TheCable

BY YEKINI OLUGBENRO

So Asiwaju Tinubu spoke on voters’ card expiration when he meant to say that people should update their information with INEC where and when necessary and also urged women to mobilise and go out to vote.

As a matter of fact, INEC issued a press statement and launched a voter’s card revalidation website for voters’ cardholders issued from 2014 downwards to revalidate their cards and information. Tinubu was only telling the APC women from Lagos that came to visit him to inform other women to revalidate their voter’s cards as demanded by INEC.

In any case, an official statement has been made by his media office to clarify what he said but expectedly, wailers and some overzealous presidential campaigners have jumped on to it as their weapon of mass destruction as if leaders having a slip of tongue started just yesterday with Tinubu.

Just last week, President Joe Biden while introducing his vice president, Kamala Harris, called her President Harris. During his campaign in 2008 for the White House, former President Obama said he would campaign in 57 states of America when the US did not have 57 states. As President of the United States, Barack Obama while addressing the press about an issue on Africa said Kenya, his ancestral country, is in West Africa whereas Kenya is in East Africa. President Buhari introduced then Professor Yemi Osinbajo as Osinbade the day he announced him as his VP pick for the 2015 presidential election.

There are legions of international statesmen and women, local politicians and business leaders that have had slip of tongue while speaking off the curve. Having a slip has never been a big issue and does not diminish anyone’s capabilities and capacity for leadership. Human beings will always have slip of tongue and we should expect many more in the days ahead. We will no longer be humans if natural reflexes and involuntary actions do not take hold of us.

The issues that the coming contest for the leadership of this country will throw up for determination will not be about slip of tongue but one about the man or woman that has enough experience, the exposure, command the respect across the country, understand the political economy, and can attract and harness the abundance of human talents to positively change the fortunes of this country for the benefit of Nigerians. As it stands today, no person among those jostling in the horizon for the presidency of Nigeria is better qualified and prepared for the job than Asiwaju Bola Tinubu