Doomsday Prophets of Nigerian Politics

Opposition politicians need utmost restraint in their reactions to the outcome of the recent presidential poll in the country, writes Segun James

Sometimes, the best news is what never happens. During the run-up to a handover or change from one government to another, all kinds of apocalyptic predictions surface.

Yes, there’s gloom in Nigeria these days, but it doesn’t have much to do with oppression but the disappointments in certain quarters about the outcome of the recent presidential election.

The election has been lost and won, yet people have been crying wolf, not over the conduct but who won.

For the opposition, even before the election, it has been obvious that the election is for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to win.

He had been the leading candidate even though some election polls organized by the opposition showed otherwise. While the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, had a poor showing in the election contrary to all expectations, it was the surprising showing of Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) in an election that was assumed to be strictly between the PDP and APC that confounded pundits.

Now it is this unexpected run that is heating up the polity. So overwhelmed by his showing in unexpected places, a third-placed Obi is now claiming victory in the election. How?

That is the question as the nation races to the inauguration of the President on May 29th, barely 50 days away.Take a look at the polity today, you will understand part of what the current tussle for the presidency is all about.

What you will hear is a welter of desperate politicians trying to position themselves strategically for when President Muhammadu Buhari exits. All their permutations failed and now, they are in need of a refuge.

Most of them, mainly members of the PDP, have abandoned their party in view of the crisis rocking it and now see the LP as a refuge.

The problem however is that they are mostly from the Southeast, a situation which has made the party now wear a toga of a regional party.

Power is seductive. Invincibility is boring. But the powers behind the throne are always invincible, and they exert the greatest force. Now, those forces are pushing Obi towards a dangerous cliff. Will they succeed as the nation races forward?Exceptional times call for exceptional measures. This appears to be the conclusion to the situation in the country today.

Like the elephant in a china shop, these desperate forces know that a winner has already been announced and the only option left was for Obi to go to court to prove his case or forever be silent. So why are they pushing toward an apocalypse? Yet, in their desperation, they have gone to the Ministry of Defence and called on the military to plan a coup against President Muhammadu Buhari in a bid to prevent Tinubu from taking office.

Some others also called for an Interim National Government instead of allowing the legitimate winner to be sworn in.

These calls and actions are by all means treasonable. Yet, they have been ignored.

Today, Obi and LP are before the courts to prove their case. Neither, in their filing, has said the election was rigged. Even the LP’s candidates who ran for National Assembly positions in the same election and won have since collected their Certificates of Return.

So, which part of the election is rigged? Why is Peter Obi so desperate to have Tinubu’s victory overturned unconstitutionally, even through a coup d’etat? If Obi is a true Democrat as he claims, why has he refused to call his supporters baling for a coup to order?

How does he hope to actualize his supposed win if there’s a coup against the country?

But teaching a disparate bunch of politicians, an eclectic mix of desperados, a new form of playing politics, was never going to be easy.

Political pundits know this. That’s why they never care about the consequence of their call.

Political arts are often likened to magic because they depend on the suspension of disbelief. General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida aka IBB was nicknamed Maradona because of his ability to dribble the people politically.

The beauty of the political game does not lie in the tricksy deception that is associated with it, but in the dexterity and maneuverability of a master player.  He could as well be a Maradona, a Pele, a Ronaldo, or a Messi, but it is when using his skills to survive in the political field of place and surviving every time that you consider him a skillful player.

That is who Tinubu is and more. In the mid of great adversaries, he has survived. As a Governor, he called the bluff of President Olusegun Obasanjo, and he survived it when others did not. This ability has continued to baffle and confound even his greatest critics; who keep on wondering: how does he does it?

Now, as the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has many epithets to his name.

However, the most appropriate in the last one year is Emilokan! Like IBB before him, he seemed somehow to succeed in the mid of the most daunting odds.

Today, the world is changing; and Nigeria is changing with it. The question however is not only how it is changing, but for what?

It is supposed to be clear to those calling for a doomsday because they lost an election that four years is not eternity and they would have another opportunity.

But for the nation to remain relevant the global political environment must change with it.

Nigeria is built on a commitment to cooperation among its constituent parts, but that commitment is now being called to question by the opposition. And that is dangerous!