Before the 1993 presidential election, General Ibrahim Babangida, then military head of state, made a profound statement. He said: “I don’t know who will succeed me, but I know who will not.” That statement panned out with the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, presumed won by Chief MKO Abiola. Yet, in principle, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the statement.
Here’s why. If General Babangida had damaging intelligence on Abiola, an intelligence that could damage Nigeria at home and abroad, he, as head of state, had a duty to stop him from running for president as he did previous aspirants, such as Chief Olu Falae and Major-General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, who he barred from the race.
Babangida’s eternal mistake, assuming he had such intelligence, was to allow Abiola to run, encourage Nigerians to vote and then annul the election. In doing so, he sinned not only against Abiola but Nigerians, whose legitimate expectations he dashed. But I repeat: there was nothing wrong with saying “I don’t know who will succeed me, but I know who will not,” provided it was in the national interest.
Those ignoring character and integrity should remember the Turkish proverb: “When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus”
Well, in a democracy, no president can simply say: “I know who will not succeed me.” However, a president must safeguard a nation’s values and signal the kinds of people that could, and could not, be president. Yet, President Muhammadu Buhari says he doesn’t care who succeeds him.
Channels TV asked Buhari: “Are you interested in who succeeds you?” He responded: “No, let him come, whoever it is!” That response has two interpretations: one positive, another negative.
The positive interpretation is that President Buhari would ensure that next year’s presidential election is free and fair, a point he has, indeed, repeatedly made. But the negative interpretation is that he doesn’t care about the integrity, character and honesty of who succeeds him. “Let him come, whoever it is!”
That negative interpretation is what concerns me here, and it’s premised on Buhari’s campaign for Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of his party, All Progressives Congress (APC), to be Nigeria’s next president. It concerns me because I’m fully convinced that a Tinubu presidency would not only divide and destabilise Nigeria internally, it would damage Nigeria externally, making it a big laughingstock, a butt of dark international jokes!
Let’s be clear. Next year’s presidential election will have huge long-term implications, its outcome will affect Nigeria for decades. Therefore, no patriotic Nigerian should sit on the fence; that patriotism, that love for Nigeria, is what underpins this intervention.
To be sure, the presidential election should be as much about character as manifesto. The presidency is too serious an office to be invested in someone with serious integrity deficit. A president without integrity imperils democracy and good governance. Those ignoring character and integrity should remember the Turkish proverb: “When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.”
Read also: Social media gives me high blood pressure, says Tinubu
Which brings us back to Buhari and Tinubu. The truth is, there was a Faustian pact between them in 2015, under which Tinubu would help Buhari become president, bringing in the South-West, and Buhari would help Tinubu become president after his two terms, bringing in the North. Tinubu put it pointedly in his famous Abeokuta outburst. “Without me, Buhari won’t be president,” he said, adding memorably: Emi lokan!”, that is, “It’s my turn!”
Buhari tried to duck out of the pact during the APC’s presidential primary, but Tinubu outsmarted him. Now, Buhari is on board and seems to have accepted it’s payback time. President Buhari is the chairman of Tinubu’s presidential campaign council, PCC; his wife, Aisha, chairs the PCC’s women wing. Both Buhari and his wife say they want Tinubu to become Nigeria’s next president and are mobilising the North behind him.
But here are questions for President Buhari: Is he aware of the damaging drug allegations swirling around Tinubu? Given what he knows, or should know, with proper intelligence, does he think Tinubu is a fit and proper person to be Nigeria’s president? Is he happy that Tinubu’s life, pedigree and backstory are veiled in secrecy or, as someone puts it, in a “miasma of dubiety”? Is it right that Nigerians don’t know Tinubu’s real parents, the primary and secondary schools he attended, the source of his stupendous wealth – he once said: “I’m richer than Osun State”? Is the secrecy good for democracy?
In the US, every major presidential candidate is an open book. But not Tinubu. He shows a cavalier disregard for transparency and accountability. He arrogantly refuses to answer uncomfortable questions about his past. Instead, he uses discreditable surrogates – Festus Keyamo, Femi Fani-Kayode, Bayo Onanuga – who see him as their route to advancement and are blatantly lying to Nigerians, treating them as morons.
In a recent article, I warned that, as the presidential election campaigns started, Nigerians should beware of Keyamo, Fani-Kayode and Onanuga. I described them as Nigeria’s worst sophists and dissemblers, who have absolutely no credibility. They confirmed this recently when they shamelessly told deliberate lies about the drug allegations against Tinubu.
Here, briefly, is the case. Between 1988 and 1991, Tinubu deposited $1.4 million in different bank accounts, despite earning just $2,400 per month and despite confirming he had no other sources of income. After investigation, the US authorities concluded the funds represented “proceeds of narcotic trafficking and money laundering,” derived from his dealings with two drug traffickers, Mueez Akande and Abiodun Agbele. Put simply, Tinubu was alleged to be part of a drug cartel, a bagman handling and laundering drug money.
Tinubu claimed the funds belonged to Kafaru Tinubu and Alhaja Habibat Mogaji, his adoptive relatives, even though, years later, he told The News magazine that all the money belonged to him. In the end, Tinubu forfeited to the US authorities $460,000 held in his name by Heritage Bank, where he and Akande had strong links.
“Why did they return $1 million?” Fani-Kayode asked. Well, they didn’t release it to Bola Tinubu, but to Kafaru Tinubu and Alhaja Mogaji, who claimed ownership interests in the funds. That’s the nature of forfeiture settlements, not everything seized is forfeited. For instance, General Abacha allegedly stole $5 billion; but after settlement, half of it was returned to his family!
The biggest lie, peddled by Keyamo and Fani-Kayode, is that the $460,000 forfeited by Tinubu was a tax. But the cover sheet of the certified true copy of the settlement, issued on August 10, 2022, explicitly states under “Nature of Suit” that it’s forfeiture under “Code 625: Drug related seizure of property 21 USC 881.” The two boxes under “Federal tax suits” were not ticked. So, the $460, 000 was not a tax but a drug-related forfeiture.
Tinubu’s surrogates and spin doctors say he wasn’t indicted or convicted. But no rational individual would forfeit $460,000 of his hard-earned money, especially when linked to drug trafficking, without fighting to clear his name. By having a “drug related seizure of property” recorded against him, Tinubu is seriously tainted as a presidential candidate, and would cause Nigeria huge embarrassment if he became president.
Now, let’s return to Buhari. As military head of state in 1984/85, his regime executed eight young Nigerians, including women, for drug trafficking. How could he, in good conscience, campaign for Tinubu to be president without apologising to the families of those young Nigerians. Also, given Tinubu’s stupendous unexplained and unexplainable wealth, does Buhari regret jailing governors for hundreds of years in 1984 for corruption?
President Buhari’s campaign for Tinubu to succeed him is unmoored from reason. It betrays the national interest. Buhari must really hate Nigeria!
