The 2027 general elections are still two years away, but President Bola Tinubu and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), are not leaving anything to chance. They have begun electioneering and high-stakes politicking that characterises Nigeria’s politics and general election even before the electoral umpire blows his whistle. Yesterday, at the ongoing APC summit in Abuja, the bigwigs and high-ranking members announced that President Tinubu would be the party\u2019s sole candidate for the 2027 presidential.<\/p>\n
The Senate president, Goodwill Akpabio, at his fawning best, announced with aplomb that Tinubu will not only be the sole candidate of the APC but that of the entire country as the opposition parties have been significantly weakened and torn into shreds. He stated that Tinubu has performed well to deserve a second term. His sycophantic proclamation followed the endorsement of Tinubu as the sole presidential candidate of the APC by governors elected on the party’s platform.<\/p>\n
Of course, endorsement of a sitting president, especially in Nigeria, where the president wields enormous people and can use it to advance his interest and coerce people into doing his bidding, is not a new thing. In fact, in many democratic nations that practice the presidential system of government, a sitting president seeking a second term in office, in most cases, has the right of first refusal. No one is surprised by these endorsements as no one expects members of the president\u2019s party to endorse another person. Looking at events and happenings in the nation’s political arena in the past months, one can easily tell that these occurrences are being orchestrated to achieve certain premeditated outcomes. The question many Nigerians, whose reasoning and thinking have not been clouded by partisan politics, is whether the endorsement of a sitting president who is less than two years into his first term is what Nigerians need right now.<\/p>\n
By all accounts, the performance of Tinubu in his first two years in office has been woeful and shockingly underwhelming. The president\u2019s courtiers and praise singers have claimed he has performed well in his first two years and has delivered on the promises he made to the Nigerian people. But their claims of exceptional performance are at variance and in stark contrast with the reality on the ground. These endorsements and the temerity with which they are announced are possible because of the style and approach the Tinubu government has taken. These endorsements are a form of payback for not only Tinubu\u2019s lukewarm attitude towards corruption but also his tolerance of it. This he does in the hope that those he allows to pilfer the nation’s patrimony with reckless abandon will help him win a second term in office.<\/p>\n
The corruption and malfeasance that envelops his government is part of his grand strategy to consolidate his power. While he allows those serving in his government and his party to act as they want without consequences, he uses the threat of prosecution to hound, blackmail and coerce opposition parties leading figures into joining the APC and using the funds and resources to secure his re-election. Last week, a renowned civic tech organisation promoting transparency and accountability in Nigeria\u2019s public finance, BudgIT, uncovered 11,122 projects valued at N6.93 trillion inserted by the National Assembly into the 2025 Federal Government Budget. To put things in context, the N6.93 trillion by which the 2025 budget is dubiously inflated is the total amount of Nigeria’s budget in 2015. Similarly, the inspector general of Police, whose continued stay in office is illegal and unconstitutional as he has attained the retirement age of sixty, was recently indicted in contract fraud. According to Sahara Reporter, Egbetokun split \u20a66 billion uniform deal into 66 contracts to bypass procurement law and award all contracts to a firm linked to him.<\/p>\n
Many more high-profile corruption cases have dogged Tinubu’s administration. The awarding of the Lagos to Calabar coastal highway is also steeped in controversy and scandal. He wants to consolidate his power and win re-election, and he believes overlooking the crippling excesses, rascality, and impunity of those that serve under him is the price he has to pay, and he is willing to pay it even though his popularity and acceptability among common Nigerians continued to dwindle. Tinubu will receive many more endorsements in the coming months, well into the election proper, from the unscrupulous elites and political class who are looking at protecting their own interests. Tinubu\u2019s endorsement by his party does not connote acceptability by the people but smacks of fear. Any president who’s being endorsed less than two years after he was elected is clearly not confident of winning a second term. In Politics, you’d permutations don’t start this early. He’s basically saying he’s ready to use State apparatus to win 2027<\/p>\n
Tinubu may have got the endorsement of his party, but where does that leave Nigerians, many of whom are grappling with economic hardship and the cost of living crisis occasioned by his policies? Does he have their endorsement? The answer is no. And if the people who will ultimately determine his fate are not receptive to the idea of him being re-elected for another term in office, what then is his plan and endgame? Is he gearing up to use state apparatus to influence the outcome of the election in his favour?<\/p>\n
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The 2027 general elections are still two years away, but President Bola Tinubu and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), are not leaving anything to chance. They have begun electioneering and high-stakes politicking that characterises Nigeria’s politics and general election even before the electoral umpire blows his whistle. Yesterday, at the ongoing APC summit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":358894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","override":[{"template":"2","single_blog_custom":"211693","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_bookmark_settings":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[72898,91,13272,28],"class_list":["post-358882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-2027-election","tag-apc","tag-second-term","tag-tinubu"],"yoast_head":"\n