Needless fuss over Tinubu's purported third term agenda
There seems to be no end in sight to the speculations about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s true intentions about governance, particularly in a part of the country where the people
There seems to be no end in sight to the speculations about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's true intentions about governance, particularly in a part of the country where the people appear to have sworn never to expect any positive outcome from the administration's policies and programmes in spite of wide acclaim from highly respected global rating agencies. Since he was sworn in as President on May 29, 2023, the nation's economic indices have remained consistently on the upward swing. So much so that the World Bank commended the nation's sustained policy consistency and tough fiscal choices as a global benchmark for reform leadership.
“Nigeria is a frequent example in my discussion around the world because the results achieved in two years are really commendable,” said the supra-national body's Managing Director of Operations, Anna Bjerde, while leading a group delegation to President Tinubu at the State House, Abuja in February. Major rating agencies like S&P, Fitch and Moody's have also awarded the administration's reform policies high marks for both imagination and consistency. State governors, who before now were struggling to pay workers' salaries are not only doing so effortlessly, they are also repaying their debts and raising the sums payable as minimum wage.
Impressed by Tinubu's handling of the economy and the massive relief his tenure has brought for their administrations, many of the governors in opposition parties naturally felt the urge to gravitate towards a party in which their bread would be buttered. They, therefore, took the decision to support Tinubu and ensure that he secures another term as President at the expiration of his current tenure in May next year. But out of ignorance, mischief or a combination of both, opposition party members and their mostly uninformed supporters are beginning to insinuate a third term agenda.
A social media influencer who goes by the esoteric name of VeryDarkMan appeared to have belled the cat in one of his numerous posts on Facebook wherein he expressed fears that Tinubu might be eyeing a third term as President, given the kind of coalition that is building around him ahead of the 2027 elections. Of course, it is public knowledge that the drive of the ruling party for party membership in recent times has assumed the tempo of hydro-kinetic force, sweeping every politician of consequence into its fold and leaving other political parties to lament their fate.
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“I don't think President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is (only) preparing for the 2027 election; I think he is preparing for 2030 too. I don't think this campaign is for 2027 anymore. Tinubu wants to rule for a third term,” VeryDarkMan said, citing as examples the dominance of APC in states as well as the National Assembly. He added that “with 31 governors out of 35 already with APC and most members of the National Assembly aligned, it is almost a guarantee that all they have to do is rig each state for him”.
Of course, his submission presupposes that President Tinubu is a rapacious leader in the mould of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and other sit-tight African leaders who would rather die in office than vacate after serving out their legitimate terms. Obasanjo was probably tempted to gun for a third term because he suddenly realised that his ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in control of 28 of the nation's 36 states.
The difference, however, is that while Obasanjo plotted for third term out of sheer greed for power, the opportunity for a third term is smiling at Tinubu from the goodwill impelled by his performance as President. Yet, unlike Obasanjo, Tinubu is a thoroughbred democrat who would contemplate no such thing as a third term even if presented to him on a platter.
Tinubu himself had previously addressed the speculations by mischief makers in some quarters that he was deliberately weakening the opposition parties by putting pressure on their main actors to switch sides, saying: “Critics must talk. They accused me of killing the opposition, but I didn't have a gun. I could have given myself a licence when I have the authority.”
The Tinubu known to rational minds would rather raise like-mind successors the way he did as governor of Lagos State, who would follow the execution of his policies and programmes until the bigger picture is realised.
Ironically, the same people who are accusing Tinubu of plotting a one-party state had previously laughed off the gale of defections by governors and lawmakers to the ruling party as an issue of no consequence, saying that the defecting governors have just one vote each like the rest of Nigerian voters. Others said the governors were paid upwards of N1.5 million to defect from their parties to the ruling APC. But now that the hen is coming home to roost, they are acting like a child who ran into the bush at the sight of a mechanic because his mother was once beaten by a mad man.
But Tinubu is not Obasanjo and would not contemplate any of Obasanjo's inglorious actions. A third term as President certainly has no place in his agenda. Know this and know peace.
