All is set for President Muhammadu Buhari to hand over the mantle of leadership to the 16th democratically elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, tomorrow, Monday.
In a keenly contested poll, Tinubu defeated his opponents, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi, to emerge the winner of the February 25 election.
Although the outcome of the poll was vehemently rejected by the opposition parties, the former Lagos Governor is set to be sworn in as the President of the country.
The Daily Post reports that despite moves by aggrieved political actors to scuttle the May 29 inauguration, President Muhammadu Buhari handed over the transition report on Thursday to the President-elect, signaling the coming of a new and fresh political era.
Recall that amid a series of protests, particularly in the nation’s capital, against the declaration of Tinubu as President-elect, the PDP and the Labour Party, which came second and third, respectively, in the election, are seeking redress in court, alleging that their mandates were stolen by the ruling party.
There have been several lawsuits seeking a stoppage of the inauguration, alleging that Tinubu and the vice president-elect, Kashim Shettima, are unqualified to even contest the election.
But the move has yet to yield any positive results for the aggrieved politicians.
The Daily Post reports that delegates and some power brokers from across the world are currently in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, to witness the long-awaited inauguration of Tinubu and his vice.
While a section of Nigerians are preparing their drums, flutes, and other musical instruments with their stunning cultural regalia to celebrate the incoming government, others who alleged that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, imposed Tinubu on Nigerians have continued to bow their heads low.
A pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, in Bwari Area Council, Abuja, David Oyijeche, lamented that despite the outcry by Nigerians over the irregularities that allegedly marred the February elections, Tinubu is being sworn in.
He told the Daily Post that Tinubu is not the choice of the majority of Nigerians, stressing that those who voted against him may also work against the incoming administration.
He said, “The election was nothing but a sham, and even the one declared winner knows that he didn’t win the election. There is evidence everywhere indicating that the election was rigged.
“People who never voted in their lives came out en masse on that February 25, but they were all frustrated by the outcome.
“There is a candidate that almost all Abuja residents voted for; the turnout on that day was shocking. The majority of residents were out to exercise their rights.
“Many people were expecting at least a million votes for the candidate, but what did we see in the news? His votes were heavily suppressed. The same thing happened in Plateau State.
“Let us even assume that the figures are correct; the person that they crowned winner had over 8 million votes, the second and third had over 6 million votes each, and the fourth also had over 1 million votes.
“If you sum the scores of the other three candidates, you will have over 14 million votes. This means that 8 million people voted for him (Tinubu) while 14 million people voted against him, so how does he represent the choice of the majority?
“By this, we can assume that those against him are more than those for him, and in governance, you need the support of the majority to succeed”.
According to him, the electoral umpire ought to have cancelled the election and conducted a fresh poll.
However, in a counterreaction, Pastor Ayodele Johnson of the same ministry told the Daily Post that Bola Tinubu’s emergence as the next president of the country was the total will of God.
Ayodele was of the opinion that even the alleged rigging wouldn’t have been possible if not allowed by the supreme God.
“There was never a time when we prayed for an election like we did in the recent one. All Christians prayed; many of us even fasted for days, not really for a particular candidate to win but for the will of God to be done.
“1 John 5:14 says, ‘And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us’. As Christians, whenever we pray, we believe that God has heard us. And indeed, He heard us when we cried to Him prior to the election.
“So if we have prayed and fasted for the election and we now have a winner, we should tell ourselves the truth that God wanted that person to win.
“It may not be what we desired, but the will of God is always different from our will, and who told you that there is someone that God cannot use? "Bolia Tinubu may even favor Christians more than the person we earlier wanted”, he said.
The Daily Post reports that several Nigerian youths who were galvanized by the LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi, during the election campaign had staged a series of protests in Abuja aiming at ensuring Obi’s victory.
The respondents believe that the election was manipulated by the electoral body in favor of the ruling party.
There also came calls for an interim government, though they were greeted with heavy criticism, causing a stir in the political space.
Countering the stance, the Deputy Country Director of the African Youth Union Commission, Amb. Aguredam Moses, told the Daily Post on Saturday in Abuja that all the political parties that participated in the election must have been involved in rigging in one way or another.
He also expressed optimism that Tinubu’s government may not go as bad as is being insinuated in some parts of the country.
According to Moses, looking at Tinubu’s track record, the former Lagos Governor will meet the expectations of Nigerians.
He said, “People may say he is not the only one that built Lagos, but I believe very well that Tinubu will beat the expectations of Nigerians.
“Looking at the caliber of business people he has met recently has given me confidence that he will do better than his predecessors.”
Speaking on the alleged rigging, Moses said, “Our electoral system, both on the part of the electorates and the umpire, has some form of manipulation.
“Both the Labour Party and the People's Democratic Party rigged the election in certain places. So I can tell you that some of the cases will be thrown out soon.”
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