SIMON KOLAWOLE RECALLS WHAT PRESIDENT BOLA TINUBU SAID YEARS BACK
SIMON KOLAWOLE RECALLS WHAT PRESIDENT BOLA TINUBU SAID YEARS BACK
“I recall that on November 5, 2014, in Ilorin, Kwara state, at a political rally organised by Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed to declare his second-term bid, the APC leaders spoke one after the other about insecurity in Nigeria. Among those in attendance were Gen Muhammadu Buhari, then a presidential aspirant; Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, also an aspirant; Rt Hon Aminu Tambuwal, then speaker of the house of reps; and Alhaji Lai Mohammed, then the APC spokesman. Tinubu, who was the national leader of the party, said: “I saw the sea of refugees caused by the Boko Haram insurgents and the lies coming from Jonathan’s administration. They have exhibited failure, lack of capacity, vision and creativity.”
Not done, Tinubu fired more shots: “The lies of yesterday are what they repeat today and are what they will repeat tomorrow. They are lying to you. They are lying about security, toying with the security of this country. I don’t have time to explain the logic of their lies. But if you control the armed forces and you are the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic, why should any part of this country be under occupation? And you give us excuses every day. In any civilised country Jonathan should have resigned. But if he will not resign, he should wait for our broom — we will sweep him away.” They swept Jonathan away but here we are — a decade later.
Tinubu is now the commander-in-chief but Nigeria remains under siege. We could poke fun at the APC today and say they are only getting a dose of their own medicine. But it is human lives — the lives of Nigerians — that we are talking about here. We are talking about a reign of terror, about helpless Nigerians being abducted, about hapless Nigerians being killed for fun. If nothing else, it should make us sober. If nothing else, we should learn from our past and put politics aside regarding matters of security.
Simon Kolawole
