By Musa Bakare
One of the greatest tragedies in politics is not defeat, it is self inflicted defeat. It is the painful situation where individuals deliberately ignore established rules, abandon due process, violate the laws governing their own actions, and then seek scapegoats when the consequences arrive at their doorstep.
History is a ruthless judge. It rewards discipline, punishes recklessness, and exposes those who mistake political ambition for political wisdom.
This is precisely the crisis confronting many opposition politicians in Nigeria today.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu did not create their confusion. He did not force them into political miscalculations. He did not compel them to abandon procedure, ignore constitutional provisions, or engage in desperate political adventures.
Whenever the law catches up with them, their first instinct is to blame Tinubu, blame the APC, blame the judiciary, blame INEC, and blame everyone except the man in the mirror.
The consequences of unbridled political desperation resulting in miscalculations and the failure of the opposition cannot continue to be blamed on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, INEC, the judiciary, or other institutions of government.
That is not politics. That is the tragedy of self inflicted failure.
Politics is not warfare against reason. It is the art of organization, patience, strategy, and lawful engagement.
Throughout his political journey, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has demonstrated an uncommon understanding of this reality. From the dark days following the annulment of the June 12 mandate of the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola, through years of political persecution, through opposition struggles and coalition building, Bola Tinubu remained remarkably consistent in his political philosophy.
He built structures, nurtured leaders, respected political institutions, and invested in long term political organization.
While many of today’s opposition figures were moving from one political platform to another in a selfish search for personal advantage, Asiwaju Tinubu was building institutions.
While some were treating political parties like commercial buses to be boarded and abandoned at will, Tinubu was building a movement.
While others sought shortcuts to power, Tinubu was laying foundations.
That is why political consistency eventually defeated political opportunism.
The laws governing political parties are not written by Bola Tinubu.
The Constitution was not authored by Tinubu. Court judgments are not manufactured in Aso Rock. Yet, whenever legal consequences emerge from actions freely taken by opposition actors, an army of propagandists suddenly discovers a conspiracy where none exists.
This dangerous habit reveals a deeper national menace: the refusal to accept responsibility.
A man who jumps into a river cannot blame the river for making him wet. A politician who ignores procedure cannot blame the judiciary for applying the law. A party that violates its own rules and the tenets of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria cannot continue to blame Tinubu and APC for the consequences of its actions.
Civilizations rise when people embrace responsibility. They decline when people manufacture excuses.
This principle is as old as creation itself. God created the universe upon laws. The harvest follows the seed. Consequences follow choices. Actions produce results. No amount of emotional outrage can suspend this eternal principle.
Those who sow disorder cannot harvest stability. Those who sow confusion cannot harvest legitimacy. Those who sow desperation cannot harvest credibility.
The opposition’s greatest enemy today is not President Tinubu. It is not the APC. It is not the judiciary. It is not INEC. Their greatest enemy is their refusal to tame their selfish and egoistic lust for power and their refusal to learn from their mistakes.
Nations progress when leaders submit themselves to institutions. They stagnate when politicians place personal ambition above established rules.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s political journey offer them an important lesson. Enduring success is not built on noise, bitterness, insults, or endless migration from one political platform to another.
It is built on consistency, organization, patience, vision, and respect for the democratic process.
That is why history repeatedly separates builders from wanderers.
The builder thinks of generations. The wanderer thinks of the next election. The builder creates institutions. The wanderer creates confusion. The builder accepts responsibility. The wanderer searches for scapegoats.
As Nigeria continues her democratic journey, the citizens have learned to distinguish between genuine political leadership and political adventurism disguised as opposition. They have found substance in APC
No nation can progress when leaders refuse accountability. No opposition can become an alternative government when it spends more time blaming others for self inflicted wounds than correcting its own errors.
History will continue to remind us that egoistic desperation becomes tragedy when men refuse to learn, refuse to obey the rules, and refuse to accept responsibility for the consequences of their own choices.
– Musa Asiru Bakare, a political analyst, writes from Lokoja, Kogi State.
