By Ogechukwu Ubah (Abia Writers)
Edited By Nkechi Onuoha
It is a well-known fact that the current president of Nigeria, Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of APC, did not win the February 25, 2023, Nigeria presidential election. That is why Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Atiku Abubakar of PDP took him to the election petition Tribunal.
The mandate was stolen from Peter Obi, and he has promised to take back his stolen mandate, hence the election tribunal. If anyone follows the tribunal proceedings, you will observe that Peter Obi has enough evidence to prove his case beyond every reasonable doubt. Still, the big question is, "will he get justice"?
Tinubu took over power on May 29, 2023. Since then, he has made a lot of policies which, by implication, are against the poor masses. Policies like removal of fuel subsidy, increase of school fees of unity schools, student loan with stringent conditions, increase in electricity tariff and so on. Due to these harsh policies, there was a Nationwide protest by the Nigerian Labour Congress on August 2 2023. As I speak, Nigerian resident Doctors are on strike.
No policy was made on how to revive moribund industries and refineries. Nigeria has three refineries, Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri; none is functioning. The Nigerian government prefer to import fuel. Instead of refining their crude oil, they take it to another country to refine and later import the refined product back to Nigeria; what a country.
If the refineries are functional, ordinary citizens will benefit because there will be employment, hence poverty alleviation. The same thing goes for re-vitalizing moribund industries. Suppose industries like Golden Guinea Breweries Umuahia, Aba Textile Mills, Aba Glass Industry and International Equitable, all in Aba, Abia State, are functioning; you can imagine how many people will be employed in those companies. Unfortunately, the plight of the people is the least of Tinubu's concerns because he knows he was not elected by the people. Rather, he worked his way into the presidential position.
Another ugly consequence of stolen mandate is "Tribalism and Favouritism." Out of the 48 ministerial appointees of President Tinubu of Nigeria, only the mandatory five (one per state) are from the Southeast. The majority are from the Southwest, the president's zone and the rest are from the North. Even though there was an increase in the number of ministries, 48 against 42 in the previous administration, the Southeast got the least number, only five.
Ohaneze Ndigbo has lamented against the number given to Southeast, but their lamentations did not make any impact. Their moans did not start today; they complained during Buhari's administration, but nothing happened. The marginalization of the Southeast will only stop if Nigeria disintegrates.
Abba Kyari, a well-known criminal and drug dealer, has been released from prison. Sunday Igboho, a Yoruba Nation activist, was granted freedom. However, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), is still in detention even though a court of competent jurisdiction has discharged and acquitted him. Can you imagine that?
Anyway, the tribunal has not ended, I hope the judges will do the needful by giving impartial judgement, but the question now is, "Why the delay," the tribunal has lasted longer than expected, so they should not try anything funny to avoid what is happening in the Niger Republic.
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