Rivers State: Who Delivers Nigerians from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the APC?
The political, social, and economic conditions of Nigeria, especially now, under the Tinubu led administration of the All Progressive Congress party (APC) is very pathetic and to say the least is disastrous and unfortunate. The truth that is incontrovertible about Nigeria is that the nascent democracy, which is now about 26 years old, ran into troubles since February 25th 2023, when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, through the support of his predecessor, former President Muhammadu Buhari hijacked power and captured the Nigerian state with impunity. That day marked the birth of retrogression in all spheres of the Nigerian state.
“The cases that surrounded President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s candidature, including the allegations of his forged Chicago State University certificate, the inconsistency in his secondary school academic records, his forged NYSC certificate, his alleged forfeiture of about 450,000 dollars, in relation to his involvement in drugs dealings in the United States of America, as well as the irregularities and violence that characterized his election as the President of Nigeria, were all weak and faulty foundations pointing to what Nigerians should expect with him in the saddle as the President of this great country.”
Nigeria should recall also how fake bishops were hired by him to provide legitimacy to his Muslim-Muslim ticket. The circumstances surrounding the emergence of President Tinubu had clearly painted the gloomy pictures that have become a reality for Nigerians today, because as the saying goes that birds of the same feathers flock together, it is not surprising therefore how Mr. Godswill Akpabio, a man who was allegedly on the run from being investigated and prosecuted by the EFCC for corruption while in office as Governor of Akwa Ibom State for billions of naira, who defected to the APC from PDP, when he travelled to London to visit the former President Muhammadu Buhari while on his sickbed, and eventually became the choice of President Tinubu as the Senate President.
The most painful part of all are the negative signals these corrupt leaders are sending to the international community about Nigeria. Why Nigeria, a country with the highest number of churches in Africa, if not the world, deserves to have leaders who instead of being a blessing to it are instruments of subjugation and oppression? Here are leaders who will preach one thing and do another. With the situation in Nigeria at the moment, where hunger and insecurity are the order of the day and increasing in intensity on a daily basis since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed the leadership position in 2023 and with politicking geared towards another election cycle in 2027 in top gear, for certain there is nothing that this administration of the All Progressive Congress party under the watch of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu promised to achieve for Nigerians at the outset of the administration in May 2023, yet to be achieved now as we speak, that will be achieved before 2027. The implication of this is that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration has failed Nigerians, not living up to their expectations, and does not deserve to contest again let alone win an election.
Nigerians are not oblivious of the fact that even the elections that brought President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in in 2023, was the most fraudulent in the history of Nigeria, which in other words suggest that he did not win but forced himself on Nigerians.
“The worst part of the situation in Nigeria today is that the judiciary, which ordinarily should be the last hope of the common man, has failed and fallen short of the people’s expectations, while the legislature, which ordinarily should be the eyes and the voice of Nigerians who elected them, has become nothing other than a rubberstamp, where everything that comes to it from the executive goes. A good example was how the two chambers of the House of Assembly yesterday, Thursday 20th March 2025, approved the unconstitutional imposition of a state of emergency on Rivers State, including the illegal suspension of the duly elected Governor and Deputy Governor of the state, as well as the legislative arm of government with impunity.”
The House of Assembly used voice voting to arrival at a conclusion of approving the illegal action of the President, a method of voting that cannot guarantee the achievement of a simple two-third majority requirement of the law for reaching a decision on a sensitive matter of national concern such as that of the dismantling of the democratic structures in Rivers State. The question that Nigerians are asking is whether Minister Nyesom Wike, who is an appointee of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory has turned the President to his puppet and an errand boy.
“It is worthy of note also that the appointment of Wike, who is a card-carrying member of the PDP, as the Minister of the FCT in the APC led government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and Wike’s win of the award of the Minister of the year, given to him by the This Day Newspapers and Arise TV, over and above all the ministers of the All Progressive Congress party (APC), was an indictment on the APC and on Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The achievement of Minister Wike as Minister of the year for the year 2024, clearly shows the lack of capacity by all the APC ministers of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and he himself, the President, and is a pointer also to the reason why Nigerians believe that the APC government and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu are lacking in vision and direction in leading Nigeria to the promise land.”
In conclusion, Nigerians cannot forget in a hurry the position that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took while the former President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP, declared a state of emergency in the states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe in 2013, due to heightened problem of insecurity that made these states ungovernable, but with no consideration for sacking the governors and dismantling any of the democratic structures in the states.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu described the actions of the former President Goodluck Jonathan as “a dangerous trend in the art of governance”, and went further to say “The body language of the Jonathan administration leads any keen watcher of events with unmistakable conclusion of the existence of a surreptitious but barely disguised intention to muzzle the elected governments of these states for what is clearly a display of unpardonable mediocrity and diabolic partisanship geared towards 2015. Borno and Yobe states have been literarily under armies of occupation with the attendant excruciating hardship experienced daily by the indigenes and residents of these areas. This government now wants to use the excuse of the security challenges faced by the Governors to remove them from the states considered hostile to the 2015 PDP/Jonathan project.”
History does not die, and liars are expected to have good memories. However, regarding President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, reverse is the case, as his criticisms of the former President Goodluck Jonathan, who did not even go to the extent of sacking the duly democratically elected officers of the state, is now an indictment on his action in the case of Rivers State, which many have described as not only unconstitutional but an affront against democracy and a flagrant disregard for the rule of law.
“Was it not this same President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who threatened fire and brimstone as ECOWAS Chairman on the military leaders of Niger Republic for over throning a civilian regime? President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s action in Rivers State is worse than what he criticized in Niger Republic, and his appointment of a retired Naval Officer as the Administrator in Rivers State is hypocritical for someone like him, who claimed to go into the trenches while fighting against the military junta in Nigeria and for the restoration of democracy.”
In other words, his action also which is illegal and unconstitutional is an invitation for military intervention against his regime, and this is a wakeup call to Nigerians who should expect hell to let loose in 2027. If President Bola Ahmed Tinubu can unilaterally sack a democratically elected government in Rivers State, then there is no extent to which he cannot go to keep himself in power.
The lesson for Nigerians, members of the opposition parties and the civil society organizations, is that all hands must be put on deck to check all forms of illegality by being circumspective with regard to the 2027 elections in Nigeria. They should make this saying resonate with them that “if the hunter has learnt to shoot without missing his target, the bird also should learn to fly without perching.” To President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, you are admonished by wise men that “when you take hold of a state, you must assess how much violence and cruelty will be necessary and get it over with at once, so as not to have to be cruel on a regular basis.” This is because according to another wise man “kings have long arms but misfortune longer. Therefore, let none think of themselves out of reach.” Nigerians hope that they have seen the best and the worst of you Mr. President. However, it is not late to reconsider your actions because the art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings. God bless Nigeria.
By Samuel Tunji Adeyanju
GMN Chief Executive Officer, USA
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