By Sunny Ikhioya
Stories coming out of the seat of power these days are disillusioning; it is as if we are playing games of pirates and vikings, superintending over the commonwealth. Stories of audacity, recklessness, greed and ride over the common man. It is challenging the people on what they can do. Is President Tinubu aware of all the shenanigans going on under his government? If yes, it must be a very unfortunate situation, as these are what he fought against throughout the sixteen years of the PDP administration. If true, then it must rank at the highest level of hypocrisy, because he knows that the Nigerian people are tolerant and permitting of rulers’ excesses; he has studied the psychology of the average Nigerian and knows that their capacity to absorb pain is elastic, it has no limit, government can do anything it likes and get away with it. But there is a limit to arrogance and deceit; the Peoples Democratic Party realised this too late.
In Why Nations Fail, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson emphasized the need for strong institutions and the rule of law. As a sitting governor of Lagos State, Tinubu used the court to emphasise the independence of the state government from the federal government; he fought the Obasanjo PDP government to the Supreme Court level and won. He also used constitutional means to win his party the government seat of Osun State, and Aregbesola was sworn in as governor. Why are we not seeing the progressive side of Tinubu now that he has become president? What happened to him? In one of his press interviews, the leader of one of the political parties said that they went to visit the president. In the course of the discussion, they appealed to him to help ensure a free and fair environment for the coming elections.
