I was bewildered when the APC spokesperson, Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Minister of State for Labour, Festus Keyamo, went public at a press conference and shouted that he was proceeding to court against the presidential candidate of the Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar. Keyamo was insistent that he would ask for orders from the Federal High Court, requesting the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to arrest Atiku over allegations made by one Michael Achimugu, who claimed to be a former aide to the PDP candidate. Achimugu, in a series of social media posts had accused Atiku of using Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) to commit financial fraud and fleece the country of huge sums of money. True to his words, Keyamo filed his suit. Did Keyamo think he would have the last word?
Before the ink was dry on the reports of the APC press conference, the PDP 'bone crusher', Dino Melaye, was live on every major TV station in the country demanding the immediate arrest of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC Presidential candidate, over his alleged involvement in the controversial drug issues that have dogged him for many months. The Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organisation held its own press conference and announced that it had resolved to approach the courts to declare the presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu ineligible to contest the February 25 presidential election having "been convicted" by a United States court over drug related offences. New issues about Columbia appeared and a circular firing squad, in which the two camps set out to annihilate each other, became the game in town. Meanwhile, suffering Nigerians watched this bizarre hand-to-hand combat in amazement at a time of desperate national challenges.
Was Keyamo just playing to the gallery or was he serious? I used to consider him a good lawyer, knowledgeable enough to understand that no Judge worth his title would at this point in the history of Nigeria, grant the order he was seeking. Even if any Judge dared to do that, the decision would immediately be appealed and it would come to nothing. At the end of the day, what did Festus Keyamo achieve? In my humble opinion, he scored a big own goal. The arguments over the Tinubu drug issue were no longer making the headlines. Keyamo brought them back to the center of the field. I am not clairvoyant and do not know what transpired between Atiku and Achimugu during the Obasanjo regime. I am however concerned with the character of any aide who would purportedly be secretly and illicitly recording private conversations with his principal and releasing those conversations many years after.
The Jagaban Army has shot their bazookas full blast at anybody that suggests that Tinubu may not be the President that Nigerians want in May 2023. I believe that in this matter, it is the right of every Nigerian to hold whatever opinion he does.
I was surprised by how they went after Atedo Peterside over the ANAP/NOI polls with respect to the 2023 presidential elections, calling him all kinds of unprintable names because the polls did not predict that Tinubu will win. Before their outrage over the polls, they had gone with ballistic missiles after Nduka Obaigbena and his operatives at Arise TV and Thisday Newspaper over the Arise News Town Hall series. Jesus! My guys did not just throw the kitchen sink, they shattered open the soak-away pit and loaded their missiles with all the smelly stuff they can dredge out of the pit!
I was truly bewildered about their reaction to the New Year letter written by former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, a letter that frontally addressed what is possibly Nigeria's biggest challenge of the last several decades: the divisions, suspicions and mistrust in the country which have held Nigeria hostage and led to so much bloodshed and dehumanization and bred the many separatist militias across the country and fueled the politics of hatred.
In the historic letter, President Obasanjo had asked, "Can we let the past go? I appeal to young Nigerians to stop inheriting other people's prejudices and enemies. Make your own friends and stop inheriting your father's enemies".
What was the response from the Jagaban Army? "Obasanjo is not a democrat anyone should be proud to be associated with". Wait a minute …. Not long ago, Tinubu and his coterie of supporters were very well reported with photos and videos to have travelled to Abeokuta in desperate search of the endorsement of the same man who is not a democrat anyone should be proud to be associated with!
Recently, political activist and a director in the APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Hajia Naja'atu Bala Muhammad resigned her position in the council and her membership of the ruling party. Mohammed who was the Director, Civil Society Liaison at the council said she has discovered that her values no longer align with the current political setting. They have gone, gun blazing, after Mohammed who was their friend just a few weeks ago.
Remember how they went after elder stateman, Chief Ayo Adebanjo for not supporting their candidate and almost tore Afenifere apart. It has been war on every front!
A number of the people in the Bola Tinubu campaign are people I consider my friends and whom I otherwise respect. I am truly bewildered at how they have continued to jump from one self-inflicted bruhaha to another. I have written here before that my understanding of political campaigning is that it is a game of addition and multiplication and not one of subtraction and division. I watch this take-no-prisoner fight in all directions and wonder how making so many enemies would help the objectives of the Jagaban.
Except the Jagaban camp has understood their objective to be simply to get hold of Aso Rock. No! Nigerians desperately want good government that can move the nation forward. It makes you think of the great 1978 song by the group, Third World; "Now that we've found love, what are we goanna do with it?"
Every serious Nigerian knows that one of our biggest problems is the huge cracks among us that have resulted in significant hatred, lack of trust, huge suspicions and inability to work with others for the good of all. The Jagaban battles in every direction and the terrible language deployed make reconciliation almost impossible after the elections and make leadership much more difficult. Indeed, they make the acceptance of the results of the elections hard to swallow for the losers.
Now, the Jagaban army has gone after Emiefele and an unnamed cabal at Aso Rock, their home tuff. The bullion van deployment seems to be in trouble. They are flailing in every direction, almost begging for enemies. Everywhere you go, there is a Tinubu poster, banner, bunting, radio and television promos. Tinubu has spent a humungous amount of money on the elections, far more money than anyone else, yet his team appears to be frustrated.
What if on February 25, the Jagaban Army loses, with the iron clad "Emilokan" mentality, will there be peace in Nigeria?
I have said it before that you might not like Peter Obi, but you must concede that he is a master at diffusing attacks. Several times, he has shown that he is calm under fire. He is not busy making enemies, a quality a new Nigerian leader must have in abundance.
See you next week.
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