The die is cast and Nigerians have spoken with their votes. Some got their wishes while others have thrown the towel or are looking for ways to upturn the results.
But until anything is done, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), will be the president of Nigeria come May 29.
How do we make him work for the country he would be serving?
Away from emotional disapproval and false alarms, the most natural occurrence is to have Tinubu rule Nigeria for the next four years.
Our reporter monitored the discussions of some Nigerians on a Twitter space hosted between yesterday and today by the opposition, mainly that of Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party.
Without a doubt, losing an election after much hard work is painful, but it is unpatriotic to wish for the country to get worse as the audience on the Twitter space and some of the opposition are hopping.
Instead, we should be ready to move Nigeria forward by charging Bola Tinubu to work through the means below.
Immediately the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tinubu as the winner of the just-concluded election, he said he would “serve you; be your servant and not your leader. and work with you to make Nigeria a great country”.
What Nigerians should do is hold him accountable for his words.
They should be objectively assertive and not rain curses on a lucky winner of a fierce contest.
He had said he would give student loans, make university education attractive and attract investment, among other promises.
Our job as citizens is to critique all his moves and charge him to do the right thing.
If the incoming president sees how intentional we are with our national demands, he will be forced to do the right thing.
It is imperative that we make him work as constructively as possible and not just be an emotional seeker during election season.
Bola Tinubu would not have matched to the villa if Nigerians and the opposition had used the media and its powers sufficiently well.
The deliberate attempt to continue to throw Bola Tinubu into controversies worked well initially but later began to draw enormous pity for the president-elect.
Some who did not consider voting for him innitially began tilt towards him because his name became the trend of the media discourse.
When the opposition stopped canvassing for support for their candidates only to focus extensively on issues they could not prove in court, some members of the elite got tired of the controversies.
Now the election has been lost and won, Nigerians should stop using the comment section of the government officials to abuse or rain curses or do the “follow back trend”.
Let’s use social media to ask critical questions and push constructive agenda.
Let's progressively shun hate speech and name-calling but evaluate ideas and push nation-building narratives that would bring positive changes in the polity.
The conventional media should shun their biases and embrace national dialogues.
The primary responsibility of the press is to inform and educate and not to spew opinionated criticisms.
We can only make Bola Tinubu work for his victory if we challenge our media sector to perform its watchdog functions and not be agents of political validation.
Whether we like it or not, there is no change unless the citizens are ready to make the country work.
Nigeria being where it is today is an aftereffect of our collective irresponsibility.
Let’s all be ready to be active and responsible citizens.
Whether you are in the civil service, security framework, private business or a student, we know that the government is only the first scapegoat.
It is not the only problem we have.
Only when we all agree to be responsible citizens and retrace our steps in the core areas of impunity, uncontrolled immunity and maintenance of law and order can we make the imminent presidency of Bola Tinubu work.
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