While they wail, we rule By Yinka Olujimi

The Supreme Court, which on Wednesday this week dismissed the appeal of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) against the reelection of President Muhammadu Buhari, has promised to give its reasons for the decision in due course.

And I ask ‘Why bother to give reasons?’ Let Atiku and his band of wailers continue to wail, we rule.

All Nigerians and the international community have not been in doubt that the litigation by the wailers, particularly in the PDP fold, was pointless.

Is there any need to give a reason for dismissing such a tendentious appeal as the one filed by the opposition party? Why would anyone, in their right senses fault the re-election of our much-beloved Buhari? Nigerians voted overwhelmingly for the return of the President who, in his first four years in office, fulfilled all his electoral promises – yes, all! – and much more?

I repeat, he fulfilled all his electoral promises, especially the ones he made to himself and the people who would later form the bulk of his kitchen cabinet. Let the wailers continue to wail. We were happy with our president on election day, and our joy at his sterling performances has continued to know no bounds.

You needed to see the enthusiasm with which we trooped to the streets on election day, to ensure that the spritely paramount ruler of Nigeria continued with his unfettered reign and redesign of Nigeria in his own image. The good thing is that majority of Nigerians supported, and still support, him.

His re-election was opposed by only a handful of wailers, led by his wife, Aisha, who we may sometime soon show the exit door from za ozza room; and former President Olusegun Obasanjo – that one? The less said about him, the better – he is jealousy-personified. Of course, Atiku the veteran presidential aspirant who, along with Obasanjo, had played a key role in dislodging his former political party for President Buhari to achieve his life’s dream of returning to office, did not know that his ambition must take a bow before that of a General in power.

Ah! Yes, there was also that irreverent boy from Kwara, the son of Baba Oloye, who thought that he was invincible, going by how he had successfully dimmed the star of his political juggernaut father, and that of his step sister, Gbemisola. Can you imagine, such few people ganging up against the peoples’ General and hoping to succeed? Ever appreciative of the giant strides that Buhari had made in the first term, the Nigerian people trooped to the polling centres to ensure that the good life that they were enjoying under the president continued.

He had all votes across the country, from the ever-appreciative citizenry. They recalled that on the ballot was the frugal Buhari who, in fulfillment of his 2015 election campaign, had sold off all planes in the presidential fleet, to cut costs in governance. They saw in the president a patriotic leader who, by personal example, had stopped medical tourism by government officials and was fighting corruption vigorously, especially in the opposition camp.

Why would the people not vote for him again, and again, and again?

Atiku, that pathetic veteran money-miss-road presidential aspirant! He failed to see the enthusiastic millions of pro-Buhari voters in the Middle Belt who had been saved from the hands of marauding herdsmen by Buhari on assuming office, and who knew the grave danger that they faced if the no-nonsense General did not continue in office.

The PDP presidential candidate did not look properly towards the South East where people were eagerly awaiting the election day to duly reward the President who had in his first term treated them with dignity and love. Forget the little skirmish of Operation Python Dance which took out a few supporters of the irreverent leader of the Biafra struggle, Nnamdi Kanu; or the neglect of the region in political appointments.

The good people that they are, the South Easterners asked one another: “Na appointment we go chop?” This is a President that has been fair to us in all spheres of life.   Trust the wailers, they will find a non-existent nexus between what they describe as pliable judiciary under Buhari and the raid on the homes of some Supreme Court justices by men of the Department of State Services (DSS) early in the life of the administration; and the manner the immediate past Chief Justice of Nigeria Walter Onnoghen was dismissed from office by Buhari.

Patriots like us are unperturbed. We love Buhari, we know he loves us back. He is a man of his words. That is why we remain unshaken even if the prices of foodstuffs hit the rooftops under him, or the Naira has worsened. We have conveniently forgotten, on his behalf, his reported pledge to make the Naira equal to the American dollar. These are some of the reasons I hope the Supreme Court jurists will list in justifying the re-election. I am glad that the tendentious arguments that Atiku and his PDP presented have been thrown into the trash can – we don’t want any big turanci. What matters is that our beloved President is now fully, and firmly, seated in office.

Who cares about whether he has basic academic qualification – book is evil, harmful, anyway – or the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) eventually used the server which it had advertised prior to the election, and for which it had received budgetary allocation? As the inimitable Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu was once quoted to have said: “Let them continue to go to court, while we continue in office.”

Thank God, the Supreme Court is the end of the road. The wailers are allowed to wail. We are in office, and in power, as a General once said.

Olujimi, a legal practitioner, can be reached on [email protected]