Supreme Court verdict: Tinubu is the Diego Maradona of Nigerian politics, By Olu Fasan

PROFESSOR Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first literature Nobel laureate, published his critically-acclaimed novel, Chronicles From the Land of the Happiest People On Earth, in September 2021. So, he probably didn’t have the 2023 presidential election and Bola Tinubu, who emerged president, in mind when he wrote the book. However, reading the novel, one gets the impression that Professor Soyinka foreshadowed the election and its aftermath.

The book’s main character is Dennis Tibidje, who later changed his name to Papa Davina. The narrator describes Tibidje as “the man whose origins remained a cause for endless speculation”. He claimed Lagos ancestry, but “his explanation for claims of Lagos origins was that he was sired into a Lagos household”. Tibidje left Nigeria for America under mysterious circumstances but got into problems with the US authorities. However, by the time he returned to Nigeria, Tibidje had: “A new name.

But the book’s most apposite analogy is the 1986 World Cup quarter-finals between England and Argentina when Diego Maradona scored a controversial goal, which he called “The hand of God”. Soyinka captures the story brilliantly in the novel. “There was a goal. Some cried foul. And so it seemed … How come the referee, the two linesmen, were so positioned that they did not see the foul? The ball had indeed been handled. The goal remained validated.

In my considered opinion, Tinubu didn’t win the presidential election. The first results came in from the South-West, his supposed political base. He secured only 53.6 per cent. He lost Lagos and Osun states, only won Ekiti and Oyo states with the help of PDP renegades, led by former Governor Ayo Fayose and Governor Seyi Makinde. Then, the North’s results came in: he lost Kano, Kaduna and Katsina states.

Source: Law Daily Report (lawdailyreport.net)

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