By SKC Ogbonnia
The meeting of some Nigerian billionaire businessmen, notably, Aliko Dangote, Tony Elumelu, and Femi Otedola with Bola Tinubu, an illegitimate president-elect, is as insensitive as it is provocative. That is impunity gone too far. As if the show of shame lacks in folly, Mr. Elumelu—the poster vainglory of the Nigeria’s shady banking system—had the affrontery to share a video of his family hosting the number one enemy of the Nigerian youths. What an eye-sore!! What a social miasma!!
The same Tony Elumelu is alleged to have weaponized his huge influence at the United Bank for Africa (UBA) to morph up the millions of scarce new notes which Tinubu deployed to rig the 2023 presidential election. This brazen sleaze took place at the time the ordinary customers of the bank were sleeping 24 x7 at its premises, begging to withdraw a few naira to feed their families.
The immediate consequence has been a move by some people to boycott the UBA where Mr. Elumelu serves as chairman. A boycott is commendable and ought to be extended to Dangote and Otedola businesses, as well. Yet, such move is not as troubling as what could follow.
The fact of the matter is that the Nigerian masses have not only become wiser, but they also act wiser. The apparent endorsement of a sham election by these billionaire businessmen is not being viewed as business as usual. The ordinary Nigerian people now know their true enemies, and they are very angry.
The masses are angry that their long-awaited opportunity to produce a leader of their choice is being sabotaged by corrupt politicians in cahoots with their cohorts in the private sector. The anger is most merited because even as the country has hit the rock bottom under President Muhammadu Buhari, these double-dealing mercenaries are colluding to foist a successor, who is destined to be worse than his predecessor.
The most provoking is that Dangote, Elumelu, Otedola and co are keenly aware that Tinubu never hesitated to make it known his intention to continue the Buhari policies that rendered the country hopeless. They are very aware that Tinubu is an invalid who no longer exhibits the physical nor the mental capacity to lead a nation like Nigeria. They are also aware that the man is the country’s shadiest politician ever to stand a presidential election, let alone winning one.
Combine the above with a myriad of evidence that points to the gospel truth that the former Lagos State governor did not win the presidential election. Follow that with the fact that the plot to impose a corrupt kingpin cum drug lord on the Nigerian people only goes to further damage the country’s image around the world.
Despite these existential misgivings which are bound to worsen the condition of the ordinary Nigerians worldwide, the money bags are hellbent on backing Bola Ahmed Tinubu as president-elect. But the reason for the do-or-die support is not far-fetched. It is an open secret. Institutionalized corruption has been the sole raison d’être for the success of the respective business empires of these tycoons. They simply want to stay the status quo of lawlessness that made it possible for them to accumulate huge wealth at the expense of the poor masses. Thus, they are resisting the change that a vast majority of Nigerian people voted for.
But, again, the Nigerian masses have become wiser. They recognize that the attempt to impose Tinubu is an existential threat. They now recognize that there must be consequences for bad behavior. They can now relate to an admonition by the then sitting Minister of Transport, Rotimi Chubuike Amaechi, that Nigerian leaders have continued to misbehave because the followers do not “stone” them. But the most relative and most instructive is the genius of a former American president, John F. Kennedy, who said that “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
The point of this matter is short and simple. Barring the desired change from the status quo, a mass revolution of global consequence is imminent in Nigeria. Commonsense dictates that the masses—home and abroad—are merely waiting for the outcome of the court cases challenging the sham election. And, as recent events have shown, any “violent revolution”, as Kennedy had admonished, will not be a conflict between the tribes or between the Christians and Muslims, as Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu would wish. The common enemy are the ruling elite and their influential sympathizers. Stay tuned…!
*Ogbonnia is a public affairs commentator
