiritual children think he is. A man of God is one who does not discriminate between people no matter their faith, tribe or political leaning. A man of God is his brothers’ keep. He also loves his neighbour as himself.

The good Samaritan was not a pastor nor  a Jew but he performed a noble and godly act by stopping on a lonely and dangerous road to help a man in distress. The same man that a priest and a Jew, who perceived themselves as godly, saw and took the other side of the road in order not to help him. No matter what is said here, these pastors will never believe that they do not practice what they preach. Since they are the only ones who hear from God, we leave them to their ways. But they should remember: God knows His people and his people know Him.

It is their misreading of the political temperature that has led the nation to where it is after the elections. All these talks about a plot for an interim government may have their roots in the special relationship some politicians enjoy with certain pastors. There was too much desperation over the last elections. This was why Obi went to the extent of becoming a latter-day pentecostal convert in order to pluck the huge votes of youths in those churches. He misfired; his gamble did not pay off. Obi may appear meek and soft-spoken, but under this mien is a hardcore politician who can do anything for power.

I still find it hard to comprehend how he ever thought he could win the February 25 presidential election. I never gave him a chance at the poll. I must admit that I underrated him and what the youthful Obi-dient Movement, supported by many senior citizens in the Southwest, in particular, could do. His incredible performance should have been something for him to build on in future, but he has lost that opportunity with his sore loser attitude. His loss cast him in the glow of the typical Nigerian politician who never loses election, but is rigged out!

Rather than be grateful to God for that his unbelievable performance, he is carrying his sacrifice beyond the mosque by listening to those deceiving him that he won the election hands down! They claimed that if the results had been uploaded as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) promised, it would have clearly shown that Obi won. Really? Did the results eventually declare not tally with the ones obtained by LP agents at the various polling units nationwide?

The case is now before the tribunal which will settle it once-and-for-all. But wait-and-see, if the matter does not favour them, they will accuse the tribunal of travesty of justice. I will be surprised if they do not do that. Already, they have started attacking the integrity of  Chief Justice of the Federation Kayode Ariwoola in preparation for their rejection of any unfavourable verdict.

With all these shenanigans, how can any one say there is no truth in the confirmation by the Department of State Service (DSS) of a plot for an interim government by some people. It is not unlikely that the plot had been on ever before the February 25 poll. Three weeks to the election, President-elect Bola Tinubu had spoken of plans by some fifth columnists in the corridors of power to foist an interim government on the nation.

With Tinubu’s victory and the unsportsmanly attitude of the losers, the plotters are likey to have grown in number for this illegal cause. Why should there be an interim government after Tinubu has been validly elected president? Is interim government the next appropriate thing or the inauguration of the President-elect? The plotters are just wasting their time because nobody, as the great Bashorun M.K.O Abiola used to say, can abort a pregnancy after child birth.

As for the yes, daddies of this world, it is time to stop sulking over the election and allow peace to reign. This is the time to know the true men of God as they will come out and advise their aggrieved politician sons to take things easy and allow the tribunal to do its work. If and when they do this, people like me will say to them: “Thank you, Daddy”. Until then, I pray God touches their hearts to be true doers of His word.

The clock is ticking fast as the nation looks forward to Inauguration Day 2023 on May 29. That day, Bola Ahmed Tinubu will formally take over the reins of government from President Muhammadu Buhari. President-elect Tinubu won the February 25 poll, beating former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi, Labour Party (LP) and former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), among others.

True to bookmakers’ forecast, it was a four-horse race, with the quartet showing the stuff they are made of. The race was tough as there were upsets in places least expected. Its biggest revelation was Obi. He stunned the nation, nay the world, with his incredible performance, winning in states where he was never given a chance.

He ate into the votes that should have gone the way of his former principal, Atiku who he ran with in 2019 on PDP platform. He parted ways with Atiku shortly before the election, joined LP, grabbed its presidential ticket on a platter and captured the imagination of the youths. Obi did not need any magic to do that.

Though not a youth himself, the youngsters just fell in love with him. He did not have anything with which to sell himself to the youths or any other person for that matter, he just rode on the wave of public disenchantment against the ruling government to gain popularity. In no time, the Obi-Dient Movement was born, with the youths in its vanguard. They seized the social media space in a way never seen before in the land to push the Obi candidacy. Even his party never campaigned that much for him.

Some pastors, who had taken offence to Tinubu’s choice of a fellow muslim, Vice President-elect Kashim Shettima, as running mate, were on their side. Obi, a known Catholic became a regular face in those pastors’ churches and the social media. On both fronts, a grand campaign of calumny began against Tinubu.

Anywhere they gathered, their song was:  Obi cherere nche, Obi. It was the beginning of the religionisation and ethnicisation of the presidential election. Sadly, this crept into the March 18 governorship election in 28 states. The pastors did not religionise the presidential election because of Tinubu’s incapability or incompetence, they were simply enraged by what they called a muslim-muslim ticket.

Lest I forget, the other charge against him is that he brought Buhari as president. To them, the President has not performed and who else to blame for that if not Tinubu. They made it look as if it is a sin to back someone for a job. Tinubu ran against many forces on February 25, he was only lucky to have won.

His party’s primary was the same. Many forces were arrayed against him, but he overcame them. God spoke at his party’s primary last June and spoke again in the February election. This is God’s project, said the pastor of a popular Lekki church a few days to the election, preparing his sheep’s mind for its outcome. Rather than heed the Lord’s voice, many chose to fight their shepherd who told them what he said he heard from God:

“That Saul came before David”. For effect, the pastor added: “This means that even if this election does not go the way you want it to go, don’t be disappointed. Every election will produce some disappointment for the camps of the candidates who lose. God’s will shall still come to pass in Nigeria”.This was a piece of spiritual advice they did not want to hear. But God had spoken and His will has been done.

The aggrieved have the right to challenge the outcome of the election and they have gone to the tribunal to do so. There is no need to fret about the tribunal’s integrity. It has always been open to all, litigants, lawyers and spectators alike. Nobody has ever been barred from attending its sittings, if they so wished. So, it does not need to adopt any strange procedures to prove that it will be fair and just to the parties.

The call for a public sitting is uncalled for. A public sitting by the tribunal will be alien to our judicial process. That something was done in another country does not make it right. It also does not mean that we should import it wholesale to satisfy the whims and caprices of those afraid of their shadows. Why a public sitting? Will it serve the ends of justice? Or be turned to a circus show? Their plan is to come there and make noise as they did at the collation centre when it dawned on them that they were losing the election.

The tribunal is not a place for that. It is a forum for serious business and not where to impress onlookers. Anyway, as Nigerians, we should be more bothered by the deleterious effect of the presidential poll on the governorship election. The March 18 election was too divisive. It set many who hitherto lovingly referred to themselves as brothers against one another and these are people who have lived, worked, eaten and played together for decades, despite not having blood ties.

It is regrettable how we have allowed religion and ethnicity to define us, all because of these elections. That is not who we are. In any election, as we all know, there must be winners and losers. Now that the elections are over, the healing process should start, if we truly love our country. Let us put the elections behind us and forge a new beginning.

A new beginning of building a new Nigeria where we will stand in brotherhood, though tribe, tongue and faith may differ. While not discounting the legal process, this is the country every citizen should join hands with Tinubu to build when he becomes the father of the nation on May 29. For Nigeria, it is morning yet on creation day.