It is almost two weeks now that the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, flagged off his campaign for the 2023 Presidential election in Jos, Plateau State capital, which was attended by President Muhammadu Buhari and the entire 22 governors of the party but the controversies which the launch generated, has continued to trend and is still elucidating reactions within the party and the opposition.
It has remained the issue so much talked about, and what happened at the venue, despite the presence of the President and other prominent men as well as security operatives, the rally has been described as a dent in the party, particularly the Plateau State State governor Simon Bako Lalong, who is the director general of the Tinubu Presidential campaign.
The impression before the rally was that the whole thing would go smoothly without any hitch, for the mere fact that the State governor Simon Lalong was in charge and that the honour done him by the party to flag off the Presidential campaign in the state, would bring glamour and prestige.
But rather than fulfilling these impressions, the leaders felt slighted by the behaviours of the youths, who stormed the Stadium, throwing stones and destroying all campaign materials found within the premises of the Stadium.
The youth did not also stop at the Stadium; they went berserk in town and to market places to vent their anger against APC.
Although the party has been blaming the opposition for the actions of the youths, claiming that it was an organised attack, political analysts have said that with the circumstances and the calibre of people around, the children would have thought twice and realised the implications of their actions, if it was not a genuine display of anger against the ruling party.
What was argued that made the situation worse was that the governor was at the head of Tinubu’s campaign.
The fear now being exercised is that if the beginning of the campaign of the APC presidential candidate was like that in Jos, where the State government was the Chief security officer, with all the Presidential and all the 22 APC governors’ security apparatus on the ground, what then would happen to subsequent rallies, where these men in authority would not be present.
As one of the youth leaders, Mukaila Adigun, of the Youth in Action for Development, in Osun State, told the Nigeria News Abroad, what happened in the Jos APC rally, was not against the Person of Tinubu but against the old order, which the youths felt has not improved their lives and has perpetually put them in a bandage, in their fatherland.
He pointed out that what happened to APC could happen to PDP in other parts of the country, saying that what made that of the APC worse and an issue “is the fact that Nigerian expected so much from the party and its President, when they came to power, which formed the basis for electing them in 2015 and 2019 respectively.”
He argued: “Nigeians have so much hope in the present government but it failed to meet up with the expectations of the people, in all aspects of governance.”
Adigun further argued that the youths in Plateau only expressed their anger to show that the present government has not been doing enough to arrest the insecurity situation. They believed they were the worse hit with incessant killings in the entire Middĺe belt. And since Jos is the centre of the zone, they must have decided to come there to show those in government that their attention to solving the Middle Belt insecurity was not enough.
As it was heard during the viral video of the youth on a rampage, they were harmarring on the invasion of the zone by Fulani herdsmen, who they argued: “have been kling us displaced us of our homes and farm lands, they have rendered us homeless and jobless and yet the government is not doing anything to arrest the sitiation.”
Since the incident occurred, many Nigerians and even the opposition have capitalised on that to lash at the APC.
A Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the North and who is also involved in the campaign team of the party’s Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Umar Sanni reacted on the youth’s action in Jos, saying, “I do not think that the event was not properly planned.”
Unfortunately, the crowd was not tutored on how to behave or respond. Jos is very strategic to our politics in the centre. The DG of Tinubu’s presidential campaign is from Plateau State, and he is the governor of that state. Therefore, we thought the campaign would go smoothly without challenges. However, the event’s outcome shows how Nigerians feel about the APC.”
What it was also argued in some quarters was that the Jos action of the youth was what the kids all over Nigeria must have planned, to be a reminder to Tinubu, who sold President Buhari to them, that he would be a better President, than former President Goodluck Jonathan, who was denied a second term in 2015.
This, it was said, gave room for the youths to displayed Tinubu’s campaign words in 2014 while selling Buhari to Nigerians as they went on a rampage in Jos.
The angry youths in one of the placards displayed with Tinubu at a campaign rally, in 2014, with President Buhari and his vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, along with others, at the podium was quoted thus ” Buhari is the answer to our problems. Nigerians, the only way to have steady lights, fuel is to remove Jonathan and PDP. In six months, Nigerians would be swimming in crude oil and fuel would be at affordable price. Buhari will pay N5,000 monthly for being jobless, our youths would be gainfully employed with our 3,000 Job scheme a year.”
One of the angry youths, precisely, while they were being appealed to, stated that all Tinubu promised that they would do was not done, and it was the same Tinubu eight years ago that wanted to be the President, still promising the same.
The Director of Media and Publicity of the APC Presidential campaign council, Bayo Onanuga, said that the Jos incident was unfortunate, saying it was an organized show by the opposition to discredit the party. Still, they were shamed at the end of the day because the rally eventually went smoothly.
Festus Keyamo said that what happened in Jos was blown out of proportion because the APC is in Power, saying that when a similar thing happened to PDP, they blamed the APC, and now they are orchestrating the issue.
Also, Dino Malay, the PDP’s spokesman for the Atiku Presidential Campaign Committee, said, The anger of the youths in Jos indicated that Nigerians are fed up with the APC, and want the party to pack and go, for the PDP.
He also described the events in Jos as a disaster awaiting Nigerians if Tinubu becomes the President.
Meanwhile, a spectacular event after the APC rally in Jos, which is now making tongues wag, was the sweeping of the Stadium by the PDP members in the plateau state.
The party mobilized its members to sweep the venue of the APC rally, saying it was to erase the terrible omen brought to the state by the party.
The Director General Atiku Motivation Movement, Kamaru Sanni, said they had to engage in the cleaning to get rid of the bad things to come to the state due to the appearance of the APC and to “sweep away poverty, unemployment, lawlessness, hunger and economic calamity being experienced in Nigeria today.”
Although the Jos event has continued to be a source of worry to Nigerians, as they are also wondering what would happen to future campaigns of the political parties, whatever is happening and whatever people may say, observers believe that Tinubu is still the issue politically in Nigeria today.
He is also regarded as a master planner, strategist, grassroots mobiliser and a man who knows the game of politics in Nigeria, in and out, which makes him stand out as a solid contender to beat.