The historical election has now shown that the party with the highest grass root support in Nigeria is clearly the APC and not the PDP as previously claimed by the PDP. The APC has more grass root support even in the Boko Haram infected states. Just imagine the number of votes recorded in those states by APC and General Buhari. Who could have expected voters to turn out in such large numbers in the 5 states of the former Northeast where the voters knew they were taking a huge risk by coming out to vote. The quest for change was so strong and overwhelming that people still come out to vote for change in Nigeria
I never thought my generation would ever live to witness the dream team that has just been elected in Nigeria by acclamation and consensus. I correctly predicted more than 6 months ago that Buhari had the potential to become the first opposition leader in Nigeria to beat the odds and dethrone a sitting Government. Many Nigerians had expected Obafemi Awolowo to be the first to break than jinx but it was not meant to be. The man died after attempting to break the jinx 3 times. 4 days to this election I wrote my final article posted by the ChatAfrik, Google and Sahara and titled, “Buhari is the next President of Nigeria”. That article has since become one of the most popular articles for the month on ChatAfrik the last time I checked.
Everything I said in that article has been proved right except that Buhari actually performed a little bit better than I have predicted because the accuracy of my exit polling data were not as reliable as exit polling in the United States where I learnt the Probability Theory in Statistics as part of the requirement for my post graduate studies at the State University of Connecticut and later on at the Yeshiva Jewish of New York where I was a Karl Ichan fellowship recipient for my second Master’s degree in Social Work from 1991 to 1993 My polling result was a little bit skewed because responses from voters in Nigeria are never as reliable as responses from exit voters in America my home away from home.
In America whatever statements are credited to any of the top aides of any of the major candidates are considered as the viewpoints of their candidates. When Fani Kayode the mentally-sick rabble-rouser who passed thru Oxford but Oxford University did not pass thru him came from nowhere to announce that Jonathan was leading in 23 states at a time INEC had only collated the results from only 2 states, he would have been called to order by his boss in a country like the United States and Britain. Whatever statement is made by the top aides of Ed Milliband the labor leader in Great Britain or David Cameron the Prime Minister are presumed to have been approved or authorized by their bosses who cannot run away from any criticisms arising from such comments. It is a different story in Nigeria where Jonathan would authorize his aides to issue statements that he himself is too cowardly to make. It is part of the rigging gimmicks of African politicians in particular to propagate falsehood in the hope that some people would be misled or confused, if you keep presenting falsehood as a fact just like Adolf Hitler used to do.
The duplicity of President Jonathan in encouraging all of his top aides to fly so many kites about pronouncements he himself could not make was part of the sad commentary in this election. When Ayo Fayose and Obanikoro were boasting on the audio tape recorded by Captain Sagir Koli that they were both working for the President and carrying out his orders, such a confession would never have been swept under the carpet in any country governed by the rule of Law. Thru the auspices of Sahara Reporters of New York the audio tape was made public on the Facebook and on the Internet for the whole world to see. Such a revelation would have called for an immediate hearing in the Parliament and the Law Enforcement without being told by the President would have moved into swift action to investigate and bring all of the culprits to book. In the Jonathan Government such revelations are not actionable because they are made by individuals who are very loyal to the President. So when Jonathan tells the whole world he is a transformational President who is going to change Nigeria, you have to wonder how the man is going to do it. The Law we are told is no respecter of persons but not in Nigeria. You can get away with murder in a country where an unelected individual like the First Lady exercises more powers than her own husband who is President. Rather than quickly condemn the gangsters and tell to stop rubbishing his legacy, what Mr. Jonathan did was to quickly condemn Captain Koli’s authentic audio tape as a mere fabrication.
The President and the Military he presided over as Commander-in-Chief bluntly told the nation they could not do anything on the report because the serving military officer who blew the whistle had fled the country for his own safety. I am letting the whole world know right now that If Buhari and Osinbajo ever commit such an atrocity any time in their 4 year term, they would not be re-elected in 2019. In fact they would be humiliated and disgraced out of office because Nigerians will never ever again tolerate a grossly incompetent and corrupt Government like the one Nigerians have just rejected. I am rooting for Buhari not because he has a beautiful wife. I am supporting him because he has the credibility to do the job to which he has been elected. He is toast if he fails to measure up to the expectation of Nigerians myself included.
To add insult to an injury, the President went ahead to quickly nominate and submit the name of Obanikoro to the Senate for ratification as a minister despite all the hues and cry from the opposition. He went ahead to make Ayo Fayose his agent provocateur, Iyiola Omisore as a king pin in the PDP and Olusegun Mimiko as his defacto leader of the Yorubas. Those individuals were the same musketeers who masterminded the rigging of the Ekiti gubernatorial election for the PDP on June 20, 2014. I lost the little respect I had for Jonathan the day I saw the crime captured on tape by Captain Koli.
Sahara Reporters the only social media to dare air the Sagir Koli audio tape was declared a “persona non grata” by the Jonathan Government. Captain Koli who has had to run away from the country to save his own life was never, at any time, talked about by President Jonathan and neither did President Jonathan order immediate investigation of such a high security breach by his Government. Captain Koli still remains in hiding as we speak thus making a mockery of the rule of Law in Nigeria. Idi Amin or Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast who were both disgraced out of office did not do anything more egregious than what Jonathan had done to rig the Ekiti elections. So President Jonathan in my book is not at all the Saint he impersonates as President. Jonathan was deaf and dumb when his wife urged Nigerians to stone to death anyone who preaches change in Nigeria and who dares to vote for Buhari. He nodded approval when Asari Dokubo threatened to invade the Yorubas for having the courage of our conviction to form an alliance with the Hausa/Fulani to pave the way for the change the whole world is now celebrating with Nigeria.
That notwithstanding I still give President Jonathan high marks for heeding the advice and the wiser counsel s of President Obama, and British Prime Minister, David Cameron and the joint counseling of the 3 man task force composed of prominent African leaders as Kofi Annan , Thabo Mbeki and General Abdulsalam Abubakar who persuaded Jonathan to quickly concede victory and to take urgent steps to warn his Niger Delta militants like Asari Dokubo from causing any trouble in the aftermath of a historic election. That Jonathan would listen to those voices of reasons without delay is one of the reasons the outcome of the election has not led to the breakdown of Law and Order in Nigeria. The magnanimity shown both the victor and the victim has been extraordinary. The way and manner that Professor Jega and his INEC commissioners have handled the collation of results in a very transparent way was a classic that has made Professor Jega the unsung hero of the Nigerian elections and arguably the greatest and the best INEC chairman Africa has ever produced. I won’t be surprised if Professor Jega becomes an emissary of the United Nations in the foreseeable future to teach other African nations how to conduct free and fair elections. All the collation officers were Professors, Vice Chancellors and Deputy Vice Chancellor who would not like to rubbish their own prestige, integrity and reputation to save a falling President.
Jega has gone down in the history as the Professor Peller or Houdini of the Nigerian electoral process who has succeeded where Justice Ovie Whiskey and other legal luminaries and intellectuals like Professor Nwosu and the other southerners have woefully failed. The northerners as a rule are far more honest than their southern counterparts. This election has proved that axiomatic belief.
I have worked with a few northerners in my Public Service career. Alhaji Sule Katagun the former Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission was one of them. Super Permanent Secretary Ahmed Joda from Girei in Adamawa State was one of them. Super Perm Sec. Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji from Sokoto was one of them. Permanent Secretary Alhaji Gambo Gubio from Maiduguri was another, Alhaji Mohammadu Mayo of Sardauna Province; my Principal Executive Officer in the Federal Ministry of Education way back in 1974 was one of them. Oxford-trained Permanent Secretary Abdul Azeez Attah the first son of Ohinoyi the Attah of Igbira Land was another. The last and not the least was Ambassador Sanusi, the Nigerian Ambassador to Morocco and the uncle of Lamido Sanusi the current Emir of Kano. He was the Ambassador when I represented Nigeria for 3 years as the Nigerian delegate to the CAFRAD Board of Trustees based in Tangiers, Morocco. They were all men of honor and embodiment of integrity that I would never forget till I die. Ahmed Joda in particular who was a journalist by profession but never had a College degree taught me all I knew when I was the Secretary to the National Council on Education while he was the Permanent Secretary.
There is no way I can write on this election without first of all acknowledging the place of world dreamers and statesmen like the great Mahatma Gandhi who dreamt of a Pandit Nehru in India. I must not forget the great Martin Luther King who dreamt about the coming of a Barack Obama or Archbishop Desmond Tutu who dreamt of a Nelson Mandela and our own Chief Obafemi Awolowo who dreamt of the Buhari/Osinbajo ticket long before any of us did. Basketball fans in the United States used to refer to the best Nigerian Basketball player at the Houston Rockets, Akeem Olajuwon as “Akeem the dream” By the same token I call the Buhari/Osinbajo ticket as the dream team Nigeria has anticipated and prayed for in more than half a century.
The expectation from the “Osagyefo” Buhari and his Vice President, Professor Osinbajo is high but before I fully speak to that in the part II to this article, I must take liberty of this curtain raiser to focus on a broad outline of what Nigerians should expect or take away from the volcanic eruption of an election we have just witnessed in Africa’s most populous nation. If Nigeria sneezes the rest of Africa must of necessity catch cold. Barack Obama as leader of the Free World spoke forthrightly to President Jonathan and he told him the whole world cannot afford to see Nigeria fail or disintegrate into chaos in the wake of what is currently happening in the Pacific region and the Middle East in particular. It was a very wise move by the President of the United States and the first black man ever to reach that pinnacle of power. Jonathan had no other choice if he did not want to self-destruct than to listen to the most powerful man in the Universe.
I call it a paradox of history that the Southeast of Nigeria which fought a very expensive civil war to make way for change in Nigeria has now become the most ardent supporters of the ugly “status quo” in Nigeria more than 50 years later. Can you believe that? President Jonathan received the highest number of votes imaginable in the Southeast zone. There is little way the Igbos can turn round to claim a part in the victory the whole world is celebrating today. That is not to say that individuals like Governor Okorocha and former Governor Ngige, comrade Igbokwe, Rev father Camillus Ejike Mbaka to mention a few done been a big part of the Buhari victory. They have all worked their head off to make the change possible. Father Ejike Mbaka has not only fired the imaginations of millions of Catholic in his Diocese, he has clearly shown to us that some of our so-called pastors and men of God in Nigeria are really agents of Satan.
I cannot help but pay tribute to Pastor Mrs. Adeboye who came to the Osinbajo Parish of the Redeemed Church of God in Lagos to make a pronouncement right in the presence of President Jonathan that categorically pointed to a victory for the Osinbajo team in the historic election. I could not be more proud of the woman who was more strident than her husband in revealing what God had told her. Pastor Adeboye gave what I would take as a tepid endorsement of Osinbajo and his running mate when he totally stood by one of his pastors in the presence of President Jonathan who did not know whether to cry or to smile as the couple eulogized the team he was begging God to help him defeat. “Allahu Aqbar” I said to myself scratching my head as I watched the program on Television. God is truly great
The outcome of the elections has clearly shown that Nigeria remains polarized by religion, ethnicity and tribalism as opposed to what Jonathan has claimed in his concession speech... The Igbos who used to see themselves as the greatest nationalists in the Azikiwe era have now become the greatest tribalists if they are to be judged by their voting pattern in this election. They once condemned the Yorubas for preferring Awolowo instead of Azikiwe to become the pioneer Premier of Western Region. Looking back I have to thank God that Azikiwe did not become the first Premier of the Yorubas. The Igbos would have been reminding all of us we were at one point in the history of Nigeria their slaves. I am happen the Yorubas and Awolowo and late Pa Akinloye and his Mobalaje Grand Alliance did not allow that to happen. The igbos have voted more solidly for one of their own, Jonathan whose mother is Igbo and whose middle name is “Azikiwe” not by sheer coincidence.
On the contrary the Southwest or the Yorubas have now shown by their voting patterns and distribution in this election they are arguably the least detribalized zone among the 6 Geo political zones of Nigeria. The outcome of the election in each of the 6 states of the Southwest has reflected that reality. We all must never lose sight of that and if the Igbos want to do that, I would not let them as a born-again Yoruba historian and one of the offspring of Oodua and a Prince of the Adesida Royal Dynasty of Akure who value my noble birth and would not trade it off for a pot of porridge, come rain or shine.
Both Buhari and Jonathan recorded their 25 per cent mandatory score in all of the Southwest states making the Yoruba states the most politically-savvy states in Nigeria if the truth must be told. In which other state in Nigeria could the Igbos as a voting block have managed to score 5 seats in any part of Nigeria other than their own?
Well it has happened in Lagos, and that is a first in Nigeria that cannot be dismissed with the wave of the hand. I predicted in my last article that that the Southwest has become the swing vote in Nigeria hat both the two leading presidential candidates in Nigeria would need to win before they can be pronounced the overall winner. The Southwest has done that and that is why Ashiwaju Ahmed Tinubu and the jagaban of Borgu has earned the merit to now step into the shoes of Obafemi Awolowo as leader of the Yorubas. I know the present Ooni Risa Lawarikan Sijuwade Olubushe the II may be too embarrassed to make the conferment because of the feud between the two of them. IF he doesn’t do it, and give honor to whom honor is due, I can tell you that Sijuwade’s successor as the next Ooni will do it.
We are praying for long life for Olubuse the Second but I seize this opportunity to remind Kabiyesi he would never have been crowned the Ooni without a fight if late Uncle Bola Ige was not the Oyo State Governor at the time and if the relic of the old Action Group was not in power at the time. A word should be enough for the wise. The Yorubas have spoken loud and clear that Ahmed Tinubu regardless of his roots which have been traced to Iragbiji in Osun is a Yoruba born-again hero who has earned his wings to be proclaimed and confirmed as Leader of the Yorubas right now.
He could then take steps to unite the Yorubas as he must. Olusegun Mimiko missed road by thinking and believing he could dislodge the great Asaju of Lagos who is not a perfect human being like the rest of us. But on balance, I take off my hat for Ahmed Tinubu. He has done what Obafemi Awolowo, Samuel Ladoke Akintola have tried but could not do. I think President Jonathan recognized that feat when he placed a phone call to the Asiwaju soon after calling Buhari to concede defeat. Ahmed Tinubu has so to speak cut of the head of Gorgon the Medusa in Greek mythology if the truth must be told. The guy again is a Muslim meaning that not only Christians would make Heaven.
I won’t be surprised if I get to Heaven and I find my grandfather Erinlakatabu Ogiso, Adimula Otolu Apara, O beri omo sagongon t’Oke Eda r’odo. O ro pupa bi Odide, Iwerepe gba ra re gbagi Oko waiting for me on the right hand of God because I am going to make Heaven as claimed by Elemure Ogunyemi in one of his Yoruba country music album “Ti emi ko ba subi s’Aiye , aiye mi a toro”
Regardless of any religion any of us may profess, if we do good and truthfully love our neighbors as ourselves, we would all make Heaven. I can imagine Alhaji Yayi Akorede, my uncle, the Late Chief Imam of Akure, Alhaji Arisekola the Are of Yoruba Muslims making Heaven. I can imagine my paternal uncle late Pa Otokiti, the Pioneer Chief Imam of Benin City, Alhaji Sanusi the deposed Emir of Kano and Sir Alhaji Abubakar, the late Sultan of Sokoto making Heaven because they have all done good in their life time. That Ahmed Tinubu is a Muslim cannot and must not stop him from becoming the leader of the Yorubas is my point.
The Awolowo leadership of the Southwest has yielded great dividend making Awolowo the greatest nationalist of his and our era. Those who labeled Awolowo a tribalist simply did not know him as I came to know him for the short time I was privileged to work under him as Chairman of the Special Task Force on Student Financing in Nigeria while he was Deputy Chairman of the Federal Executive Council and Federal Commissioner for Finance. I was the Secretary to that Task Force. Alhaji Shehu Shagari who later became head of State was a member of that Task Force. Alhaji Shettima Ali Monguno was another member. Late Wenike Briggs from Rivers state was also a member to mention a few of the juggernauts that served on the Task Force.
The historical election has now shown that the party with the highest grass root support in Nigeria is clearly the APC and not the PDP as previously claimed by the PDP. The APC has more grass root support even in the Boko Haram infected states. Just imagine the number of votes recorded in those states by APC and General Buhari. Who could have expected voters to turn out in such large numbers in the 5 states of the former Northeast where the voters knew they were taking a huge risk by coming out to vote. The quest for change was so strong and overwhelming that people still come out to vote for change in Nigeria
“Ba mosi changi” they all chanted in Hausa “Sai Buhari Allahu Aqbar Yo Wa Haka ni” meaning there is no one to save Nigeria but Buhari because God the Almighty is truly great and that is what it is. Nigerians across the country have trooped out in large numbers to demonstrate their zest for change. The only exceptions are the Southeast and the South/South. If the Southwest has joined their band wagons Buhari and Osinbajo would not have won and the transformation Nigeria is now celebrating today would never have seen the light of day and the one party dictatorship of Nigeria would have been further entrenched and solidified.
I take off my hat for the Southwest and Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande who pioneered the move and defended it with everything they have got. Say anything you like about Ahmed Tinubu. Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande have made history. They have earned the accolades to be the successor to Obafemi Awolowo who dreamt about it and Chief S.L.A. Akintola the man who first predicted the need for the Yorubas and the Hausa/Fulani to collaborate as an alternative to the Hausa/Fulani collaboration with the Igbos of the Southeast. Democracy thrives best when no party dictatorship is allowed to dominate the political firmament for as long as the NPC, the NPN and the PDP have done in Nigeria.
If this new coalition of the Hausa/Fulani and the Yorubas does not work, Nigerians should reserve the right to throw them out in 2019. Nigeria would not know which coalition works better for Nigeria until we have tried both just like is done in more stable and developed countries of the world. We all love Buhari and Osinbajo today because of our high expectations of them. It will be a different story if in 2019 we are still where we are. If I am still alive, I would be one of the people leading the efforts to kick them out if they do not perform as expected.
For the very first time in the history of Nigeria, the opposition has defeated a sitting Government.
For the first time a northerner has emerged as the Chairman of INEC and he has performed far better than all of his predecessors from the South combined. Who says the northerners are inferior to the southerners? Those who peddle such rumors should keep their peace forever. Education has permeated and liberated the North from coast to coast from sea to shining sea. Alelluyah!
This election has proved that the South/South and the Southeast are less tolerant of Islam than the Southwest and the Middle Belt. The Yorubas of the Southwest have proved that both Muslims and Christians can peacefully co-exist because only God or Allah knows who is going to make Heaven or “Allujanah”. If Buhari, a Muslim has now been able to beat Jonathan a Christian who offered the Christian pastors a bribery of 7 Billion Naira to champion his cause before God, what should Nigerians now say about those fake pastors who daily parade their closeness to God by speaking in tongues and telling cock and bull stories about their so-called revelations from God?
I do not speak in tongues and I do not pretend that God speaks to me directly but I made a prediction in this election that has been far more accurate that some of the predictions made by some of those fake pastors who predicted Jonathan was going to win because money has changed hands.
Lamido Sanusi a Muslim blew the whistle on President Jonathan. Today Lamido has been elevated to Emir of Kano for life and Jonathan the Christian who fired him as Governor of Central Bank had gone back to Kano to kneel down for Lamido and to beg him for his forgiveness and support in Kano. Lamido remains the Emir for life and Jonathan has received “Bako Daya” in the just concluded presidential elections in Nigeria. Jonathan has ceases to be President and he is going into oblivion as of May 29. Who says that Christians are more favored by God and Allah? If you still believe that nonsense, you will believe anything.
Nigerians are less interested in religion today as a basis for picking our leaders. Nigerians are more interested in performance as the yardstick for picking our leaders. Thank God for that.
The Afenifere Group of the Awolowo era currently led by Chief Reuben Faseide Fashoranti and his cohorts have been repudiated and rejected by the Afenifere Renewal Group led by Ahmed Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande. The APC have captured 5 out of the 6 Yoruba states. Ekiti would be the last one to fall because Ayo Fayose has never won a free and fair election in that state. Now that he no longer has the power to use the Military the Police and State Security any way he likes, we should all wait to see if he would continue to win elections in Ekiti, the fountain of knowledge in Nigeria. Ekitis are smarter than that. They cannot be led for too long by a hoodlum who would soon implode or be impeached because he is loose cannon.
This election has revealed once and for all that traditional rulers across Nigeria and especially the corrupt and politically-biased ones among them and many others have lost their magic wand to influence the voting preferences of their subjects. They all converged at the Ooni’s Palace at Enuwa at Ile Ife to endorse Jonathan after taking their own millions in bribery. Jonathan lost in most of those places where he was endorsed by the traditional rulers because most of the traditional rulers are living on borrowed times. Education has liberated the people
Rivers State has had the distinction of disenfranchising a sitting Governor who is supposed to be the Chief Security Officer of his State. Rivers State under that conundrum has now shown herself to be the most politically aware state in Nigeria which manage to record more than 1.4 million votes for the Okrika-born First Lady of Nigeria in a show of shame that has gone down in history as the worse form of election rigging in a state that can be considered the backyard of President Jonathan.
There is no way on Earth that Rivers State could have recorded such a high turnout of votes for the party in power in an election that did not start in any of the polling booths until midday. I reserve further comments on that till the 3 man panel set up by INEC to investigate the complaint by Governor Amaechi complete their investigations but I definitely smell a rat in that election and a few other states in the Southeast but more so in Edo and Delta and arguably in Kano. I am yet to understand the low turnout of voters in Lagos state as well. If Kano can return close to 2 million, Lagos with a population not less than 12 million should have recorded more voter turnout.
I now believe the figures being peddled around that Nigeria’s population is 160 to 180 million is grossly exaggerated as Nigeria has never had any realistic Census. I was the presiding officer at Kabba Ijumu Local Government Census in 1973. I counted and signed for a total of 1,200 in the area I supervised as I recall. When the collation was later done in Ilorin of the defunct Kwara State, one more zero was added to 1200 to make it 12,000 in a heartbeat. Nigeria is afraid to do a realistic Census so the country can know how many mouths she is feeding. Awolowo once described the 1974 Census as dead on arrival and he killed the Census with his Convocation address at the University of Ife in 1974 as I wrote in one of my articles on the Nigeria Census widely publicized on the Internet and Google. I can tell you that Nigeria has less population that the 160 million being bandied around for public consumption.
The result of the votings in Anambra, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Imo, Abia and Ebonyi, Bayelsa, Edo and Delta and Kano and even in Lagos and Ekiti have shown patterns that are very suspect to say the least. We must leave that to the Election Tribunals to probe or investigate at the appropriate time...
The Election has revealed that a cross section of the Nigerian Military and the Nigerian Police and State Security have been badly politicized and there is an urgent need for the incoming Federal Administration and Parliament to look into some of the allegations made against the Military I made this last point as the first recipient of the British/Canadian Legion Scholarship for children of the Second World War Veterans in Nigeria. I took advantage of that scholarship to obtain my first degree at the great University of Ife from 1963 to 1966. I hate to see the Nigerian military politicized. I served my first 3 years in the Federal Public Service as a senior Administrator in the Nigerian Army Headquarters at the Republican Building in Marina Lagos.
I served briefly under Alhaji Damcida and for close to 2 years under Yusuf Gobir as Permanent Secretary. I served as Secretary to the Recruitment Panel for commissioned officers in the Nigerian Army under late Colonel Murtala Mohammed years before he became Head of State in 1975. That was how I came to know all of the top brass in the Nigerian Military at the time including Mohammadu Buhari who was a Captain in the Nigerian Army at the time. He has been an incorruptible officer from that point in his career. That was why I would take a bullet for that man because I knew all the nasty things being said about him by a loose Cannon like Ayo Fayose and Fani Kayode were all rubbish. Nigerians could not be luckier to have Buhari back in Government to straighten out the country. I would personally work for the man free of charge because I knew him and I trusted him more than most of his peers in the Nigerian Military. I hope he would prevail on the APC senators who are now in the majority to reduce the prohibitive salaries the Legislators now award to themselves. That would be the beginning of real change in Nigeria.
I am urging the General to reorganize the Nigerian Military and to bring back Captain Sagir Koli, and commend Brigadier General Dikko and Brigadier General Adeyemi and to honor and promote all of them for being good officers and role models for other military men in Nigeria. I recommend that Brigadier Aliyu Momoh and officers like him who participated in the Ekiti rigging of elections must be investigated and relieved of their commissions and retired with ignominy, if found guilty just to teach others a lesson.
Buhari and Osinbajo have a lot of work to do to sanitize the system. I congratulate them on their well- deserved victory and I rejoice with Nigerians who made a wise choice to settle for change and better Government.
The simple part is making promises. The hard part is keeping those promises and giving Nigeria a new lease of life to start to enjoy the true dividends of Democracy. Buhari and Osinbajo are going to discover horrendous crimes the Jonathan Government has committed and some of the good things they have done. They must continue the good things and abrogate some of the corrupt practices of the Jonathan Government and their collaborators across Nigeria and around the world
It is no longer a coincidence that Buhari is the 4th President in the 4th Republic elected President on the 4th month of the year after contesting for the presidency 4 times. General Buhari and Osinbajo should ban the use of the acronym “Your Excellency” in Nigerian political lexicon. The British from whom we leant the diplomatic nicety have long jettisoned the nomenclature because it is serving no useful purpose at all. No American politician or Governor or President is called or addressed as “Your Excellency” because none of them deserves to be addressed that way.
I rest my case.