How Twitter Exposes Plans to Gift Nigeria to One Man

TWITTER was open to all Nigerians on Thursday, January 13th, after the ban placed on the social media platform by Buhari’s government. For over 200 days, Nigerians were prohibited and blocked from accessing the microblogging site after Twitter deleted a reported post of President Buhari for violating rules against hate speech. A year before the general elections, Buhari decides to allow us use Twitter and sycophants are already saying Bola Ahmed Tinubu should be president.

The Twitter page of Jubril Gawat, the Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on New Media, shows how many people are lending their voice to support Tinubu’s ambition. One tweet quoted the Lagos APC Chapter to say: “We see Asiwaju’s decision to run as an opportunity for all of us who are beneficiaries of Asiwaju’s goodwill and large-heartedness, including the VP, to pay back and appreciate Asiwaju for being such a man of honour and destiny helper for a whole lot of people”

Apparently, the idea is that Tinubu deserves to have Nigeria as a gift carefully wrapped by his “beneficiaries” and political supporters. Incidentally, these well meaning Nigerians are political appointees affiliated with the All Progressives Congress —the same party Tinubu helped to found and serves as National Leader. This cannot be very surprising; after all, Governor Sanwo-Olu already approves Tinubu as he bends to the every whim and desire of his political daddy.

With the current state —the sorry state— of Nigeria, it is politically suicidal to ask someone to become president simply because you feel grateful. Grateful for what? Good governance or personal political advancements? Every eligible citizen has the right to run for public office in Nigeria but not every eligible aspirant is capable or eligible (in the true sense of the word). We are looking at another man who will already be 70 years old at the polls, not in the best health condition either.

Why must Nigerians settle for persons ill-equipped to lead such a large nation with a plethora of challenges across every imaginable sector? One would think that most people have seen enough retrogression and insecurity to inform them on the seriousness of selecting new public officials. But it seems there are numerous people who would continue to gamble with the country’s leadership.

This is a reminder, the title of the president of Nigeria is not a token of appreciation. To be president is not an achievement in itself, whoever aims to lead this troubled country must be one totally prepared to serve in the common interest of Nigerians.