All Eyes on the Judiciary was the message that graced the socio-political space in Nigeria in 2023. The message, which neither bore a defamatory armour nor a totem of ridicule, strangely, caused a stir within the ranks of Nigeria government and relevant government-regulated advertising agencies.

The billboards bearing the seemingly innocuous message were pulled down and some top employees of the government-licensed superintending agency for advertising were suspended for their ‘role’ in approving the ‘offensive’ advert. But while it may have appeared comely for state actors and allied agencies to bring down the billboards, that singular action helped to galvanise the resolve of Nigerians to keep a keen eye on the judiciary where the February 25, 2023 Presidential Election was being hotly contested following what many believed, and still do,  was a flawed election hallmarked by messy ballot count, violence including death of some voters and election officials, voter intimidation and manifest display of contempt for its own rules by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigeria’s election management body.

At a time, All Eyes on the Judiciary was no longer a message emblazoned on billboards, it morphed into a contagion etched in the hearts of Nigerians who felt, rightly or wrongly, that they were robbed at the polls, including parliamentary and sub-national elections, some of which the judiciary has helped to redeem from the hands of the polls grifters.

It bears reaffirming that Nigeria judiciary has had a chequered history of both commendation and censure. In the 2023 circumstance, many Nigerians with sufficient knowledge of the voodoo computation and ballot mutilation that attended the 2023 elections were hopeful that the judiciary will find sufficient courage to dispense justice. They premise their optimism on the time-tested legal axiom: “Let justice be done, though the heavens fall” (in Latin: Fiat justitia ruat caelum). For Nigerians, justice was what mattered at those times irrespective of the consequences of such justice or the emotions of the persons involved. Simply put, justice must override judgment in the instant case. This was the received opinion across Nigeria, especially among the voting publics.

It was on this ground that a sky-high pall of optimism swirled through the political ecosystem in the world’s most populous Black nation with vast potential, both in human capital and natural resources. The optimism was bolstered on many props. Nigerians have never witnessed an election so openly compromised like the 2023 polls. The various attestations by both local and international election monitoring bodies including the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU-EOM), the Africa Union (AU), the US International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), and the Commonwealth Observer Group among others, pointed to a gravely rigged election. All the reports on the election, bar none, from the international media also scored the conduct of the election very low in terms of integrity of the processes, conduct of electoral officials and security personnel.

There were open cases of voter and media suppression and it reflected in the final outcome and analytics of the polls. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared winner by INEC with 8,974,726 votes, while his main rivals Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of Labour Party polled 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes, respectively.

By this, Tinubu was announced winner with only 36.6 per cent of the votes cast on a turnout of 27 per cent, the lowest in Nigeria’s democratic history since 1999. A breakdown of the election results opened a whole new chapter on diversity of choices and strengthened the case for plurality of political parties.  The results showed four political parties winning gubernatorial races, seven parties winning senatorial seats, eight parties winning in federal constituencies and nine in state legislatures; a testament to a broad shift in political representation across the country. This is good for democracy and helps to uphold the fine tenets of democracy especially freedom to choose and freedom of association.

But the emergence of Tinubu as winner appeared not to have gone down well with many Nigerians, for many reasons. There were elements of abuse of ballots and processes leading up to the announcement of results in addition to other unwholesome variables.

This was why all eyes rivetted towards the Nigeria judiciary. But all that faded away the moment the Supreme Court overwhelmingly validated his victory. Now, all eyes have switched from the judiciary to Tinubu. It’s almost one year that the Tinubu-watch began. All that the eyes behold is a nation steeping down the nadir. An economy in intensive care unit. A fractured polity. A nation blighted by greed and graft. Now, the very worst: a spike in poverty, hunger, anger, unemployment, crime. Nigeria is not at war, but there is acute humanitarian crisis in the country. The agony threshold is unbearable. Both the rich and the poor now have a psychological nexus. They both cry.

With shuttering businesses and more multinationals leaving the country, hotfoot, there appears an even darker pall of doom and gloom in the coming months. But play no politics with this; the current dire socio-economic conditions were not created by Tinubu. He inherited a dead economy from Muhammadu Buhari by far the worst president in Nigeria since the dawn of the 4^th Republic. Buhari was not only incompetent, he was mentally unfit to lead even a local government in the 21^st century. He was never aware of anything. Little wonder he superintended the most corrupt and horrendously murderous government. This is not to exculpate the timid Goodluck Jonathan nor the late Umaru Yar’Adua, both of whom offered weak leadership hallmarked by corruption.

So, Tinubu is now in the eye of the storm. He asked for it. He was given the sceptre of leadership. He came with a sky-high reputation of a great leader. He built Lagos, his admirers tell you, sometimes with uppity. But the man who built Lagos should be told in clear terms: He has brought more agony on Nigerians than even Buhari. The stats are dour. Inflation rate climbed to 33.69% in April 2024 compared to 33.20% in March 2024, an increase of 0.49% points. Latest National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Consumer Price Index (CPI) report bear no whiff of hope, only a dank puff of despair. By April 2023, inflation was 22.22%, meaning in just 12 months, it took flight skywards with a huge 11.47% points. Away with statistics. What about the realties in the marketplace? Viciously scary!

As he marks one year in office, Tinubu must rethink his strategy. Corruption is still writ large. Hunger has grown fatter than at anytime since 1999. Public rating of Tinubu has hit the deck. The President can help himself by cutting drastically the cost of governance, starting with the Presidency. His motorcade is loud and long. He doesn’t need that. He can institute a culture of zero corruption, again starting with himself. The day Tinubu stands on the pedestal of zero corruption, he will be in a vantage position to deal with the corrupt. Leaderships in China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia etcetera have done this at various times. Let’s borrow their template.