EDITORIAL: AS POTENTIAL SUCCESSORS TO THE PRESIDENTIAL THRONE EMERGE

After intra-party politicking, character killings and name callings, one out of 25 aspirants for the ticket of All Progressives Congress (APC) finally emerged on Wednesday June 8, 2022 as Presidential Candidate, who will slog it out with its counterparts in other opposition political parties in February, 2023.

The lucky winner of the APC ticket is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Wazirin Adamawa Atiku Abubakar, New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, People’s Redemption Party (PRP) Kola Abiola, Labour Party (LP) Dr Peter Obi and 11 others.

In his case, Tinubu has only emerged the potential successor of President Muhammadu Buhari at the party level, which is the stage one.  The stage two is when and if he wins the general elections next year and all machetes, spears and harrows against him by friends-like enemies and enemies-like friends will all be downed and business of government begins.

However, a warning message to Tinubu is in the area of vendetta. He has nobody to launch revenge attack against because, he has not been offended by anyone. All that happened during the period of the struggle was no more or less than necessary political game play allowed in a democracy. If he thinks some people in the South had offended or “betrayed” him, he should also at every such time of so thinking also remember the North that has been his strength in this situation to forgive and forget.

The Oluremi’s husband will be adjudged an improved democrat – just like “a former dictator” as critics would like to call him, President Muhammadu Buhari, has sustained his new status of converted democrat since May 29, 2015 although misconstrued – only if he brings this quality of magnanimity in victory to bear, if he finally emerges winner of the second and final stage.

If even offended, he should begin to see his Candidacy as training period to learn to be Father of All Nigerians including even those of the region that – because of quest for Presidency – have used the misguided elements amidst in using fake news albeit unsuccessfully to destabilise the country since 2015, particularly focusing on one tribe as enemy of the rest. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu should institute a mechanism that will make such people jettison their unpatriotic way and embrace peace for the nation to grow and develop.

A nation that has surpassed evil expectation of prophets of doom by living beyond 100 years and still remains unbreakable 102 years after amalgamation does not need to think about unholy coalition again. Western nations that think this against Nigeria remain intact together despite that, for example United States of America, they have population distantly larger than that of Nigeria, no internal force of citizens takes arms against any of those countries feigning struggle for self determination or secessionism.

The locals volunteering themselves for the exploit of these foreign conspiracies should know there is no reason for those Dollar economy they receive from their foreign sponsors than to destroy their one and only country so they can then come to feast on the natural resources of the country. They should rather, therefore, sit up and shun such inducement from any foreign nation used to entice them to willfully commitment treason against their own country.

Nigeria after President Buhari must never again be taken back under the hegemony of the West, which saw the nation backward in terms of everything – from industrial and general economic giantness that hitherto saw Nigeria’s Naira at par with the Dollar. Nigeria now enjoys a foreign policy put in place by President Buhari and it must be sustained. Any foreign interest, no matter how powerful that foreign country is, so long it does not favour the national security, interest and people of Nigeria, must not be allowed in Nigeria. It can therefore be understood while, despite the lobby by United States, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, India, Serbia, Brazil and largely most African countries have always stood distancing themselves from the Western sanctions against Russia. Fantastic!  This is what Tinubu must do if he eventually becomes the much expected successor to the presidential throne next year.

It is the same Wazirin Adamawa Atiku Abubakar must do should he be the successor to the presidential throne. No matter the the volume of anyone’s investments or assets in the West, his or her becoming President in Nigeria must not mean he will have to compromise the national interest and security of the country for the whims and caprices of those colonialists still meddling around in the affairs of the country.

Same way it is that any of Dr. Peter Obi, Alhaji Kola Abiola, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and other presidential candidates of other political parties who have now emerged must do, if he or she eventually becomes the successor to the presidential throne.

First thing on the mind of the next President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria must be “Nigeria First-Nigeria First and Nigeria First!” God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.