Stand Down Your Presidential Candidacy, Bola Ahmed Tinubu

The presidential campaign organization of the All-Progressives Congress party, Bola Ahmed Tinubu was recently accused by a former Governor of Cross River State in Nigeria, Donald Duke of using his (Duke’s) youthful photographs in the official campaign website and either passing them off as his, or as those of his close friend and youthful contemporary, without his, Donald Duke’s knowledge and permission.

Till date neither Bola Ahmed Tinubu nor his presidential campaign organization, has refuted the claim or expressed apology for the erroneous insinuation or public misrepresentation. Going by recent media reports, see for instance, the Nigerian Voice report titled, ‘Tinubu Removes Donald Duke’s Young Picture from His Official Website After Viral Report,’ the picture in question has been removed from the campaign website, the website links changed, while the campaign denied that it ever issued an apology to Mr. Donald Duke (https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/314613/tinubu-removes-donald- dukes-young-picture-from-his-official.html?).

This act of oversight (if you want to be charitable), or premeditated misrepresentation (if you are much less inclined), speaks to the unpreparedness or unsuitability of Bola Ahmed Tinubu to be President. If it is a costly oversight, given the mess Tinubu's party has made of its current mandate by misgoverning Nigeria since 2015, they definitely do not deserve another chance. If it is fraudulent activity, then given the litany of egregious question marks hanging over Tinubu's persona, it is further damning evidence of a gross, non-negligible and disqualifying character defect.

Plagiarism is taken very seriously in academic circles. It cannot be any less so with respect to someone seeking the highest Office in the land. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who his followers call The Jagaban, has been given sufficient time to apologize first to Donald Duke for using his picture without his knowledge or permission. Then next

to Nigerians for misleading them by passing off a young Donald Duke as a young Bola Ahmed Tinubu, or as a close confidant, childhood friend, or youthful contemporary of his, of which Donald Duke to the best of I and I’s albeit limited knowledge, is nothing of the sort.

I and I have tried, but I see no way of explaining this unnecessary misrepresentation that would show off Bola Ahmed Tinubu in a favorable light. If the error is solely attributable to his presidential campaign organization, it suggests ipso facto, that Bola Tinubu does not exercise sufficient oversight control over his campaign. How then can he exercise control over a potential future Tinubu Administration?

If on the other hand, the picture was passed through him, and he approved it in error, it suggests that Bola Ahmed Tinubu's mental faculties may have degenerated so much that he can no longer recognize his youthful self or his youthful comrades and school classmates.

Those are the two most favorable spins that can possibly be made of the unfortunate situation. Other spins are darker in scope, dangerous in implication, and criminal in nature. For instance, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is significantly older than Donald Duke, even though both men were contemporaneous State Governors of different states in Nigeria. So where did he or his handlers lay their hands on Donald Duke's youthful picture as to appropriate it, insinuate and pass it off as his, or as that of his close youthful confidant of same or similar age?

This potentially fraudulent act suggestive of 419 activity is too serious to be overlooked. The perpetrators of this fraud deserve to be named and shamed publicly at the very least, or at the worst, to be meticulously investigated and corralled before a proper court of law and possibly made to serve a short stint at Kirikiri Maximum Prisons. This will serve as a deterrent to similar future perpetrators of fraudulent 419 conduct.

The more you consider the implications of this social fraud and the intent behind it, given Bola Tinubu's alleged antecedents, the more serious and egregious it becomes. It is even worse that he has not taken responsibility and apologized for this unfortunate mishap, suggestive that it was premeditated. To the contrary, his campaign organization denied the suggestion that they had apologized, implying thereby that the instruction to use the photos came directly from their principal, or that it is beneath them to apologize even when they erred by misleading people.

The only way out of this moral quagmire for Bola Tinubu and his campaign organization that I and I can see, is for Donald Duke to walk back his earlier comments, and affirm that the pictures were used with his express permission. This among other things would line him, Donald Duke, up as an accessory to a conspiracy to the social deception of the Nigerian public for electoral reasons.

Is this how 200 million Nigerians, of whom 133 million are multi-dimensionally poor, are going to live the next four or eight years of their lives, if by some mishap Bola Ahmed Tinubu emerges as President of Nigeria? By looking over their shoulders at every turn, and cross-checking every utterance from a Bola Tinubu Administration, never taking anything at face value, for fear of, or in search of, fraudulent misrepresentation?

After significant restraint, monitoring the evolution and trajectory of events, before proffering an opinion, this is the last straw for I and I. Whether by inadequate moral fiber, or by some questionable past associations, or by sharply declining mental acuity, or by grossly failing physical capacity, or by strong hint of reckless conduct, or by periodically indecipherable utterances, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has demonstrated that he is not fit as at present, to be President of Nigeria.

I and I strongly urge him to stand down his candidacy for the sake of the future of 200 million Nigerians two thirds of whom are stuck in the quagmire of multi- dimensional poverty. Those who prop him up and parade him as presidential candidate, or those who insist on voting for him as President for personal, tribal, partisan, sectional, or sectarian reasons, are doing so at Nigeria's peril and doing the country incalculable harm. I and I do not utter these words lightly. They may be consequential.

We are watching �.
Anthony Chuka Konwea, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, MNSE, FNIStructE, MNICE.