Tinubu, Obi And Ehiorobo (OPINION)

By Isaac Asabor

There is no denying the fact that there is nothing to be nostalgic about by recalling happenings in my secondary school days, particularly recalling that of one of my classmates then, Ehiorobo, who was fond of whiling away his time to his own detriment, to the extent that he manages to pass every terminal examination was also fond of being absent from school for a long period of time and was for that reason nicknamed a “chronic absentee”.

Despite his penchant for absenting himself from school, and given the fact that chronic absenteeism and habitual truancy are predictors of school performance, Ehiorobo was wont to erroneously think that he was being victimized by teachers that hated him as he never passed the subjects taught by them. How could he have passed such subjects when he never prepared himself in the subjects ahead of every examination he sat for? Not only did he always fail in virtually every subject in every examination he participated in, but he is fond of telling whoever cared to listen that those that successfully passed in such examinations which he also sat for used “Jazz” to pass; meaning they passed by using spiritual potion given to them by witch doctors.  In a similar vein, Ehiorobo always believed that those that passed any examination he participated in cheated by copying from textbooks or notebooks smuggled into the examination hall, and that was the reason why they came out victoriously.

Against the foregoing backdrop, it is not an exaggeration to relate Ehiorobo’s nonchalant attitude to his studies to that of the collective attitude of some presidential aspirants affiliated with political parties other than that of Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Similarly, it is not an exaggeration to say that Obi’s campaign train, and that of Tinubu ahead of the presidential election, since they respectively threw their hats into the ring have been zooming to various political constituencies; as they are known to have been making whistle stops at various political constituencies even as far as making whistle stops at the Chattam House in the UK.

There is no denying the fact that since electioneering commenced on September 28, 2022 that both Obi and Tinubu campaign councils have been meeting the demands required for being a presidential candidate, and that the demands have been taking tolls on their sleeps.  In fact, as it is, the demands are not likely to lessen for whomever is elected as Nigerian president after the conclusion of the election.

Without any iota of exaggeration, since Tinubu and Obi have been trolling across electoral constituencies, and in the process been convincing Nigerians to vote for them and their political parties, the question that this writer has been obsessed with is, “Where are the other presidential aspirants that are affiliated with the other 16 political parties as 18 political parties were registered to participate in the forthcoming presidential election scheduled to hold on February 25, 2023?

At this juncture, it is expedient to urge presidential aspirants that are at the moment not working hard in terms of electioneering to wake up from their collective slumber as it will not be auspicious to mar the result the forthcoming presidential election with allegations and frivolities.  The reason for the foregoing caveat cannot be farfetched as Nigerians are not unaware of the fact that politicians that lose any given election are wont to allege that their opponents rode to victory on the wings of voter fraud. As it is at the moment, rather than tell Nigerians what they would do when voted to power, such category of politicians have started disseminating the efforts and energies they would have used to campaign to caution voters to fear that the forthcoming election will be “rigged”

The foregoing message, when issued by such category of politicians are usually heeded to as electoral integrity is one of the elements necessary to making Nigeria a democratic nation, and claims like this garner media attention, and frighten and concern voters. But putting rhetoric aside to look at the facts makes clear that fraud by voters at the polls is vanishingly rare, and does not happen on a scale even close to that necessary to “rig” an election, particularly as the new Electoral Act makes malpractices difficult to perpetrate.

Against the foregoing backdrop, it is expedient to urge the rest 16 political aspirants that as the Election Day draws near, that their respective campaign train should be kick started to get in touch with their supporters as it is very obvious that most Nigerians will join them by the time they mischievously resort to frivolous allegation that they were cheated at the polls.

Unlike Ehiorobo who saw winners as cheats even when he did not work hard, the 16 political aspirants that are not at the moment campaigning should better begin to do so as Nigerians will not support them whenever they chose to accuse either Obi or Tinubu with Court threat.