Observers predict that come rain or shine, incumbent President Bola Tinubu is prepared to snatch victory, once again, at the January 16, 2027 presidential election by hook or crook
By Our Correspondent
Money, money, and more money. Winner takes it all. All is fair in politics. These are common phrases familiar with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Nigeria’s brand of democracy and politics, where the highest bidder wins both at the polls and the courts. If a Nigerian politician and contestant in an election can muster the cash up to the bullion vans fame, he could snatch the election result, grab it and run away with it, and the INEC officials who had been spoiled with money, can announce their spoiler as the legitimate winner without caring a hoot.
For this reason, two individuals have declared what would happen in the January 16, 2027 presidential election to deliver victory to Tinubu, as well as why the American government can never reveal any secret records against President Tinubu.
Their indisputable revelations have analysed why both Obi and Atiku, the two frontline contenders with Tinubu, cannot rescue presidential power from the incumbent.
In decent climes where values, principles and rule of law matter, the likes of President Tinubu, Nyesom Wike, the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Godswill Akpabio the President of the Senate, Nuhu Ribadu the National Security Adviser (NSA), Festus Keyamo the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development among others, cannot come close to the seat of power for obvious societal and political baggage, for the citizens are arguing that these individuals have been tainted politically. But political analysts have equally posited that as a country without clear direction and strong institutions, Tinubu and his alleged corrupt accomplices will continue to hold onto power beyond 2027, the biting hardship and insecurity notwithstanding.
In their estimation, Tinubu is battling with fake identity, forged certificate and drug trafficking scandal, and thus cannot present himself for an elective position in sane climes due to public odium. According to them, Wike had never won a free and fair election since 2015 as the People’s Democratic Party (PDP’s) rigging machine allegedly helped him in 2015, while he allegedly wasted Rivers State funds to bribe INEC officials in 2019 to rig him into second term as governor. During the 2023 presidential election Wike allegedly deployed the All Progressives Congress (APC’s) federal might to rig Rivers in favour of Tinubu.
Citizens claimed Akpabio allegedly stole Akwa Ibom dry when he was governor of the state, and that he was not qualified to contest the Senatorial election that brought into the Senate, having earlier contested the presidential primary, but the courts allegedly controlled by the APC government under late former President Muhammadu Buhari, manipulated the case in his favour.
Keyamo and Ribadu had licked their vomit against Tinubu, after the duo had declared Tinubu a fraud and highly corrupt politician respectively. Keyamo had contested to the courts that Tinubu did not own the Chicago State University’s academic credentials he paraded as Lagos State governor. While Ribadu had labelled Tinubu the most corrupt among state governors when the latter was the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
In the midst of these scandalous individuals occupying the topmost seats of power in the captured polity, it is not surprising to hear them and their followers boasting that Tinubu’s reelection was already a done deal despite the anger in the land occasioned by anti-citizens policies.
Throwing light on why Tinubu must retain presidency beyond 2027 amidst an unpopular governance, a Plateau State-born social commentator identified simply as Dr. Satch on a podcast interview, claimed that Tinubu bought his 2023 victory with his money and must repeat same in 2027 presidency because the system that values money more than principles and rule of law will always have the likes of Tinubu and his accomplices as their rulers.
Answering questions that relate to Tinubu’s scandals and power grab, Dr. Satch who claimed to have known the sitting President far back said that the incumbent President actually attended primary and secondary schools, but allegedly snatched certificate belonging to a member of the original Tinubu family, and traveled abroad with it. He said Tinubu’s classmates are around but he shut them down because he did not want them to expose his secrets.
According to Satch, Tinubu has a lot of money to buy anybody in the country, and is also ready to buy his way to 2027 because the sitting President is the manifestation of the incurable evil Nigeria has become.
Dr. Katch: “President Tinubu adopted the name, ‘Tinubu’. I know the man himself. I had all my children in Lagos. I know the game. Tinubu is from Iragbiji (in Osun State), Tinubu came to Lagos, and those days you can take any kpali (certificate) and travel.
“He took that kpali bearing Tinubu name. So, not that he didn’t go to primary and secondary schools, it’s just that… can’t you see when they asked him, he was quoting schools that were founded in line not with the date he gave.
“So, because those things didn’t work, he withdrew them. The truth is, the man went to primary and secondary schools. But the names he bore in primary and secondary schools are not the same as these names (he parades).
“But if your surname changed, what you do is to go and swear an affidavit. But Tinubu would not do that because of circumstances beyond his control. Let him show you any member of the Tinubu family in Lagos that will confirm that he is (original) Tinubu.
“Let me tell you, Tinubu can do all these things because our society is influenced by money, and President Tinubu is a wealthy man. He has the cash to buy voices.
“Why is it difficult for his classmates to come out? Some people are trying to come out to say that they are his classmates, but he abandoned them because he doesn’t want to play those cards.
“He used his money to buy the presidency from them. That’s why he refused to share power with them. The man (Tinubu) has a lot of money, and money in our society can do a lot of things.
“If Tinubu has told you he used money to buy and close people’s mouth, if the country is that way, and all those people in the APC who came to fight him took his money, he would ask them, ‘for what; have I not paid you money?’ If you want to fight him he will fight you. Tinubu is the manifestation of what our country has turned to”.
As preparations for the 2027 general elections gather momentum, opposition politicians have expressed fears that looking back at what happened in 2023 with major glitches during the collation of results by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which eventually handed victory to President Tinubu, the same pattern may repeat itself next year unless concrete steps are taken prior to the polls.
Speaking recently on what he expects in the next presidential election, candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who expressed confidence that he would win if the election is credible, free, fair and hitch free, maintained however, that he was prepared for anything.
Atiku who is fighting tooth and nail to become the next president of the country, had at different fora, insisted that he remained the best candidate to beat the incumbent president in 2027, if the glitches of the 2023 will not happen again.
On his part, Presidential Candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, has repeatedly expressed discontent with the 2023 presidential election which he claimed to have won, but was rigged out by the INEC. Obi has revealed his plans to forestall a repeat of the glitches in the last presidential election, and said that preparations were on to deploy dual transmission of results to effectively monitor votes from polling units across the country to his situation room, but he was quickly reminded that only the INEC has the constitutional right to announce results.
A fiery critic of the subsisting political system and former running mate to Obi under the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election, Datti Baba-Ahmed, said in spite of what may emerge as the results of the 2027 elections, INEC Chairman, Prof, Joash Amupitan, whom Tinubu appointed, will still declare him winner even if he did not have enough votes to win. Baba-Ahmed said that Atiku does not have who to declare him the winner even if he won. By implication, Baba-Ahmed confirmed the popular adage which says that ‘he who pays the piper dictates the tune’. Many analysts, therefore, fear that Amupitan cannot muster the courage to declare Tinubu loser if the election goes against the incumbent president because Tinubu appointed him.
American backing can be another advantage on the side of Tinubu to win next year’s presidential election. The combined support of America, United Kingdom and France may weaken the strength of international observers. The reason is because a United States firm has raised questions over the planned meeting between President Tinubu and President Donald Trump, as well as a proposed US-Nigeria minerals agreement expected to be signed on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
Von Batten Montague York-LC, in a post on X on Monday, September 14, alleged that highly placed Nigerians had claimed the Nigerian Presidency was privately expressing confidence that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) records containing Tinubu’s alleged drug trafficking offences would not be released.
The firm also alleged that the Presidency believed the proposed Tinubu-Trump meeting would go ahead because the two sides had “settled the Americans”.
The allegations came amid the Nigerian government’s announcement of a minerals agreement with the United States, which is expected to be signed during the UN General Assembly.
According to the US firm, the timing of the proposed agreement raises questions about the appearance of impropriety and the need to safeguard the integrity of the United States.
INEC has also explained that its Chairman, Prof Amupitan (SAN), is away from Abuja on an official assignment, following a demand by the Obidient Movement for clarification on his whereabouts.
The Obidient Movement on Wednesday, September 16, had demanded clarification from INEC on the whereabouts and official engagements of Amupitan, after National Commissioner, Prof Rhoda Gumus, appeared as acting chairman at an official engagement with an African Union delegation in Abuja. Amupitan’s absence such a high-profile engagement has been adjudged by many as a ploy to escape committing himself to free and fair election in 2027. Some others allege that Amupitan may have allegedly travelled to Europe to have a secret meeting with Tinubu.
