THE GAFFE from Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, is getting too much to a level the French would call maladroit.
The first was his thoughtless remark about the voters’ card expiry dates.
As reported by The Guardian, ““In case they do not announce to you on time, the PVC you have has expired,” Tinubu said in a trending video.
“Take one family member, two family members, knock on all doors and make sure that the new registration… Because they may not announce to you on time. The PVCs you have has expired. Yes!”
He had to eat his words after the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, rebutted the statement and validated the voters cards people had.
The second was a reckless message that Nigerians should not concern themselves with exchange rates as their salaries are paid in Naira. He went further in the clip I watched that “since you are not an importer, you should not worry about the exchange rate”.
This could be laughable if not that it affects life, life of the ordinary citizen. Like a dude put it on social media, “It is true our salaries are paid in Naira, but they are paying delegates in dollars and manufacturers are importing in dollars and they are passing the exchange rate debacle to us via the bread we buy, the fuel we buy, the rice we buy. Since these are staples, why would an ordinary citizen not concern himself with FOREX. Mr. Tinubu educate us further”
The third is coming at the heels of just concluded Osun State. He was alleged to have made the following statement, which his spokesperson, Mr. Tunde Rahman did not disprove as emanating from his principal. “We all are aware of the new electoral act reform signed by Mr President that the results of every elections in Nigeria be electronically transmitted into the INEC server.
“Atimes bringing up leadership ideas is good but it should be weighed thoroughly if it will have any negative consequences in our present day society. We all witnessed what happened in Osun State where someone who’s not supposed to win an election automatically became the winner because of the new electoral act.
“It will be better we go back to our previous way of conducting an election in Nigeria where elections are conducted free and fair with the presence of party agents. After election, the results will be sorted out one after the other to know if there are issues of over voting or manipulations but this new reform does not provide such opportunity, which means that as the electorates are voting, results are going directly to INEC server immediately”.
These statements show a discordant trend with reality and coming from a presidential candidate of the ruling party shows there is something amiss. It is better for Tinubu to sort himself out before the presidential debate season or if it is something else, he may need to step down instead of rubbishing his past records.
It was the same system that was used during the Ekiti Governorship Election which his party, APC, won and he was quick to praise the system. What was different with Osun was that his party lost the election and he, like all bad losers, started shivering from the mouth.
People have started noticing the disconnect, but could it be mere bad loser’s syndrome or dementia disconnect syndrome.
National Library of Medicine in its Interhemispheric disconnection syndrome in Alzheimer’s disease study stated in its abstract that “It is commonly acknowledged that patients with Alzheimer’s disease show memory and cognitive deficits that result from their cerebral histopathological abnormalities. We report new evidence showing that they also manifest deficits in interhemispheric integration of information, probably reflecting a corpus callosum dysfunction. This observation attests to the presence of a disconnection syndrome and suggests that these interhemispheric tasks can serve as diagnostic tools for the early assessment of their dementia.
“Alzheimer’s dementia (ALZ) is especially well known for its deleterious effects on intellectual and memory functions Neuropathological studies have confirmed that these abnormal behavioral manifestations are related to the sites of the cerebral abnormalities associated with the dementia. In fact, anatomical anomalies (senile plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, granulovacuolar degeneration, and biochemical changes) are generally found in the hippocampus —a structure involved in memory processes—and associative cortical areas —regions considered essential for higher-level cognitive functioning. We report a new set of cognitive deficits compatible with a dysfunction of another major structure, the corpus callosum (CC), whose principal function is to allow the exchange of information between the hemispheres”.
