In Nigeria, as in virtually all parts of Africa, when elders speak, younger people are expected to listen, obey and act accordingly. For this reason, the recent “rig and roast” statement attributed to former Lagos State governor and national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, raises serious concerns for all Nigerians who care about peace in the country. A man who by virtue of his age can be considered an elder, Tinubu is reported to have said: “It will be rig and roast,” in reference to the Ekiti governorship election during a speech at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State.
Let it be clear that the conditionality of “rigging” before “roasting” being advocated by Tinubu does not in any way lessen the seriousness of his incitement of violence. Past experience has shown that wherever and whenever Tinubu’s APC has lost an election, be it to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (as happened in the recent Anambra governorship elections), or the Labour Party (as happened in Ondo State), or the Peoples Democratic Party (as has happened in many parts of the country), the first utterance that Tinubu has regularly made is to declare that the election in question was rigged.
The only elections that are never rigged, as far as Tinubu is concerned, are those won by the APC. How such an oddity is possible in a country with multiple political tendencies like Nigeria is something only Tinubu can explain. And he might also wish to explain how come no party has enjoyed questionable electoral victories at the courts like the APC.
Setting aside the intemperate nature of Tinubu’s statement, it is important to revisit something similar that was said earlier by General Muhammadu Buhari, another national leader of the APC. Buhari, whose statement was recorded during a BBC Hausa interview, spoke in his vernacular, perhaps in the hope of restricting his unstatesmanlike words to his preferred audience. Nevertheless, his words were easily translated into English for all Nigerians to bear witness. According to Buhari, “If what happened in 2011 should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood.” Coming from a man who, from all indications, still harbours the ambition of becoming Nigeria’s president, these were most inappropriate words.
When taken together, Tinubu’s “rig and roast” utterance and Buhari’s “the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood” statement paint a clear and present danger of a very violent APC. The question that all well-meaning Nigerians should pose to these leaders of the APC is simple: considering the serious issue of insecurity brought about by the despicable acts of Boko Haram in some parts of the country, are these APC leaders really advocating more violence in Nigeria all in their quest to win elections?
It is also necessary to ask: if members of the APC heed the exhortations of their leaders and embark on a campaign of “soaking dogs and baboons” (whoever these terms may refer to) in “blood” and “roasting” people (as if they were chicken), do they expect that others would merely fold their hands and watch? Is the APC, in its campaign of inciting violence across the land, seriously expecting Nigerians who are already suffering from Boko Haram mayhem to vote for a blood-thirsty party?
Not content with inciting violence and bloodshed, Tinubu also used his Ogbomoso speech to attempt to ridicule the recent rebasing of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures. In his misguided attempt to poke fun at something as fundamental as the rebased GDP figures, Tinubu failed to provide answers to what should be done about the productivity in the country’s entertainment industry, the addition of which formed part of the increase in the nation’s GDP figures.
Tinubu’s unwillingness to concede that President Goodluck Jonathan is doing anything positive in the country is clearly behind his ill-advised attempt to diminish the positive effects of the rebased GDP figures. But the reality is that whether he acknowledges it or not, Nigerians know well enough that things are getting better in the nation’s economy.
As it has been stated by several well-meaning Nigerians, since GDP measures productivity within an economy, and productivity anywhere is affected by morale, it follows that the fact that Nigeria’s economy is now the largest in Africa is clearly a major morale-booster to Nigerians in all walks of life.
Moreover, Tinubu’s reluctance to admit that things are getting better under the Jonathan administration pales into insignificance as former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is now a leading light of the APC, is on record as saying: “To the [Jonathan] government’s credit, an ambitious Almajiri education scheme has been put in place. This year, the Federal Government built and handed over tens of Almajiri Model Schools to state governments. As part of this scheme there is a commendable focus on girl-child education.”
Even Lagos, a frontline state of the APC where Tinubu served without distinction for eight years as governor, is a beneficiary of the transformation being pursued by the Jonathan administration. Amongst other projects, in 2013 the Jonathan administration approved construction of the first ever deep sea port in Nigeria to be sited at Lekki, Lagos State.
And while Tinubu is going about inciting his supporters to “roast” other human beings in his quest for political relevance, Jonathan has consistently insisted that no Nigerian life is worth sacrificing in order to ensure his success at the polls. The difference between Jonathan and Tinubu could not be more pronounced.
In the interest of Nigeria’s well-being, it is of the utmost importance that Tinubu and the other blood-thirsty leaders of the APC should be called to order. With Boko Haram still constituting a menace to the nation’s peace, Nigerians cannot allow the APC to constitute itself into another violent group bent on wreaking havoc across the country. For, regardless of Tinubu’s delusions, what is true across the world is that no single group has a monopoly of violence. This is a fundamental fact that those who urge others to commit acts of violence against their political opponents should never forget.
Written By Johnson Momodu
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