Abba Hamisu Sani
Africa-Press – Nigeria. Nigerian President elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu who will take the full mantle of leadership by May 29th this year is a Nigerian Political figure that is surrounded by so much controversy as he is caused by so many things such as his real name ,exact age ,educational background and drug dealing.
These allegations remain the subject of media discussion at different points especially by his opponent.
The most recent among these allegations is the issue of dual citizenship.
Tinubu is accused of acquiring International Passport Guinea.
This controversy generates so much heat in the media space within this week.
The accusations of dual citizenship.
The issue of Tinubu’s dual citizenship has gathered so much attention on Twitter after investigative journalist, David Hundeyin, posted the Independent National Electoral Commission declaration form of the president elect, which showed that he denied being a citizen of another country outside Nigeria.
Hundeyin insisted that Tinubu has the international passport of Guinea, thereby making him a citizen of the country, a situation that means he lied under oath in his INEC form when he stated that he was only a citizen of Nigeria. According to Nigerian electoral laws, it’s an offense called perjury (lying under oath).
Business Day learned from October 28, 2015, ‘The Cable’ published a story on how Tinubu extended his political tentacles to faraway Guinea by handling the electioneering process and campaigns of President Alpha Conde.
Tinubu, after masterminding the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2015 presidential election, where he defeated President Goodluck Jonathan, was approached by Conde to help him win the election in Guinea and return to power, even after protests from many of the opposition candidates who insisted that the elections be postponed.
After his victory, Conde paid a thank you visit to Tinubu instead of President Jonathan.
Guinea, like Guinea-Bissau, is a major transit route for big drug cartels from Colombia, Spain, Nigeria, and a few other countries, and many are connecting Tinubu’s international passport claims to this.
However, Guinea is perhaps one of the few countries on the African continent where an international passport can be acquired for the right price by foreigners.
A BBC report some years ago showed how the Guinean authorities apprehended two police officers for being part of a syndicate that specializes in getting international passports for foreigners. These are foreigners who either want to get to Spain en route Morocco or just want to get there to fake their identities.
Efforts to defend Tinubu on the allegations
Babatunde Raji Fashola is the Nigerian Minister of Works and Housing and also a former Governor of Lagos State. He said Nigerians should be more interested in finding out if the President elect have the capacities and ability to deliver his campaign promises than his alleged dual citizenship.
The former Governor stated this when he appeared on Channels Television Program “Sunday Politics” recently.
He said that Nigerians should rather be interested in verifiable results and how many lives Tinubu has impacted using that as a yardstick to judge the incoming President.
I think that makes it more interesting and I think those issues have been ventilated sufficiently. You know what the Nigerian people have decided that those issues don’t matter , that what they have said by this vote. Fashola said.
The former Lagos state Governor insisted that what mattered like in other democratic countries were the processes, character , ability and capabilities of the leader.
” Again you must understand that we are not looking for saints. All the accusations leveled against him are either unproven or there was no evidence offered in support of them” The Minister of Works stressed.
Seun Alaofi is a lawyer .He said Nigerians have dissipated so much energy on politics in recent months , it is time for us to face governance .
The question should be ; is Tinubu not a Nigerian ?This case has been legislated upon , even Festus Keyamo said they took him to court and the court has ruled over the matter and they did not see anything damaging against Tinubu.
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