Between “Reviving” the hope of the people and “Recovering”the nation

By Abdu Labaran Malumfashi

Kenya, Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta, attended Saturday’s presidential inauguration in Abuja. He told Tinubu, “The contest is now over and the hard work of building a prosperous and unified Nigeria now begins. Upon assuming the office of President, you would be wise to transcend from the tactical politics of an election and assume your role as Nigeria’s vision bearer.

“This will demand a complete overhaul of the adversarial mindset that we as politicians are conditioned to embrace during the electoral process. As President, you must learn very quickly to lead those who do not love you and those who love you with equal passion and commitment because you are now the father of all.”

Tinubu, in his address given by Vice President-elect Kashim Shettima, promised to deliver “prosperity and jobs”to Nigerians. He said he would promote “democratic institutions” to “advance substantial economic change that would lead to widespread prosperity, new job opportunities, and the realisation of the country’s latent potential.” He described democracy as the cornerstone for national progress and prosperity, stressing that “democracy was vital in advancing the nation’s interests.”

Tinubu’s formal inauguration makes him the sixth democratically elected president in a row since 1999. This is a spectacular achievement for a country whose citizens had seen in their lives more military dictators than democratic rulers. Another milestone was the first peaceful transition of government from one political party to another in 2015. It was the year this governing APC displaced the PDP at the centre. Tinubu will be the second popularly elected APC president at a stretch, after the outgoing Buhari. This means there is not likely to be any major policy shift under the incoming government. But there certainly will be a marked difference in style. Best of luck to the new government.

It has been some month when I was last in Abuja. But what assailed my eyes when I visited the Federal Capital last Monday was the pictures of the presidential candidates of the two leading parties and their running mates.

With the pictures are the slogans: “Reviving the people’s hope” (by the All Progressives Congress APC) or the ruling party in the country) and “Recovering the nation” (by the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, or the main opposition party in the country).

I do not know about you, but I do know who gave us hope, and also who made it almost impossible to realise that hope into reality.

I also know who had said that “they would make the country ungovernable” if they didn’t win the 2015 Presidential election. They did not win the presidency, and the rest, as the saying goes, is ‘history’.

The wilful ungodly conduct of some people nearly killed the nation, which is why they want to bring it back to life.

The question begging for answer is: who is to trust between the one who wants to add to my hope and the one who wants to bring back the nation from the near-death they had left it.

Perhaps, they want to recover the nation so that they could kill it COMPLETELY?

Because, by the time they are thorough with their vengeance on some people and the rampage on the economy of the nation, not much will be left of the country.

Again, I do not know about you, but I do know that the one to choose between them.

BECAUSE, while the former attempts only to revive a hope that was, in the first place, not raised by him, the later will ONLY kill the country completely if they get the chance again.

Don’t tell me that he was not incharge of the country at the time I referred to, because he was, more or less.

His former boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo has alleged that his number two, and current PDP cadidate, Alhaji (although he once warned against calling him ‘Alhaji’) Atiku Abubakar, it was who persistently begged him to hand over ‘Bakassi Island’ to Cameroon.

Obasanjo also challenged his former number two (2) to dispute him, and he will come out with the evidence that Atiku did and succeeded in pressurising him to hand over Bakassi Island to Cameroon, a thing no country worth its name would ever contemplate doing.

The two Presidential Candidates are also stupendously rich, so said the London Economist, Magazine about three (3) years ago.

Listing the 10 richest Nigerian Politicians, the magazine named both of them on the list as being Dollar Billionaires, who made their money under different circumstances (explanation is my own).

While the APC’s Bola Ahmed Tinubu or the Jagaban Borgu, is from a wealthy family, and a one-time Governor of Lagos State, at which time he made the state to be self-sustaining, without waiting for the monthly hand out from Abuja. He made Lagos State into the success story that it is today.

The same thing can not be said about Atiku (not his fault for not coming from a wealthy family). This writer is also from a very poor family, in terms of money, though.

Atiku had started public service in the Customs Service, where he retired as a very rich man, before he became Governor of his Adamawa State, before he even take over the rain of affairs in his state.

Of importance to us is his leaving Nigeria almost on its knees, but him as a Dollar Billionaire after Eight (8) years as a Vice President.

Another question begging for an answer is: where did all their money come from?

While we have earlier explained part of the source of Tinubu’s wealth, what we have not said was his claim of having invested in the American Apple Company, makers of the iPhone, among other products, while he was in that country.

This act in itself is enough to make one stupendously rich even without the benefit of inheritance.

As I was writing this piece, a friend of my Daily Trust days, who is unaware of my health challenge, called to ask for “any kind of assistance” from me.

I told him about the tragedy that befell me long before I was struck down by a stroke, although the complete story of my sojourn in the Katsina Government House is for another day.

Malumfashi is DG Media in the Katsina Government House Katsina.