By Khalid Dikko
The three powerful contestants to the nation’s highest office are Asiwaju Bola Ahmad Tinubu of the APC, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Peter Obi of the Labour Party. Most at times pundits and analysts make comparison amongst these candidates to see who is the most qualified to take the mantle of leadership of this country after the expiration of President Buhari’s tenure as the President of this great country. To me, having regards to their track records and political wherewithal to take this nation to the highest pedestal of excellent leadership, Asiwaju Bola Ahmad Tinubu is not only the most qualified candidate, but also should not be compared to these candidates whose track records are nothing to write home about.
Asiwaju Bola Ahmad Tinubu has distinguished himself as a leader par excellence; a leader to rely on; a record breaker; a detribalised Nigerian; the builder of men and the greatest talents hunter Nigeria has ever had that even his arch critics have attested to these uncontestable facts that have been proven time and time again. Only recently, a former Presidential aid to former President Jonathan, Reno Omokri, posted on his social media handles that “Tinubu is the best governor Nigeria ever produced”. This is a fact! And as progressives, we must not relent to recandle the minds of Nigerians in the build-up to the 2023 general elections to know whom is the best to vote for amongst the contestants. We must continue to sing to the ears of Nigerians and the naysayers — as the general elections draw nearer — that City Boy is the right man for the job.
Asiwaju is the builder of modern Lagos State; he changed Lagos from being a rotten city of ardent criminals and dirts to the Lagos of economic prosperity and sanity, where people troop in to change their lives’ fortunes for good. It is certainly the handwork of Asiwaju Bola Ahmad Tinubu that Lagos is today regarded as the best economy in Africa, having increased her revenue drive in multiple fronts, and established a steady leadership through competent successors: Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, Akinwumi Ambode and now Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who have sustained his exceptional leadership trajectory to make Lagos what it is today.
In his quest to expand and integrate Lagos state by way of creating more LGAs however, Lagos was once at daggers drawn with the federal government, the development that led to the withholding of Lagos state statutory monthly allocation for one year. Meanwhile, despite the attempt by the then federal might to annihilate and reduce Lagos to nothing if not begging, the doggedness, tenacity, competence, capability and indeed high degree of intellect of Asiwaju Bola Ahmad Tinubu made Lagos state to survive her most difficult period of her travails and economic starvation. He stood firm to defend Lagos for the prosperity of Lagos and Lagosians and therefore Nigerians should be rest assured that Tinubu will promote and defend Nigeria without succumbing to any external or internal pressure by whatever power that be.
Tinubu is known as a highly detribalised Nigerian who will carry everyone along. To the Jagaban, religion, ethnicity, tribe or regionalism is never an issue and can never be! He respects people’s right to their religious belief, their right to personal liberty and the dignity of their human person. He has proven this more often than not. And this is more evident when you look at the composition of his family and the people he has built over time.
For this, BAT is the real unifier whom Nigeria needs at this critical moment that division has eaten deep into the fabrics of Nigerians.
He has built men and continues to do so without recourse to religion, tribalism or regionalism. GO AND VERIFY! And that is why he is considered as the most successful politician in Africa; the national leader of the first opposition party to defeat an incumbent government in Africa, the APC. That is why politicians from across the country identify with him, continue to pronounce his hands of support on them at one point or another, and are ready to fight for him. That is why most, if not all those that served as governors during his stewardship as governor of Lagos state have left the public space and are no where to be found but the City Boy remains A BIG FACTOR in Nigerian politics who makes the headlines everyday. That is why his landslide victory even against the sitting Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN and sitting governors is not a surprise to some of us who believe he could do more than that.
He is the most strategic and pragmatic leader and politician in contemporary Nigerian politics, who should be studied at institutes of politics and governance across the world. He was the master-planner of the merger that saw to the formation of APC; he was the deciding factor at the APC convention that saw to the victory of General Muhammadu Buhari as the flagbearer of the APC in 2014; he has been the producer of governors, deputy governors, state and national legislators, captains of industries, great politicians, employees of labour and what not?
He is the most consistent politician in Nigeria who is not a political “ASHAWO” that cross-carpets from one political party to another. He built and nurtured a political platform, defended the integrity of his party’s stolen mandate in court of compentent jurisdiction, joined hands with progressive like-minds to dislodge the ruling party that leg-dragged the prospect of the rest of this nation but Lagos. Imagine what would have happened to this nation if other states were governed halfway the way and manner Lagos state was governed by the Jagaban and got set on the right precedent of quality leadership.
Never should Nigeria and Nigerians miss this great leadership quality of the City Boy. EMILOKAN! It is time for the kingmaker to become the king. And here is the time!
Of importance to also note is that, the Jagaban is the believer of one Nigeria and democratic governance. He sacrificed his life, invested his resources, time and energy just to defend democracy against the military authority. After truncating the June 12 general elections by the then Babangida Military Administration, he co-founded NADECO, supported hundreds of activits during the struggle against the military junta of that time. Many activits, like the likes of Wole Soyinka revealed to the world, how the Jagaban supported them during the struggle to return and preserve democracy in Nigeria.
How then can Nigeria afford to miss the Tinubu Presidency? As a stakeholder in the City Boy Progressive Group, CBPG, under the leadership of DG Mercy Williams, we shall continue to canvass support here in the north for the emergence of Tinubu Presidency.
It is our solemn belief that Tinubu Presidency will usher in a new face of progress and development in the north and Nigeria at large. It is our belief that Tinubu/Kasheem Presidency will put to shame, the agents of division who continue to use religion and ethnicity to instill fear in Nigerians for their devilish agenda. After few months of Tinubu/Kasheem Presidency, prophets of doom will be exposed and Nigerians will see reason why in governance, religion is not an issue but the ability to deliver and meet up with the expectation of the larger populace.
As the world is going through hard times following Covid 19 pandemic and the Russia/Ukraine war, Tinubu/Kasheem Presidency will build up on the effort of Buhari’s Presidency to stabilise and build up the economy. In the same vein, these personalities, by virtue of their track records will continue to intensify the fight against insurgency, banditry and allied acts of criminality, using global best practices.
Furthermore, I want to draw the attention of Nigerians not to vote for Atiku Abubakar or Peter Obi. They are not fit and qualified! On the part of Atiku, he has nothing to show to Nigerians that he is qualified to take the lead as the President of this country. As a former Vice President, nothing did he do to convince Nigerians that he is fit to be the President of Nigeria as their government led and left Nigeria in darkness in all facets of modern development — power inclusive. As he was qouted to have said before the 2019 general elections while responding to a question by a journalist, “Are my friends not entitled to be enriched?”, it means Atiku’s Presidency will be for family and friends, who will squander our resources through the conduit of privatization and empowerment programmes for the privileged few elites, to the outright detriment of the masses.
Peter Obi, who got national limelight after Atiku picked him as his running mate in 2019 has nothing to offer as well. He is at his best, good at fabricating figures to back up his warped statistics that have been proven more often to be lies, uncorroborated and sometimes illogical. And worst of all about him is that, through his championed online campaign, his attack dogs, the OBIDIENDS concoct lies, just like their principal, but in their case, against personalities who have more often debunked such lies. They vilify, bully and insult people without boundary. And Obi, as a certified tribal bigot even against his fellow Igbos, who once deported northerners back to the north from Anambra state when he was a governor, he is very unfit to rule this country with his structureless Labour Party that does not have even a councilor in Nigeria. As such, all the noise will begin and vanish on social media like a pack of cards.
Finally, I will conclude this piece by standing by the position of APC governors, particularly the northern APC governors and all lovers of peace and justice that after eight years of northern Presidency, power should go back to the south and in this regard, the City Boy, the Jagaban and the father of contemporary Nigerian politics, Bola Ahmad Tinubu, is the most qualified candidate not only in the southern part of Nigeria but in the whole country.
Khalid Dikko is a writer, a teacher and a humanitarian supporter. He is as well a grassroot politician and strategist.
He is the Northeast Zonal Coordinator of City Boy Progressive Group under the leadership of the young and vibrant Mercy Williams, Director-General CBPG.
Email: khaliddikkoo@gmail.com
