By Olakunle Agboola – May 29 is not just a day but a lifetime of euphoria for the inauguration of the president-elect in Nigeria. It is a ceremonial and public day to mark the commencement of a new four-year term of the president-elect. This comes days after the presidential election for the president-elect to swear his allegiance for the unity, peace, and progress of Nigeria and Nigerian Democracy.
The inauguration takes place for each new presidential term, even if the president is continuing in office for a second term. The first democratic inauguration in Nigeria was on October 1 1979 when Shagari, a Nigerian first democratically elected president was sworn into office. This was the transfer of power by military head of state General Olusegun Obasanjo in 1979 giving rise to the Second Nigerian Republic.
The beginning of the fourth republic kicked off in 1999, and since, all inaugurations have been held on 29 May. The most recent presidential inauguration was held on 29 May 2019, when Muhammadu Buhari resumed his second term in office. And in the wink of an eye, the four years term of President Buhari is coming to an end by May 29, 2023, to pave the way for a new democratic government.
Nigeria’s next democratic setting has been a prying eye and a hot debate both on local and international media. There has been a different school of thought to oppose and support the next democratic wave in Nigeria. The whole world is watching to see how Nigeria will uphold its constitution to sustain democracy in a populous nation in Africa.
Tension has continued to build up on the certainty and democratic implication of swearing in Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu on May 29. Recently A court in Nigeria has been asked to stop the planned inauguration of the country’s next president and to foster an incumbent arrangement that will hold Nigeria together till the court gives its verdict.
Some Nigerians fueled this petition and made it known to the Federal High Court in Abuja, arguing that President-elect Bola Tinubu was illegally declared as the winner of the Feb. 25 presidential election and should not be sworn into office on May 29. The idea of interim government continues to be a hot discussion, while cross-sections of Nigerians most especially APC have seen the idea as a mutiny, treason, coup plot, or anti-state activity that is not constitutional and cannot be tolerated in Nigeria.
Dr. Baba-Ahmed, the Labour Party Vice Presidential candidate once called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the Chief Justice of Nigeria on a live Television broadcast not to swear in Bola Tinubu, whom INEC declared as the president-elect, insisting that declaring Mr. Tinubu a winner and issuing him a certificate of return was against the constitution. He emphatically buttresses his opinions that whoever swears in Bola Tinubu has ended Democracy in Nigeria.
This statement did not augur well with the opposition party, APC, and has labeled him a fascist while others have asked for his arrest for threatening to provoke a skirmish of mayhem. Many Nigerians have come to his defense praising him for being the oracle of truth rather than bowing to the voice of intimidation and suppression. Section 134 (b) of the Nigerian Constitution has been the benchmark to justify different narratives and this has been swung, thong, and skewed in different grammatical directions. Nigerians now hope the judiciary will interpret the law and deliver a sound judgment to uphold democracy and not be truncated.
John Onaiyekan, former Catholic archbishop of Abuja among others, thinks that it won’t make sense for President-elect Bola Tinubu to be sworn in before the conclusion of the election tribunal. A lot of people shared his opinion speaking lately in an interview with Channels Television where he said that the system of electioneering in the nation should be reviewed, to produce winners who don’t have the shadow of the court lurking behind their victory.
Lai Mohammed, the minister for information and culture during his visit to London made it clear addressing a gathering that nothing will stop Nigeria’s ‘president-elect’, Bola Tinubu, to be sworn in on May 29 as all arrangement is almost concluded for a smooth transmission of power from a democratic government to another democratic components.
The Independent National Electoral Commission declared the former Lagos Governor and the All Progressives Congress candidate, Bola Tinubu, as the ‘winner’ of the February 25 presidential election. According to INEC, Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar who polled 6,984,520 votes. The Labour Party candidate and former Anambra governor, Mr. Peter Obi polled 6,101,533 votes to come third.
Since the election, there has been an outcry by members of the opposition who said the election was marred by irregularities, and ever since both local and international media has been coming out with fresh analysis and sampling different opinions which the majority have argued that the results do not reflect the wish of the people. Many Nigerians have called for final resolutions of all cases related to the conduct and outcome of February 25, 2023, Presidential Election before swearing in the incoming President of Nigeria. Some also think that the swearing-in of Bola Ahmed Tinubu should be shifted to October 1 if the court will not speedily resolve all cases before them.
The 2023 general election ought to be a wake-up call for Nigerians to think and look beyond stomach infrastructure, greed, and selfishness. An election can be conducted without going to court if INEC will do the right thing. Nigeria can end the culture of rigging and it starts with responsive constitutions and laws to clamp deterrents. It is the right time for the Nigerian constitution to respond to socioeconomic, cultural, and political changes that must be transparent, credible, and rigorous in the interest of the people and not in the personal interest of the lawmakers.
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