In the end, Nigeria’s governing political party, APC, spent all of three precious days handing over its flag-bearer ticket to a man who has stumbled more than he has stood firm and whose hands can’t be steadied–at a time when the nation requires a steady pair of hands.
A feeble, rolling, wrecking ball.
Congratulations to all involved.
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It is not that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is not smart or intelligent. It is that his physical frame cannot bear the demands of a President of Africa’s most populous nation–one beset with multifarious problems and challenges.
And that’s on period!
Between 2020 and now, Tinubu has stumbled and fallen at almost every public or political fora. At the just concluded APC Presidential Primary where he was crowned presidential nominee ahead of the 2023 elections, it took the pair of President Buhari and party Chairman Abdullahi–both older men, according to official records–to steady and prop Tinubu’s hands as he held aloft the party’s flag–the symbol of his new status.
As he delivered his speech at the Eagle Square, Tinubu’s unsteady hands couldn’t flip the pages on which his speech was written. You could feel the vibrations from the television set.
This writer recognises that it is not Tinubu’s fault that he is unwell. Nor should we flagellate him because his health is apparently failing as he stands on the cusp of being leader of Africa’s biggest economy. Like the rest of us, he is only human.
But it should worry the rest of the nation that 1,271 delegates and party faithful, looked past Jagaban’s shuddering body and palms, and handed him the APC ticket on a platter.
The job of a president is a tasking, onerous one. And it does matter that a president is of sound mind and body. It does matter a whole lot. Like activist and journalist Agba Jalingo puts it;
“The frequent travels, the rigorous mental energy, the agility, the physical strength and bodily health required to run the office of the President is no longer contained in this once buoyant body. His legs and hands are already shaking like everyone’s own will someday.
“With all the emergencies staring us in the face as a nation, is your conscience truthfully telling you that this body is still able to carry a President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that will hit the ground running or you are just supporting because you want your side to win for winning sake or you intend to personally benefit in the end?
“Tinubu is a great leader no doubt and he has shown that all along. But I see clearly that his health can no longer carry the demands of the office he is seeking.
“Nigeria is in the emergency room already. We need a doctor, not someone who is a patient himself.”
Thankfully, Tinubu is not Nigeria’s President just yet, as he hasn’t won the general election. It is now up to the nation’s millions of voters to prove that they know better than a handful of narrow minded, myopic and selfish delegates who hardly see beyond pecuniary noses.
I’d end this piece with the words of writer and social media commentator Feyi Fawehinmi: “A guy whose age is not his age, whose name is not his name, who didn’t go to the schools he said he went to is likely to become Nigeria’s next president. His corruption is not the problem here. It is how he’s going to corrupt you and the country.”
Selah.