22-2-2025.

In his infamous EMILOKAN statement to an all Yoruba attentive listeners, presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu boastfully claimed that the decision of Muhammadu Buhari to recant on his earlier vow not to contest again, was due to him. He claimed to be “able to convince and promise him my support and the support of ALL the ACN Governors to win the presidential election if he contests again”. Candidate Tinubu was only telling the truth by half.

It was true that he met Buhari at his Kaduna house where the two of them held a closed door meeting. BUT he was totally wrong to CLAIM that the ACN support made Buhari win the 2015 presidential election.

According to an a convincing ANALYSIS by Mr. Michael Ofueke, “In 2007, Tinubu gave the presidential ticket of his party - ACN to Atiku Abubakar. Atiku Abubakar came a distant 3rd behind Buhari & Yar'Adua with 2, 367, 848 votes which was a mere 7.45% of the total vote. 

“In 2011, Tinubu gave the presidential ticket of his party ACN to Nuhu Ribadu. Ribadu came a distant 3rd to Buhari & Jonathan with 2,079,151 which is a mere 5.44% of the total vote. On the other hand, Buhari (ANPP) in 2003 presidential elections came 2nd with 12,710,022 votes. Buhari (ANPP) in 2007 presidential elections came 2nd again with 6,605,299 votes. Buhari (CPC) in 2011 came yet 2nd again with 12,214, 853 votes.

“What this means is that, Buhari in the 3 previous elections he contested, despite the massive rigging of PDP, scored an average of 11 million votes. Tinubu on the other hand was able to get a mere 2 million votes each for his camdidates Atiku in 2007 & Ribadu in 2011. 

“In 2015, Buhari eventually won the presidential elections with 15,424,921 votes. What this again means is that the total effort of every other person & alliance including Tinubu, his ACN, remnants of ANPP & NPDP etc that helped Buhari win the 2015 presidential elections only added a mere 4 million votes to Buhari's consistent 11 million votes. 

“It's then wrong therefore to say that Tinubu made Buhari president because the total effort of Tinubu & his allies together with that of his SouthWest brothers amounted to ordinary 4 million votes. 

“It's equally safe to say therefore that Buhari wrestled power out of the tight grip of almighty PDP & handed it to Tinubu on a platter of gold in 2023. Even as Buhari handed it to Tinubu on a platter of gold, he still would have lost if not that the North through el Rufai mobilized once again to help him cross the line to victory with the smallest of margins. 

“Those bragging about 2027 should know that there are so many factors in Nigeria's elections that money & control of electoral institutions by a sitting leader cannot solve. If money & control of government institutions win elections, Jonathan that postponed elections when security reports informed him that he will lose if elections held as scheduled, withdrew 67 billion naira & millions of dollars from CBN, pumped it into his re-election machinery could have won. Yet he lost.

“There is no substitute to governance & evidential achievements in winning elections. APC, Tinubu & his supporters should quit propaganda, imbecility psychophancy, deceitful distractions & face governance to give Nigerians the improved living conditions they deserve. Time is ticking!”

It is not a secret that the then President Muhammadu Buhari did not want Tinubu as his successor, he preferred the then Senate President, the Yobe State born Dr. Ahmed Lawal. This act of Muhammadu Buhari told a very big story, if carefully read between the lines.

But the then President Buhari, who was and still is not rough, crooked or corrupt (dishonours owned by President Tinubu), could not have his wish and way to install his preferred candidate. Besides, he did not possess the deep war chest of Tinubu, to buy the loyalty of those who matter at the ruling party’s National Convention, and have his candidate emerge as the flag bearer of the party. He is still not as rich as some of his many adversaries have always unsuccessfully tried to portray him, and pitch him against his cult-like supporters, who are in millions across the nation, in particular, and the world in general.

Many times they planted a humongous amount of dollars running into billions in either his personal modest house in Nigeria, or a house that ALLEGEDLY belongs to him in a foreign land. But even the Western media, known to be fiercely in opposition to anything positive about the African continent, saw the allegation as a plant, because tried as they did, they could not find any house in any foreign country that belongs to the former military and civilian leader of Nigeria.

If Buhari’s close relations, or close friends, or close associates did or do commit some illegalities while or after his many high profile National assignments, he could not know, not know, or condone them. He has an abiding trust, and distrust for people who he knows over the years.

If Muhammadu Buhari trusted or distrusted a person, he would continue seeing the person in that light, until proven otherwise. He was that (fallible) human. However, he is known as someone who is not very free with his money, apparently because he neither has the money to give freely, nor does he believe in using public funds to be ‘generous’.

The desperation of the President Tinubu for an undeserved second term, manifests in, but not limited to, uniting the Northern Christians against the Northern Muslims, attempt to turn Nigeria into a one party state, his accumulation of a massive war chest through pervasive corruption, and bribing the bribables, including some of the so called ‘elected’ members of the National Assembly (NASS).

There also promises and or gratifications President Tinubu made to some rotten Northerners (clerics, politicians, praise singers and other sycophants), who would think nothing about selling their souls to the devil, if doing so would bring money and fame to themselves. The many ills he has deliberately inflicted on the North just to achieve his second term is too long to list all.

One patriotic Nigerian of Northern extraction complained on the social media that there was nothing to cheer about Saudi Arabia donating 100 tonnes of dates to the government of his country (Nigeria), while announcing the investment of $600 billion in the United States (US).

I took to the social media to tell him that one can only invest in Nigeria if they have the extra millions dollars to grease some big palms of the approving officials. And even then, there is no guarantee that the country would get back returns as and when due on the investment. I also comforted him with the advise that if he is not a big shot in the government to share in the dates, then he should go to the nearest supermarket or shop or places where the ordinary Muslim buys his foodstuff for breaking his Ramadan fasting, and BUY it there. That are the places where most of it will end up. Only a few officials will take their share home, where most would be eaten, and the rest going to the dear ones away.

Unfortunately, corrupt practices were very much around at the beginning of the current (Fourth Republic), which was not exactly corruption or divide-and-rule free. But the two unfortunate developments, so common and widespread during the Tinubu regime, may force someone from out of this country to think that they were the ONLY purpose of government in Nigeria.

The hard and harsh situation in Nigeria is so terrible that I saw someone I had not see for a very long time, and unthinkingly asked if, “you too have been sick?” He looked at me blankly without comprehending what I meant. In my eyes, he looked like someone who spent years taking only medicines than food, on his sick bed. Someone else who knew the two of us came to me after the embarrassing moment, and told me that the person “has not been sick in the past five years”, which was long before my current illness.

The struggle NOW  has become how to survive in the country. As a Southern region funny person captures it in a trending video clip, “Getting rich has been postponed indefinitely in Nigeria, what is important now is SURVIVAL”. He could not be more right.

Meanwhile, it is to be noted that since all of us are not Sophists, or students of Hitler’s Joseph Goebbels (whom I have mentioned in a previous article) we therefore do not possess the intelligence and intellect to be able to remember our past with enough accuracy, for ALL of us to be able to write autobiographies. ALL autobiographies are embellished to make the ‘author’ appear like some kind of a hero, or a revelation, or God-sent to his country, or both rolled into one.

Nigeria is a country where hero worship, is regarded and rewarded abundantly. Be them religious, traditional, military, political, or monetary leaders. NEVER moral leaders. It is therefore little wonder that the YARN spinned by the writers of autobiographies is celebrated by many people, mostly the so called big shots in Nigeria.

By the way, It had been my misfortune to fall a victim of the suspicion of a former boss, because he holds the belief that I did something deliberately to CHEAT him. This was the farthest thing from the TRUTH. The truth is that I acted in GENUINE good faith, believing that I was going to help his career in a massive way. But it was misconstrued by him that I planned to be a part of a gang up to cheat him. 

Unfortunately for him, he remained with the people who are really CHEATING him on purpose. And he KNOWS. I am not making complaints to turn back the hands of the clock, which is now history. I am just remembering the past, thanking God ever since for His endless mercy.

May God NEVER make us own up to confessing doing that which is nothing but the TRUTH, in the hope that we will get a worldly reward in CASH or in KIND. It was and still NOT the intention, dear reader.

Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.