THANKS BE TO GOD! (ALHAMDU LILLAH!)

when Africa’s biggest ruling party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) would become Africa’s biggest opposition party; when a party politically calculated to rule for sixty years would be divinely destined to rule for only sixteen; when the Great Perseverance of Nigerians would ensure their votes would be counted and would count; when a light would […]

when Africa’s biggest ruling party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) would become Africa’s biggest opposition party; when a party politically calculated to rule for sixty years would be divinely destined to rule for only sixteen; when the Great Perseverance of Nigerians would ensure their votes would be counted and would count; when a light would finally appear at the end of a sixteen-year-old tunnel. All thanks be to God.
“With God, nothing is impossible!” What another great saying this is!  To add to this, the Arabs say: “Iza aradal Lahu shai’an, hayya’a asbabahu” (if God intends to do something, He causes the causes that would cause the something to happen). Only God could have made what happened in Nigeria last week to have happened – all the permutations were scary. The military, the threats, the dollars exchanging hands, Rivers State, an Orubebe, a Jega, etc. But with God nothing is impossible, so it has been possible to politically unseat an incumbent government, something that is common elsewhere, but almost impossible in our country. All thanks be to God.
In philosophy, there are two concepts called Frustration Level and Patience Level. As the names imply, some people have very short Patience Levels and can easily be frustrated out of a course they otherwise so believe in; meaning they have high Frustration Levels. And it is humanly natural. On the other hand, there are some others who have very elastic, and long, Patience Levels, and would stay the course come rain come shine. President-elect General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives’ Congress (APC) is one such person with a really long Patience Level. As he himself reiterated the other day, “God’s Time is indeed the Best!” All thanks be to God.
WE THANK GOD for the millions of Nigerians, Muslims and Christians, from the North and from the South, who persevered and ensured, by their patience and by their prayers, that the events of this week come to pass.
WE THANK GOD for Tinubu: Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu was able to stay the course. His Patience Level is tremendously elastic. Back in 2011, Tinubu made a very prescient statement – if political democracy is a game of numbers, how could the two most populous ethnic groups be in opposition? That year, Tinubu and co. bent over backwards to try to get what we has happened this week to happen then. And here, the truth must be told – almost all non-PDP politicians were keen on a merger, however tenuous, back in 2011. Indeed Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, respectively 2011 presidential candidates of the All Nigeria Peoples’ Party (ANPP) and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) BOTH OFFERED TO STEP DOWN for General Buhari if the Tinubu Option were adopted. And what was the Tinubu Option? That Pastor Tunde Bakare step aside as a would-have-been Vice President. Sadly, it did not come to pass. For God’s Time is indeed the Best! All thanks be to God.
WE THANK GOD for the brave Last Few Men Standing in the South East and South South; men whose Frustration Level was shorter than their long Patience Levels. Today, no one can ever generalise about the Ibos as long as there is Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, Dr. Chris Ngige and Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State to count among them. And special mention, of course, must be made of the South South duo of APC Campaign Director General Rotimi Amaechi, Governor of Rivers State and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Governor of Edo State. All thanks be to God.
WE THANK GOD for the Special Buhari Think Tank of 2002, which was instrumental in cajoling the General into politics. Special mention must be made of elder statesman Mallam Mamman Daura, Mallam Adamu Adamu (senior colleague and brother, Friday Columnist on this newspaper), Professor Abdullahi Mustapha, immediate past Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria; Shaikh Salihu Abubakar, also of the ABU and immediate past National Amir of the National Islamic Centre (NIC-Ummah); Honourable Aminu AbdulFattah, one-time Speaker of the Kaduna State House of Assembly; and Mallam Bello Damagum, in whose two homes in Kano and Kaduna we would spend many a sleepless night drafting a Buhari Political Roadmap. I and many others were junior partners in this gathering of distinguished thinkers. All thanks be to God.
WE THANK GOD for the many people whom history of today may forget because of situational circumstances. Special mention must be made of Hajiya Naja’atu Bala Mohammed (widow of our teacher and my namesake Dr. Bala Mohammed who was murdered in the Kano Rampage of July 10, 1981); Alhaji Sule Yahaya Hamma; Engineer Buba Galadima; Chief Mike Ahamba; and many others. Whatever anyone may say about these people and whatever one’s opinion of their roles from 2003 to 2011, they and many similar were instrumental in this long journey, whatever opinions they may now themselves hold. All thanks be to God.
WE THANK GOD that the end of the road has been reached for many of Nigeria’s AGIPs – Any Government In Power: an old professor, and old policeman, an old Information Minister, an old Naval officer, an old be-turbanned traditional title-holder, a perennial ambassador. They and their ilk should advisably go on permanent, unpensionable leave, with the hope they don’t become APIPs – Any Party In Power!
I THANK GOD that, personally, it has been a long journey, without pride and only seeking God’s favour. For me, this journey began twenty years ago, in 1995 to be precise. Back then, when General Muhammadu Buhari was offered the position of Chairman of the Petroleum (Special) Task Fund (PTF) by the Abacha Administration, I was a graduate student at the American University in Cairo. Having heard the news, I was full of trepidation (most academicians never trusted the military regimes of IBB and Abacha, though many had soft spots for Murtala’s and Buhari’s for their patriotic zeal). I wrote a letter to the General through his then Private Secretary Mallam Adamu Adamu, urging that the General decline. I said I thought it was a tactic by the regime to tarnish the General’s good name – perchance he would want to contest for the nation’s presidency one day.
I THANK GOD that Brother Adamu Adamu replied me that, indeed, I was not alone in entertaining that fear, but went to explain the extenuating circumstances that made the General to accept the PTF job. In the event, the assignment proved to all that the General, even if not perfect, could still deliver, as those old enough to remember 1983-1985 could remember. So when I returned from Cairo early in 1996, I took up the offer of Columnist and Editorial Board Member on a new Lagos-based newspaper, The Diet, interestingly established by a certain Chief James Ibori. My columns were syndicated on the Lagos-based Guardian and the Kano-based Triumph. Sometimes, the Kaduna-based New Nigerian would accept to publish the piece if it was not too critical of the government. One of the first pieces I wrote was “Yep, Let Him Stand!” in 1996, wherein I argued that Abacha should not transmute from Khaki to Mufti, but that General Buhari be cajoled to join politics and stand for Nigeria’s presidency. All thanks be to God.
And here we are today at Alhamdu lilLahi Rabbil a’lamin (Thanks be to God, the Lord of the universe). And for the Great Expectations of Nigerians, we must invoke, for the incoming government, HasbunalLahu wa ni’imal Wakeel! (Allah is Sufficient for us and He is the Best Disposer of affairs).