@simonchairman: Careless utterances – @AsiwajuTinubu should be called to order

by Simon Utsu

My average Nigerian brethren are quick to forget.  That is the reason why I love inundating them seasonally with the Infamous words (that are now on granite) of Buhari, “The baboons and the dogs will be soaked in blood in 2015 Insha Allah if elections are rigged”. I also want to remind Nigerians of a statement ascribed to Atiku and co back in 2011; “We will make Nigeria ungovernable if Jonathan (a southerner) wins the Presidential election”. Barely a week ago, Atiku was again videoed at an event saying: “I shall do everything within my means to make sure Jonathan doesn’t win in 2015”.

Now, I’m asking innocently, who were the people Atiku and his co-travellers referred to as ‘we’ in his 2011 speech; the Kaduna Mafia?

These kinds of statements are taken very seriously in saner climes. In the aftermath of Sept 11 2001, Saddam Hussein was shown on Iraqi TV laughing and mocking America for being attacked by Bin Laden. This led to the Pentagon zooming in on him a year later and making him a priority target in their war on Al Queda and middle-east based terrorists.
Why should the two main Presidential candidates of a political party be caught napping in this shameful manner? Is it a coincidence that they are of the APC stock? Hmm, that’s a question for another day I guess:

Not to be outdone, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu decided to release his own extreme one liner; Roast them if you catch them rigging. What was Asiwaju thinking when he said that?  That statement has now been immortalized in a cliché by his aficionados; “Rig and Roast”. By saying such, was he planning to take the ever forward-moving southwestern region back to the Ibadan riot days?, where Awolowo violently tried to unseat his former protégé as the premier of the western region? If we surf through the history books, we’ll find out that the aftermath of that fight between Awolowo and SL Akintola/Remi  Fani-Kayode, left Gowon’s Government with no other option than to charge Awo with treason. Awolowo was sent to Calabar prison where he languished for nearly two years. If history should repeat itself, Tinubu would go to jail for uttering such. Only that the colonial prison in Calabar is now home to a Mausoleum and the state library.

Nigerians should be wary of who they vote in next year’s elections. Anyone who is temperamental or reacts impulsively in moments of frustration doesn’t deserve their votes. Mandela spent nearly three decades in jail and never unleashed an extreme diatribe at his jailers. Even when he came out of jail, all he had on his lips was ‘reconciliation’. Jonathan wasn’t treated like the Vice President by late President Yaradua (or his wife Turai). But President Jonathan, like the biblical King David hasn’t been vindictive since ascending the throne. On more than one occasion, he has been pictured visiting the Yaradua’s in their family home. On such visits, he radiates a very meek disposition.

So my questions are why can’t Buhari and Atiku borrow the same leaf and act like statesmen? Why must they always heat up the polity with such turbulent and vituperative rhetoric? Is leading/ruling Nigeria their birthright?
I will also admonish Yoruba elders and political leaders to call Bola Tinubu to order. These kinds of unbecoming statements, which Asiwaju keeps ejaculating at public occasions, can no longer be overlooked.

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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