A few days into the year, some politicians have already shown tendencies to dish out gas gobos to any rival who gets on their nerves.
It looks like the New Year resolution for Nigerians in 2024 is to “no gree for anybody” no matter who they are.
Just a few days into the year, many events we’ve witnessed as a people have shown no one is going to play second fiddle to anybody this year.
Interestingly, young Nigerians are not the only ones dispensing the “no gree for anyone” energy; even politicians have shown tendencies to dish out gas-gobos to any rival who gets on their nerves.
Here are five politicians who are already living by the “no gree for anybody” anthem.
Gov Sanwo-Olu vs okada riders
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu took us all by surprise with his legendary reenactment of Babatunde Fashola’s confrontation with a top military officer as soon as the year started.
The roadside drama involving the governor, his security aides, and some erring okada riders — one of whom claimed to be a soldier — along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, on Tuesday, January 2, was an indication that Mr Governor plans to not take nonsense from anyone in 2024.
While ordering his aides to go after the riders, Sanwo-Olu’s self-assertive attitude, his gait — on the road he built — and the verbal exchange between him and the arrested ‘soldier’ exemplified his perceived resolve to “no gree for anyone” in 2024.
PDP vs President Tinubu
On January 1, after President Bola Tinubu’s New Year speech, Nigerians swung into a celebration mood, little did we know that the spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Debo Ologunagba, had entered his party’s kitchen cooking violence.
Hours after the speech, the PDP chieftain released a statement, saying the president‘s speech was a waste of Nigerians’ time because it did not address critical issues bedeviling the country.
As if he aimed to get on the president’s nerves, Ologunagba described his speech as empty and uninspiring.
He added that President Tinubu should have seized the opportunity presented by the New Year to apologize to Nigerians over his “insensitive policies” instead of making empty promises.
Moghalu vs Presidency
Ordinarily, you would expect the presidency to act as the bigger person, but this year, it appears presidential aides too are battle-ready like everyone else.
On Wednesday, January 3, 2024, Kingsley Moghalu, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, in a series of tweets claimed that the downward trajectory of Nigeria’s economy in the last 40 years was briefly broken under the administration of former president, Olusegun Obasanjo.
He also said since the All Progressives Congress (APC) took over power from the PDP in 2015, Nigeria has fallen under a “completely incompetent economic management.”
President Tinubu’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, did not allow Moghalu’s hot takes to cool off before he fired back.
Ajayi said the PDP administration Moghalu rated as the best in Nigeria since 1999 supervised the decline of the country’s GDP from 7% growth rate to 2% before the APC came to power.
He added that every index for measuring economic growth significantly declined when Moghalu was Deputy Governor at CBN.
In his conclusion, he advised Moghalu to “stop fouling the atmosphere with his holier-than-thou remonstrations.”
