Enough of this slanging match post-election!

We have watched with grave concern the slanging match going on in the political terrain in the country following the outcome of the presidential election conducted on February 25.

There has been a war of words between the spokesmen of Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, and those of some of its rivals challenging the election result at the tribunal.

What is going on is worrisome and condemnable. It is unbelievable that more than a month after the election and the declaration of the winner, the polity is still being heated up and citizens are wondering what is going on.

We have also watched with utter perplexity as agents of government that should be neutral have joined the fray. The agencies funded by taxpayers’ money are falling over themselves to be seen as supportive of the incoming administration. They have veered off the acceptable ethics of their profession to become persecutors-in-chief of those who share views different from that of the incoming administration.

It is also heart-rending how some ministers have abandoned their daunting assignments to pick up catapults to shoot members of opposition parties. There are many burning issues that should bother these ministers and even the incoming administration.

How bothered are they about the lingering foreign exchange crisis, high unemployment rate, worsening poverty in the land, growing level of despondency and depression and widening fault lines in the polity, among others?

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That Festus Keyamo, minister of state for labour and employment, preoccupies himself with constant tweets that engender controversy while there are issues in his ministry that demand urgent attention smacks of misplaced priority.

It is our considered opinion that now that the election is over and the president-elect has emerged, what the victorious party should busy itself with before the inauguration of the next government is engaging in serious planning on how to lift Nigeria out of the abyss of hopelessness the party has plunged it into in the last eight years.

But rather than doing this, some top members of the party have unfortunately continued with the toxic brickbats that featured during the electioneering campaigns.

We are also concerned about the reluctance of some members of the ruling party to allow others to air their views. The hypocritical bent of trying to deny others the same privilege they themselves enjoyed before the 2015 general election is stunning. It is on record that many actors of today said worse things than what they are accusing the opponents of.

For instance, after the 2019 presidential election, Femi Fani-Kayode, who was a member of the People’s Democratic Party, vehemently opposed the outcome of the poll. He said: “The election was a charade! @Atiku should now brace up to defend the choice of millions of Nigerians who risked their lives on Saturday, defied tyranny and oppression and spoke through the ballot!”

In The Guardian of February 26; 2019 Fani-Kayode was quoted as saying: “He (Atiku) must reject the results and give the FG an ultimatum to declare the authentic results, failure of which he will form a government and order civil disobedience throughout the nation. If this charade is allowed to stand, the country is finished! Then the authentic results collated by the PDP from the 119,000 PUs must be released to the public and the international community.”

Today, Fani-Kayode, who is the director of new media of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, is singing a different tune.

What we also consider concerning is the chameleonic disposition of some political actors who see politics in Nigeria as an avenue to profiteer and live large without any evidence of tangible investments or credible means of livelihood.

The slanging match is fast becoming a free-for-all as more supporters of the various political parties are joining the fray, threatening the fragile peace in the country.

This slanging march must stop NOW!