The Seventh in the series of Presidential Inaugurations in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic will hold today, with the swearing-in of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Nigeria’s sixth-ever democratically-elected President. While results of the poll that produced President Tinubu remain contested, the significance of this Inauguration should not be lost on the citizenry whose affairs Tinubu is primed to preside over for the next four years, at the least.
Among numerous affirmations found in Nigeria’s presidential Oath of Office, the new President will swear to discharge his duties to the best of his ability; even more, he will solemnly promise to carry out the responsibilities of his Office “…faithfully and in accordance with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the law, and always in the interest of the sovereignty, integrity, solidarity, well-being and prosperity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria…” The new president will also aver to “…do right to all manner of people, according to law, without fear or favour, affection or ill-will…” Those are weighty words and affirmations that many who bellowed out the same solemn Oath before Tinubu have observed mostly in the breach.
The expectations, of course, truly remain that Tinubu will not abide by those odious, “loser” forerunners of presidential (and official) conduct, which feature elected and appointed officials in and outside the Aso Rock presidential mansion taking flowery oaths of Office, then proceeding to literarily rape public treasuries to a dazed inertia, while infrastructural and environmental blossomings take the proverbial back-bench. The overwhelming expectation is that President Tinubu will flip this familiar, tear-jerking script and instead transform Nigeria into a country all can be proud of, irrespective of religion, class or creed.