Veteran writer and political commentator Igho Akeregha has slammed All Progressives Party (APC) flag bearer and president-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in response to his recent appeal to Nigerians to ignore the several issues that broke out during the recently ended general elections.
Remember that on Tuesday, March 21, 2023, Tinubu urged Nigerians to put the problems behind them and let the country heal in response to the public outrage that greeted the widespread violence, ethnic profiling, voter suppression, and intimidation that marred the presidential and gubernatorial elections in some states of the country. The former governor of Lagos urged people to come together, saying that the elections had already taken place and that the time had come to begin the healing process….. Continue Reading
However, Akeregha, a member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, criticized the President-Elect for refusing to acknowledge that the electoral process that declared him the victor was flawed while responding to Tinubu’s comments during an interview on Africa Independent Television’s “Kaakaki” program on Wednesday morning.
The seasoned journalist claims that Tinubu ought to have followed in the footsteps of the late President Musa Yar’Adua, who, in 2007, apologized to Nigerians for the election process that had resulted in his election. Further, Akeregha expressed concern that the President-elect did not respond to the recent warning that his media assistant, Bayo Onanuga, issued to Igbos in Lagos, adding that it might be an indication of how his administration would operate.
“Asiwaju Tinubu is missing some points. He is supposed to be putting the right foot forward but instead, he is putting the left foot forward in this case. First, I would have thought that he would draw some lessons from President Umaru Yar’Adua. You will recall that after the 2007 elections, Yar’Adua told Nigerians that he acknowledges the fact that the election which brought him into office was flawed. If Tinubu had come out in a nationwide broadcast to appeal to his opponents to calm down, and that he is also surprised at the crisis that came up as a result of the elections, and if he had said that he has seen evidence that the elections were not conducted by the clear principles of the electoral act, and that as president-elect, he is committed to addressing those issues, that would have been quite persuasive.
The other aspect of it is that his own spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, a journalist most of us respect, came out to make a very troubling statement. For him to say that this should be the last time Igbos would interfere in politics in Lagos, I mean, that is the most reckless and dangerous statement anybody can make. I would have expected that Tinubu would come out to correct him as the president-elect but he did not. Now, the fear of most Nigerians would be that if Tinubu is indeed sworn-in on May 29 and people like Bayo are the ones who are not only going to surround him, but they are also going to be the ones managing his media and publicity, then there might be trouble ahead.”…… Read more
