The 2023 general election has been won and lost; and those the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, returned elected are already thinking ahead in terms of what leadership position should go to where and to whom.
However, over a month after the presidential election, a lot of Nigerians have refused to accept Bola Tinubu, the declared winner of the election as the president-elect.
While defeated presidential candidates claim their mandates were stolen and have sought the intervention of the court to reclaim their stolen mandates, many Nigerians are aggrieved at the electoral body, INEC, and its chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu for a flawed electoral process.
The deficiencies of the February 25 election are complex and multifaceted. There were widespread delays in poll openings, violent disruptions of the voting process, intimidation of voters, and vote rigging. The mother of all shortcomings is the failure of the INEC to transmit results electronically from polling units via the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, to its online portal on election day.
To be clear, both local and international election observers have discredited the poll, fueling distrust in the electoral process and casting a shadow over Tinubu’s anticipated inauguration on May 29.
Hopeful that the judiciary will overturn the outcome of the election, heartbroken Nigerians are unrelenting in their remonstrances challenging Tinubu’s victory.
Not acknowledging his emergence as the president-elect, they prefer to address him as the ‘president-select’ while all sorts of propaganda have been launched to demarket him to the international community.
These propagandas focus on his identity, his educational records, his age, his alleged links to a drug trafficking cartel, and his corrupt escapades as the governor of Lagos, a state in South West Nigeria.
In the past few weeks, the intensity of the interrogation of who Tinubu is has revved up several notches as it has dawned on people that he may emerge as Nigeria’s number one citizen next month. To many people, the only thing that is real, without contention, about Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the physical person.
Bola Tinubu’s real name is: Yekini Amoda Ogunlere, from Iragbiji, Osun state. That is what is contained in his Primary and Secondary school certificates. That’s why he has refused to tender them before INEC. I dare him to tender them at the Tribunal and let’s see if he is not… pic.twitter.com/7rFAS8uTyp
— Jackson Ude (@jacksonpbn) March 30, 2023
I just stumbled on a 1 hour+ documentary on Tinubu, titled “Unmasking The Real Bola Ahmed Tinubu” which caused him to sue AIT for N150 Billion.
The documentary was aired on AIT on March 1st 2015, and was repeated daily. Tinubu brought an ex-parte motion before a Lagos High… pic.twitter.com/naoVUUzEEc
— A Distinguished Field Marshal ⚡️ (@General_Oluchi) March 30, 2023
Chicago University record shows a female "Tinubu Bola A" was a student. Now we have a male Bola Ahmed Tinubu claiming to be same person.
Is Tinubu a transgender?
No offence to LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ people o 😂 pic.twitter.com/KyxZVRpWWk
— Bishop (LP) (@BishopPOEvang) March 30, 2023
This was October 16th 1998.
The reputable newspaper (The Guardian) described Tinubu as 52 yr old.
Now this is 2023 and Mr. Tinubu is still 71 yrs old. pic.twitter.com/Demq8M70U2
— Mo-Mo (@Morris_Monye) March 30, 2023
According to a newspaper in 1999, Chicago university disowned Tinubu and there are no traces of him in Ibadan school’s records. 🤧 pic.twitter.com/Yjv4aOFcKf
— A Distinguished Field Marshal ⚡️ (@General_Oluchi) April 1, 2023
It does not stop there.
Folarin Falana, a rapper and activist, released a track titled ‘Mr Yakubu’ to lampoon the INEC boss for the commission’s lack of transparency in the electoral process.
Part of the lyrics reads, “Evidence everywhere everybody capture. Wetin you come write for inside your report card? You think 200 million people are not smart?”
Keying to the lingering unrest, a movie producer, Seun Oloketuyi is on the verge of releasing a political biopic about the President-elect. Titled ‘Jagaban: Last Man Standing’, the movie is set to be premiered in May – no specific date has been announced.
Meanwhile, Tinubu has not enjoyed the support of Nigeria’s younger population from day one.
Criticism trailed the declaration of his interest to contest for the presidency and his emergence as the flag bearer of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in the 2023 general election but Tinubu hushed them up.
He has, nonetheless, remained silent amid the mounting allegations against him though his loyalists are always quick to dismiss the claims, albeit without evidence to prove otherwise.
As it stands, Nigeria’s polity is heated and it is hoped that when the dust settles on the February 25 presidential election, the real heroes will be the citizens – many of whom were first-time voters – who braved difficult odds to make their voices heard at the polling booths on the election day.
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