The journey to victory has never been smooth anywhere in the world. Even when he prepared for it over two decades. His road was very rough and tough.
Adjudged as one of the country’s political shining lights, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s deft political calculations and strategy have become a case-study in politics. But his political journey that spanned over four decades never experienced the turbulence of the last 18 months.
The race for the ticket of the party was as competitive as the February 25 presidential election. No fewer than 22 other aspirants defied the exorbitant N100 million price tag for the party’s ticket, but like a Colossus, Tinubu weathered the storm and became the last man standing at the keenly contested party primary of June 8, 2022. He garnered overwhelming votes from all the delegates.
The victory did not come without many hurdles. Political watchers described some of such challenges as self-inflicted by the ruling party. The first threat came from the former APC National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, who deployed the instrument of his office to foist the then Senate President, Ahmed Lawan as the party’s consensus candidate, and other encumbrances, including a conspiracy of the Naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria and artificial fuel scarcity.
In all these, Asiwaju held his ground and remained focused on pursuing his aspiration. The internal conspiracies got to the hilt, leading to his popular and prophetic Abeokuta declaration, “Emi lokan”. The declaration further drew the rebuke of a cabal bent on making him buckle down. But the former Lagos State governor remained resolute.
The presidential election did not go without its hiccups, but in the end, Tinubu dusted his closest rivals – Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party(LP).
But typical of Nigerian politicians, Atiku and Obi headed for the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) where they were roundly defeated. All five Justices of the tribunal did not waste time dumping all their petitions into the dustbin of political history.
Not satisfied with the outcome of the tribunal, Atiku and Obi not only appealed the PEPT verdict but also embarked on local and international campaigns to damage the image and integrity of President Tinubu. They also launched a fierce social media campaign against the judiciary and surreptitiously ventured to smuggle the controversial Chicago State University certificate into their case at the apex court.
But like a pack of cards, the duo again failed. The seven Justices of the Supreme Court led by Justice Inyang Okoro threw out all their applications for lack of merit. Again Tinubu recorded another knockout against his opponents
Like a cat with nine lives, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu remained unperturbed. He has since May 29, kept faith with his resolve to deliver the “renewed hope agenda”.
