For and about Nigeria as well as the President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu, tomorrow May 29, 2023 remains a landmark day in history given what it represents as well as the events and circumstances which are marked to play out in it. Since the day May 29, was adopted in 1999 as the country’s day for baton change in democratic governance, its significance at any instance when power must change hands, has been defined not just by the mere ceremony of one potentate handing over the reins of governance to another, but more by the causative factors that engendered such exercise. That is how and why the date May 29, 2023, enjoys its special significance for Nigeria, Nigerians and particularly Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President-elect.
When tomorrow May 29, 2023 comes in Nigeria, the Eagle Square Abuja and stadia of 28 in-season states out of 36 in the country where elections were held on March 18 2023, will come alive as the nation plays out the scheduled inauguration of new administrations. Eight state (Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Osun and Ondo), remain off-season states as they no more follow the general gubernatorial electoral calendar of the country, due to litigations and court judgments. Just as well, some iconic names which had dominated the country’s political space in recent times like Muhammadu Buhari, Nasir El-Rufai, Nyesom Wike, Samuel Ortom and others will recede into history as once-upon-a-time front liners, except of course the new political dispensation offers them another chance in public office.
Beyond the executive arm where the president and governors hold sway stands the legislature who will be waiting for the former to issue proclamations for their resumption as the next-on-the-line Tenth National Assembly and corresponding state assemblies. The Constitution provides that the President and state governors perform that function of proclaiming the convocation of their respective legislatures as their first official, constitutional assignment. This condition amplifies the principle that at no time shall any of the two arms of government – the legislature and the executive operate without concurrence with each other. This is just as that function of the executive proclaiming the legislature into activation, does not confer on it any superiority over the latter.
Meanwhile, with the proclamation, will be a corresponding escalation to climax, of the race for the leadership of the incoming legislative chambers at the national and state tiers of governance.
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Yet there are also other sides of the political terrain where the story is not just of the incoming potentates, but of still running and terminated election related court processes with expectations of twists, as well as outright losers in the polls contest. For both of these groups, contemplations of May 29th 2023 will provide an avalanche of permutations on what circumstances led them into the present situations. Questions like who did what, when and how, will be running through their minds as they come to terms with the reality of further fighting for, or actually giving up as lost, their respective races for the plum political offices in the country. For them, the entire spectacle will be taken in different forms by different actors, depending on their individual endowments before the races. Hence, for some new actors their failures may be accepted as mere testing grounds for them in trying out their hands at the country’s juicy business of partisan politics. And for serial losers the feeling of dejection may deepen.
Meanwhile, not to be forgotten is that Tinubu’s entire race for the Presidency and his envisaged inauguration was preceded by a complement of issues bothering on unresolved riddles on his persona which had been floating in the grapevine, but suddenly assumed lives of their own as soon as his political fortunes pointed to his eventual ascendancy as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That scenario is billed to manifest on Monday May 29th 2023, to the chagrin of his traducers.
Yet for most Nigerians who may not be bothered by the swings in the political fortunes of any individual politician – especially Tinubu’s rivals, the day marks the beginning of a new era, when to expect better life beyond the various inauguration ceremonies. To them what is important is not the flood of promises that may never be fulfilled, but the complement of take-aways from the new helmsmen in the affairs of the country. Will it be business as usual, whereby they have to wait for another four or even eight years for genuine salvation from their woes to come?
Interestingly, Bola Ahmed Tinubu had seemingly demonstrated an appreciation of the mood of the country judging from his comments and at different occasions, and had severally promised Nigerians the prospects of changing their fortunes under his brief. When tomorrow comes, it will come with the eventual opportunity for him to deliver on his promises as he completes the cycle of aspirant, candidate, electoral victor, President–elect and substantive President of this great country. The die will have been cast for him then. In that capacity he becomes the arrow head of all that Nigeria is, both at home and across the entire world. The era of political rhetoric would have lapsed for him. His plans for Nigeria would kick-off from that date.
Meanwhile, on a final note lies the question of how the man Bola Ahmed Tinubu takes the date? To him May 29, 2023 is just another day on the calendar.
That is the man, on the date.
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