As many stakeholders in Nigeria’s electoral process keep insisting that His Eminence Peter Obi won the 2023 presidential election, but was robbed by a combination of Tinubu’s “grab it and run”, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the courts, many of these angry opinion leaders are threatening fire and brimstone if there occurs another attempt to rig the upcoming 2027 presidential election. But on his part, fiery and controversial Senator Dino Melaye, adds a serious dimension to the threat in this online interview (Not by Tentacle), threatening that the country would be heading onto the war path if the yet to be explained INEC glitch of 2023 or any other act of rigging occurs in 2027
What is your assessment of Tinubu’s presidency?
Tinubu is the worst president in world history. If you say he is the worst president in Nigerian history, you are undervaluing his hollowness and emptiness. Tinubu is the most reckless, the most unproductive and the most insensitive president in the history of the world.
A president who wakes up one day and grants pardon to over 70 drug barons, is not the people’s president. A president who has borrowed more money than any other president in our history, is not and cannot be the people’s president.
The late former President Muhammadu Buhari, in eight years, borrowed N87 trillion with subsidies. In eight years with subsidy, Buhari borrowed N87 trillion. But in less than three years and without subsidy, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has borrowed close to N200 trillion. And it is not just the borrowing that worries us. What has he done with the money? What is there to show for the borrowings?
And why are you borrowing after the removal of oil subsidy? And what are you doing with the money? What have you done with it?
Tinubu took one of our most precious honours, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), exclusively reserved for the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, put it in a briefcase and took it to Paris to decorate the Chagoury’s and exported our second highest national honour to his business partner and friend.
There is no month since he became president that he has not traveled out of Nigeria. Do you know the amount of money we have spent in his jet-setting lifestyle and foreign travels in one year? His foreign travels in one year has amounted to over N20 billion?
When innocent people cannot afford Panadol and Ulcer patients are dying. Hypertensive patients cannot afford their drugs. Diabetic patients cannot afford their drugs. Hospitals are under lock and key. Students can no longer go to school.
Even in times of war, women and children are exempted. Today, our students are in the wilderness three weeks after, our abducted children in Oyo State are in the wilderness three weeks after. Among them, there is a five-year-old that was killed. And yet, we have a president who behaves as if kerosene is flowing through his veins and not blood. We have a president who is not perturbed. We have a president who is not disturbed at all.
But there is good news. We are going to stop Tinubu. The people’s power, the people’s will, will stop Tinubu. 2027 will be different.
Our approach will be different. Our defense will be different. And Tinubu will know that we are a pained people.
We are a molested generation. We are a deprived people. And we will make sure that he knows that true power comes from the people.
He is planning to rig massively in 2027, but we are laughing at him. This time around, we will stop his electoral thievery. We will stop him. When you push a goat to the wall, that is when you will realize that the goat can bite. We are in a precarious situation.
People are dying. Blood is flowing. Insecurity is pervasive. Hunger is killing people because they cannot afford food and their basic daily needs. People now eat from the garbage. People are committing suicide.
Recent investigations have shown that more people are dying from ulcers as a result of hunger in Nigeria. As I’m speaking to you, the government owes contractors for the jobs executed since 2024.
The last time this government paid any Federal Government contractor apart from the Chagoury’s was in the first quarter of 2024 and we are in 2026. They are still implementing the budget of 2024.
This is the first time our President has decided since Tafawa Balewa and since Nnamdi Azikiwe, the presidents of this country have always been using Mercedes-Benz S-Class. Tinubu is the first president who came to power and said he cannot use an S-Class.
He decided to use the Beast, the same car that the President of America, Donald Trump is using. That is costing more than 20 times as much as the S-class will cost. He bought a new plane. They also bought a yacht.
He decided to say Nigerians can continue to be in darkness and provided solar lights in the villa at the whopping cost of N17 billion naira to the detriment of Nigerians.
When your president says he is off the National Grid, that is to tell you that he has totally given up on power. Leadership should be by example. How can you have solar in the Villa?
And the poor farmer in Aguleri and Omuleri in Anambra State, the poor farmer in Ogbomosho, Oyo State and Baduku in Dambata is sleeping with kendo.
He is such an insensitive president. And I thought Nigerians should have light before the President will think of installing Solar light in the Villa and going off the National Grid. Tinubu is the most insensitive character I have seen in world political history.
But the good news again is that he is a one-time president. He is a one-time president. He will see the demonstration of the people’s will this time around. As Warri people in Delta State usually say, all die na die.
What are your fears for the 2027 general elections?
My fear is very simple. Tinubu will lead this country to a war path because he will try to rig and there will be vehement resistance. At the end of the day, we may have a president who will run away because we are not going to back down. This time around. Enough is enough!
