27/03/2025
IS TINUBU A TERRIBLE PRESIDENT?
By Pascal Nnamdi
I was sitting quietly in one of the overflows at Chida hotel, venue for the weekly Koinonia service, hosted by Apostle Joshua Selman, when Yinka, my friend, fired the above question to me like a ballistic missile. The program was yet to kickstart. And so, he considered it expedient to engage me on a political discourse. But why was that tricky question the first that came to his mind? I wondered. Was he trying to frame me up?
I wish I could say No. But No, wasn't the answer. Yet, I couldn't say Yes. Because days ago, a youth Corp member, said yes to that same question and her life came under threat. Her sin was that she expressed her pains. The pain of being born in a country, where the leaders are insensitive to the plight of the citizens. A country where the leaders flog you with their bad policies in the guise of reform and threaten you not to cry. That is the country Ushie Rita, the youth Corp member found herself. She couldn't bear the trauma. And so, she cried out. But rather than hearken to her cry. She was compelled not just to remain silent, but to apologize to her oppressors. What a country!
"Yinka, you don't expect me to describe as terrible, a man who had clearly, but in a disguised subtlety shown his utter disdain for dissenting views and opposition. Yet, he not only pride himself as a democrat, but a forefront fighter of the tenets and ideals that upholds democracy. This is not just ridiculously ironical, but highly hypocritical. 'In the hands of Bola Ahmed Tinubu,' according to Festus Adedayo, an ace columnist, 'Nigeria appears to have become one complex, complicated web of mess and intrigues.' Yinka, you would wish, as a true Patriot, to disagree with Adedayo. But the recent political drama in Rivers state, will leave you with little or no option."
"Hmmmmmmm, Pascal, I was almost coming to the issues of River State. It's quite appalling that our president is gradually becoming everything he criticized in the past. The Rivers debacle is the worst of all aberrations this regime has been associated with. If an elected governor and entire legislative organ of government in a state, can be suspended in such cruel and crooked manner, then what is democracy? Is the government of the day not invariably inviting the khaki boys?"
"Yinka, I don't know. But these are all political orchestration against 2027. Why the recent happening in Rivers, should worry every right thinking Nigerian is this. If we allow this political rascality to prevail, Rivers would be used as a model for other states that tends to stand against the government mercenaries. Kano state might just be the next."
"Pascal, why do you say so? Let me explain.
****To be continued****
