Opposition Got a Wrong Candidate in President Tinubu

The Opposition Pull Him Down Syndrome Got a Wrong Candidate in President Tinubu

By Musa Bakare

From the First Republic to this Fourth, Nigeria has witnessed the destructive pattern of opposition driven more by vendetta than vision. When leaders rise, some groups are quick to plot their fall, not through elections or superior policy alternatives, but through manipulation, blackmail, and misinformation. This is what the PHD syndrome represents.

In 2023, after the electoral defeat, the opposition camp regrouped with this same outdated script. Unfortunately for them, they misunderstood the battlefield and, most importantly, they misunderstood the man now occupying the presidency.

The Pull Him Down (PHD) syndrome is the politics of sabotage, coordinated media propaganda, and relentless character assassination, deployed by opposition coalitions who fail at the polls but seek relevance by inciting chaos.

But in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, they are encountering the wrong candidate. Unlike many before him, president Tinubu is a political master strategist, sincere, resilient, methodical, and focused. The usual opposition playbook has failed. This time, their target, Jagaban is not only standing firm, he is thriving.

They came with propaganda, he responded with policies. They launched attacks, he delivered results.

President Tinubu was never an accidental politician. He is a veteran of political wars, dating back to the era of NADECO and the military dictatorship. He was part of the opposition when it was dangerous, and a governor when reform was unfashionable. He didn’t just play the game, he helped write its modern rulebook.

The opposition wrongly assumed they could wear him down with noise, insults, and media pressure. But Asiwaju Tinubu has proven unshaken. While his critics traded barbs and conjured controversies, he went to work, assembling policies, reforming systems, and setting the tone for responsible governance.

President Tinubu has adopted a different kind of leadership, one rooted in strategic silence and focused execution. He is not a man of daily rebuttals; he is a man of deliverables.

They expected reactionary outbursts for their media theatrics, instead, they met a leader governed by strategy, not sentiment.He boldly removed the fuel subsidy, saving trillions of naira. He unified the exchange rate, stabilizing currency transactions and cleaning up decades of forex racketeering.

He launched student loan schemes, making tertiary education more accessible. Nigeria has recorded zero university strikes since his assumption of office, a feat unmatched in recent democratic history.

Eight new medical universities were approved to tackle Nigeria’s healthcare capacity gap. He opened up doors for private
sector driven industrial growth, while maintaining social investment through targeted intervention programs.

Many leaders collapse under such pressures, President Tinubu consolidates. Many react to attacks with panic, he responds with policy. Despite their distractions, his focus has been razor sharp.

He has displayed an uncommon understanding of the intersection between power, patience, and purpose. He is not moved by social media mobs or press induced hysteria. He remains anchored on results and long term national interest.

This is not arrogance, it is discipline. And it is exactly the kind of temperament that Nigeria needs in an era of national transition. President Tinubu is not a leader learning on the job, he came fully prepared for the turbulence of governance.

For the opposition coalition, President Tinubu’s resilience is a nightmare scenario. Their old tools are blunt. Their campaigns are misdirected. Their projections are misaligned with the mood of a majority of Nigerians who crave stability, not shouting matches.

If they must stay relevant, the opposition coalition must drop the emotional theatrics and embrace intellectual engagement. They must provide alternatives, not anger. They must perform in states under their control, not tweet endlessly from political echo chambers.

The era of easy disruption is over. President Tinubu’s firm grip on leadership has changed the rules of the game.

In Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Nigeria has a president who is not intimidated by noise, not distracted by criticism, and not derailed by propaganda. The PHD syndrome has failed.

He is not just a survivor in the rough waters of Nigerian politics. He is a strategist, a planner, and most importantly, a finisher.

Those who are plotting the fall of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu ahead of the 2027 Presidential election have simply picked the wrong candidate to fight. They should advise themselves to begin now to strategize ahead of 2031.