Nigerians have maintained their support for Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the APC, amid growing anger and protests over the twin challenge of naira scarcity occasioned by the botched implementation of the CBN redesign of the currency, and a stage-managed fuel scarcity causing long queues in petrol stations across the country.
Reacting at the Ekiti rally of the APC presidential candidate on Friday, they blamed the national crises on the desperate ambition of his main opponent, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, whom they accused of an insidious plan “to inflict pain and hardship and exploit the ensuing anger to gain political advantage.”
They said Atiku had willing collaborators within the Nigerian presidency, particularly those who remain aggrieved over Tinubu’s triumph as the candidate of the ruling party and are terrified about the prospect of his emergence as president due, mainly, to their corrupt deals which lessened the impact of some of the administration’s investments and developmental efforts.
“They want Tinubu to fail. Suddenly, there is fuel scarcity and the CBN announced a change of the naira with a rushed deadline it lacks the capacity to meet. It is clear that they want to sabotage Tinubu’s ambition. But they will not prevail because we know what is going on,” one of the said.
Another claimed that Tinubu’s victory on Feb 25 would mark the triumph of good over evil because “all he ever did was contribute his best to the party’s success on several fronts.”
“Without him, some of those aiding the opposition with this sick plan to spread anger by causing needless pain would never attain the heights they’ve reached today. But blinded by greed and envy, the worst mortal sins, they joined forces with the enemy of Nigeria to pull him down. We cannot and will not let them win; Tinubu will have my vote on Election Day,” he said.
The reactions helped explain the unexpected surge in Tinubu’s popularity in the past few days when reports of the cooperation between Atiku and disgruntled forces in the Nigerian presidency became public knowledge.
Although Tinubu has voiced opposition to the rushed nature of the currency redesign policy responsible for chaotic scenes at banks and other cash points across the country, Atiku has backed the impossible deadline with perverted hopes of increasing the pain to Nigerians so they can turn on the ruling party.