Why The World Must Resist The Tinubu Coup -By SKC Ogbonnia

Fellow Nigerians,  

I make the following statement with every sense of patriotism:  

Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu of All Progressives Congress (APC) did not win Nigeria’s presidential election held on February 25, 2023. The attempt to impose him on the Nigerian people is a brazen coup d’état in its true sense. The world must denounce and resist such plot.   

Both local and international observers strongly agree that the said election was characterized by massive rigging, including massive intimidation, massive voter suppression, massive vote buying, massive vote snatching, massive thuggery, massive falsification of results, clear lack of transparency, and loss of human lives.   

These vices explain the wave of anomalies that have continued to trail the election results. For example, despite the sheer irregularities to pave the way for Tinubu’s victory in different parts of the country, he still could not garner more than 35.3% of the votes cast. In other words, a vast majority of the Nigerian people (64.7%) did not vote for the APC candidate. Moreover, even though there was significant increase in voter registration and an overflowing voter turnout, anchored by the youths, the 2023 presidential election produced over 5 million votes less than the 2019 exercise.   

These anomalies are perplexing and constitute a recipe for an unimaginable conundrum for a fragile democracy in a crisis-ridden country.    

Tinubu’s inordinate ambition is well studied. He would become a multi-billionaire through illegitimate sources. He consequently became not only the poster character for corruption in Africa, but also personifies Nigeria’s shady image in the comity of nations   

The very first attempt to trace his wealth resulted to a narcotics case, where he had to forfeit a whopping sum of $460,000 to the authorities in the United States of America. After his tenure as governor of Lagos State, the Nigeria’s anticorruption agency declared at a Senate Hearing that the degree of Tinubu’s corruption is one of an “international dimension.”  

To avoid prosecution, he was able to masterfully deploy his stupendous wealth to seize and control Nigeria’s power apparatus. Today, he goes to boast of such influence. He boasts of how he installed the current set of leaders from the President, the Vice-President, the Senate President, the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives to a slew of governors, judges, electoral umpires, and other powerful office holders, including those in the armed forces. He boasts that installing him president is not a choice but an undeniable payback, an entitlement.   

Tinubu’s illicit wealth has placed him above law. But the history is not on his side. Despite Nigeria’s sleazy reputation, none of its leaders in the national experience—whether military or civilian—has ever assumed the governance of the country with the type of shady background well known of Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Yet, most of those leaders, if not all, ended up becoming more corrupt than they were before gaining power.   

The world can then imagine what could become of Nigeria with regards to the global war on corruption and drug trafficking if a Tinubu presidency ever becomes a reality. What becomes of the country with regards to peace and unity under an invalid president who is clearly rejected by an overwhelming majority—from the East, the North, and even his home base of the West?  

The objective fact is that any Tinubu presidency portends an experience worse than Mohamed Suharto and Manuel Noriega put together. Further, imposing a crook through a grossly flawed election of 2023 against the wishes of a vast majority of the Nigerian people is worse than the annulment of the country’s free and fair election of 1993 that precipitated a long period of crisis in Africa’s most populous nation. Clearly, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a threat to world peace and must be stopped.   

I, therefore, call on world leaders come to the rescue of over 220 million Nigerians from a looming doom. I call for global movement to ensure that a corrupt kingpin cum drug lord does not succeed in his long running conspiracy to lead Africa’s largest economy.   

I call on the Diaspora Nigerians not to relent on the conscious commitment to take back our country. We must maximize the resources within our various locations towards that objective. I also call on the opposition to unite against the unfolding Tinubu coup.  

Finally, let me use this opportunity to appeal to the Nigerian masses, particularly the youths, not resort to violent actions, as serious efforts are underway—home and abroad—to ensure that justice is done. I also commend notable world leaders for the restraints they exercised in their various statements on the Nigerian election. Their approach demonstrates a clear awareness that the illegal declaration of Tinubu as president-elect is a pyrrhic victory.   

SKC Ogbonnia is a former APC Presidential Aspirant