Edo Election: Tinubu Like A Stage Magician Is Willfully Blind To Reality By Bayo Oluwasanmi

 

I am not a fan of APC or PDP. I believe APC is Lucifer, PDP Satan. The two political parties are one and the same. Both are corrupt and anti-people. 

The Edo State gubernatorial election attracted the hoopla that is reserved for presidential election. More than anything else, the election serves as a referendum on Bola Ahmed Tinubu for 2023. Tinubu is a popular politician in Nigeria. Arguably, the shrewdest 21st century political kingmaker in Nigeria’s political melodrama.

Tinubu has proven himself he is the big shark that can swim unscathed in the high-stakes and messy minefield of Nigerian politics. But the victory of PDP’s Governor Godwin Obaseki in the Edo gubernatorial election held Saturday, completely swallowed the big shark. Tinubu is yet to officially declare his candidacy for the presidency in 2023. But his surrogates have severally made his ambition publicly known to the Nigerian people. I see the loss of APC as humiliation and defeat for Tinubu. More importantly, a foretaste of what awaits him in 2023. 

Days before the election, he told Edo people: “I, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, wants to appeal as a committed democrat and leader of all democrats regardless of the political parties to our conscience and our commitment to democracy today.” Trying to rally Edo people for his candidate Osagie Ize-Iyamu, Tinubu said: “He (Obaseki) does not deserve any democratic ballot paper. Don’t vote for him, I appeal to all of you.”

We all know Tinubu is not anything close to being a democrat. He is a ruthless, selfish political goon who anoints who will become governor in all the APC controlled states. He imposed his daughter as Iyaloja of Lagos over women elders against Yoruba market place tradition. As a powerful politician living in a bubble of power, Tinubu is mentally and physically cut off from the reality most Nigerians and in this instance, Edo people recognize. 

What is reality? Reality is the obligation to tell the truth. The reality that Edo people recognize is the imperative. As a political leader who inhabits a bubble of power, Tinubu is isolated and surrounded by those desperate to please him. Like a stage magician, Tinubu is willfully blind to the reality and couldn’t see defeat coming. Power is a problem. Tinubu suffers from power. And it is exacerbated by money. With too much money, he lost his sense of truth and connectedness to reality. He thought he could buy the election with as many bullion vans as necessary. His focus on money crowds out ethical considerations and political imperative of Edo people.

The bigger lesson from Edo gubernatorial election is for Nigerians who are fiercely loyal to either APC or PDP. They have given up their independent thought processes. They have degraded their worth. Obaseki is not going to radically transform the lives of Edo people and Edo State. It is time Nigerians in general and Edo people in particular to wake up from their slumber and face the stark reality that they are being exploited by both APC and PDP. Both parties manipulate them with lies, deceit, bribes, rhetoric, empty and broken promises. Both parties continuously exploit the people’s ignorance and lack of understanding of governance. 

As 2023 inches forward, and if we still have a country called Nigeria by then, Nigerians should reject stage magicians like Tinubu who for years have exploited their inability to make wise decisions that lead to good choices and good governance. The Tinubus as stage magicians, are performers who force “choice blindness” on Nigerian electorates to choose among foisted options that benefit the politicians. It’s going to be a long and tortuous journey to 2023.