By Osigwe Omo-Ikirodah
The late soccer god, Pele once said “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.”
As you can see, there is no elevator to success; instead, everyone of us must climb the stairs, which is exactly what Tinubu is doing in respect to the 2023 presidential race.
Recently, my lines have been inundated with calls from Tinubu supporters who are concerned that Emefiele is a mole in the APC trying to ruin Tinubu’s chances, as well as the suggestion that Buhari is imposing policies on the country that will prevent Tinubu from winning the election.
Today I’m here to reassure you that Tinubu would win the upcoming presidential elections no matter how the situation develops.
This is a remark from the comment section on my earlier post today about Tinubu shocking the world with the crowds he assembled in Anambra and Cross Rivers State yesterday.
“Tinubu is the man to beat in this coming election.No sensible person will shy away from the reality
If you do, it will obviously knock at your doorstep later. Reality isn’t something to runaway from” culled from Nairaland.
I’ve tried several times to explain Tinubu’s chances of defeating his major opponents, the LP and the PDP.
The LP, for example, led by Peter Obi, would struggle to win even a single state in the upcoming presidential elections, and this is why. First and foremost, structure is important in general elections, and structure means the ability for people to vote for you in your absence.
They can keep editing films to make Tinubu appear to be a deranged idiot whose brain has been burned and fried; some argue that his Parkinson’s condition is a tragedy; nevertheless the man they paint as such won the APC presidential primary and is now the main opponent in the elections.
They accuse him of being a vegetable, yet he organises the most crowded rallies across the federation; they accuse him of being demented, yet he controls the movers and shakers of Nigerian politics.
Now, returning to the structure issue, for the past month, I have been covering electoral campaigns in the trenches, which are villages and hamlets, and I have seen how the villagers come out in campaign rallies for the APC and PDP, which are taking place every day across the federation.
These local rallies have nothing to do with the party’s presidential contenders, but rather with local candidates for the House of Assembly, House of Representatives, and Senate. They can readily summon the community to hear their aspirant speak.
Unfortunately, even in Edo State, which they claim is Obidient, they can’t even organise the people to hear them speak in the villages because there are no aspirants in significant electoral positions to galvanise and communicate to them. The locals had never heard of Peter Obi, and the election is only 25 days away.
Every villager does not think like the city dwellers; for starters, their expectations of democracy differ from those of the city dwellers; all they want is water, power, excellent roads, and formal education; they are unconcerned about industries or skyscrapers.
These villages must require a spokesperson on their behalf, but regrettably the LP lacks even contestants, let alone agents, so their clamour is restricted to a select few metropolises in the Southern Region.
They don’t even have the power to leave their comfort zone, spend their money, and go and campaign for Obi in the villages, unless these Sorosoke children leave the social media space and metropolis and enter the rural areas before their words can be delivered to the grassroots.
Peter Obi is unknown in 85% of the harmlets around the federation, so what magic can we expect?
Then, for the PDP’s Atiku, I wonder how he can defeat the ruling party when five of its governors have thrown their support behind someone else. When this happened to a sitting president in 2015, he was defeated; how much more so would a serial contestant who has never hidden his ethnic bigotry(he once told northerners not to vote for the southerners).
I have yet to discover the recipe that would enable any other party to defeat the APC as long as Kwankwaso, Peter Obi, and Atiku run on separate tickets. This is common sense; if they couldn’t win together, how can they while they’re apart?
Then there’s Tinubu, first and foremost, Tinubu is the most strategic and fearless politician in Nigeria today, and he wields considerable political power.
Many things were said about Tinubu prior to the Apc primaries, but he destroyed all of their permutations.
Speaking out in anger against Tinubu does not change the fact that he has never been in charge of the federal government’s assets or the economy. It is known that the only asset he ever controlled was Lagos, which is now known as the beauty of Africa where dry bones turn to gold.
My advice is to keep up your campaigns for Tinubu, because Nigeria is the cheapest country to live in, whether in a developing or developed country. Ask them to name a country where the citizens enjoy like us, where the majority don’t pay taxes, don’t pay electricity bills, where the wicked and malicious are looking for an opportunity to swindle the populace and blame the government.
Ask them how much they pay for rent in those developed and developing countries, how much it would cost you to fill your tank in the UK, and ask them to name one nation that is less expensive to live in than Nigeria, and I can bet my TESTICLES that they can’t name one.
Even in terms of security, the first five days of January 2023 in America saw 238 murders tied to crime.
Buhari met four states under siege by Boko Haram/ISWAP before becoming president, and 17 government councils were paying taxes to them, but today not a single LGA is under their control. We must tell ourselves the truth.
Buhari has performed admirably in light of the post-Covid-19 era and the Russia-Ukraine war. Buhari is the only president to have three times bailed out governors.
Buhari is the only president who came on board and completed all projects abandoned by previous governments; Buhari is the only president who honoured Biafra soldiers and paid them their dues.
NITEL, Nigeria Airways, Nipost, and other employees of federal government enterprises sold by Obasanjo and Atiku were saved by Buhari, he paid their entitlements and arrears.
Buhari finished the second Niger bridge, the NDDC headquarters, signed the PIB into law, provided funds for the payment of pensions in each state, and returned the 13% derivation oil money to the Niger Delta states.
Buhari wiped off all debts made by the PDP at Ajaokuta Steel Company, the list is unending with amazing infrastructures here and there, more universities were built under Buhari’s administration, the Lagos-Ibadan highway finally became a reality.
Regardless of what you may think, the APC would not attempt suicide by betraying Tinubu because the majority of governors in the North fully support him and because they have a structure that depends on the APC winning. This is why Tinubu rallies draw larger crowds in the North than even in the South West.
As a clergyman, I would conclude with these Bible scriptures for you to read further.
Deuteronomy 28:7 says
The LORD will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.
Psalms 91:7 ASV
A thousand shall fall at thy side, And ten thousand at thy right hand; But it shall not come nigh thee.
Do not be scared Tinubu is coming.
Osigwe Omo-Ikirodah is the Chairman and CEO Bush Radio Academy.
