At a recent flag-off of Kugbo Bus Terminal in Abuja, the 15th President of the Nigerian Senate, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio prophesied that by the time President Tinubu leaves office in the next seven years, Nigerians will not recognize their country anymore. Specifically, he said, “I have no doubt that by the time the President is through with his tenure in the country seven years from today, many people will not recognize FCT; they will not recognize Nigeria again”.
To him, what this wonderful revelation means is that Tinubu’s regime would transform the nation to a point where the level of prosperity would be unimaginable. Simply put, Nigerians would experience El Dorado, a place of fabulous wealth and humongous richness.
Predictably, the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar’s Special Adviser on Media, Paul Ibe, responded by saying that Tinubu has already made Nigeria unrecognizable!
Akpabio’s eulogies for President Tinubu bespeaks the senator’s famous oratorical ability.
For a man that comes across as a charming parliamentarian, the prophecy almost echoes out as the voice of one of Tinubu’s spokesmen. Even in the face of suffocating hardship and hunger in the land, such encomium takes optimism to a realm beyond the incurable!
As hyperbolic and outlandish as the prophecy sounds, the harsh reality on ground today makes it look like the distinguished senator sees Nigerians as little children who can believe anything they hear.
At the risk of sounding pessimistic, the prophecy readily conjures up a flip side of metaphysical dimension reminiscent of the prophecy of the biblical Witch of Endor.
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Witch of Endor was a sorcerer consulted by King Saul of Israel to summon the spirit of the deceased Prophet Samuel. Saul was seeking spiritual advice on how his army would defeat the Philistines in battle, after prior attempts to consult God through sacred lots and other means had failed. Whether it was actually the spirit of Prophet Samuel or that of a demon that was summoned by this witch, Saul had no way of knowing as he could only hear the voice without seeing the speaker. Unfortunately, it turned out that the witch summoned a ghost who delivered a prophecy of doom against Saul and his army. At the end, King Saul was roundly defeated by the Philistines. His sons were also killed.
As recorded somewhere in the Holy Book, ‘Satan can transform himself into an angel of light’. So, is it possible that like King Saul, what Akpabio saw in Abuja was actually the opposite of what he intended to see? By implication, his prophesy presupposes that a victory for Tinubu in the midterm presidential election 2027 is a foregone conclusion. That is alright. However, across the globe, political actors, scientists and analysts have often devised different methods of predicting outcomes of the actions of political leaders. While some of these prediction methods are scientific, most of them are merely subjective and often prejudiced. One such effort in the United States called the 13 Keys to the White House readily comes to mind.
The Keys to the White House is a prediction system for determining the outcome of presidential elections. The system was developed in 1981 by American historian Allan Lichtman and Russian geophysicist Vladimir Keilis-Brook. It uses a thirteen-point checklist to assess the situation in the country ahead of the election. When five or fewer items on the checklist are false, the incumbent party candidate is predicted to win the election, but when six or more items on the checklist are false, the opposition party candidate is predicted to win. From the content of the system, Lichtman says that voters select the next president not based on election campaigns, but based on how they feel the incumbent party has governed the country. In other words, if the voters are satisfied with the governance of the country, they will re-elect the president or candidate of the incumbent party, but if they are dissatisfied, they will transfer the presidency to the opposition party.
So, if the situation in Nigeria today is configured into an imaginary 13 Keys to Aso Rock, Akpabio’s prediction at that ceremony in Abuja may not add up.
The question therefore is this: if by the end of Tinubu’s tenure, Nigerians discover that Akpabio’s prophecy has failed to materialize, will the senator be able to submit himself to the people’s court to face charges of necromancy and false prophecy? Will he be able to suffer the fate of King Saul under the spell of the witch of Endor? This race against time is now the burden the senator has brought upon himself. The onus is therefore on him to save the incumbent government from being rejected by the voters even before the expiration of its lifespan as prophesied by him. He must cudgel his brains thoroughly and work extra hard to fix the battered economy of this country and the insecurity in the land. He must help Tinubu’s government to ensure that his prediction comes to pass; otherwise he runs the risk of suffering the fate reserved exclusively for false prophets; and Nigerians may indeed not be able to recognize him anymore. As it stands, all we can do now is to pray for the Senate President and for the redemption of our dear country.
*Anthony-Spinks, Functg. DG, Delta State Public Procurement Commission, writes from Asaba.
