Accessing The Political Figure Of Tinubu Through The History, Laws And Concept Of Power -By Obebe Michael Damilola

At times, we find ourselves despising a course or personality, not really because we genuinely hampered it. But because we don’t understand the stance we are hindered, we do not visualize it, but we only contemn it based on a general misconception, or we work sentimentally based on personal emotions which may tend to be fallacious. 

My concern here is for the APC national stalwart, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and how Nigerians often act extremely belligerent at the mention of his name. Yeah, we all know, we knew Tinubu was the propagandist and the brain behind the APC, which for the past years now has disastrously sabotaged the socio-political and economic ladder of Nigeria, which was manageable under the PDP governance. Yes, Tinubu ideologies the party and formed a coalition with the northern political excesses, they ruled with tyranny and desperately and he played along in their desperate, not actually because he wanted to betray his Yoruba nationhood but because it was premeditation. Many of us would still wonder why one has to be desperate when it comes to politics, but I tell you, You may need it! One has to be quite desperate and learn to put a smile on his face in working with the enemy, not because he wants to betray his conscience but because he wants to get from them.

Nigerians are quite illogical people who wouldn’t learn from history. Let’s remember the great Awo, I mean Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the one time premier of the western region and the idealist of the UPN who contested for the 1979 general election. Awolowo was a very intelligible politician, rationalist and a great philosopher who intended to save the Yoruba nationhood and entire Nigeria from the already existing hegemony of the northerners and create an equitable and meritorious society for commoners, but he was betrayed by his kinsmen, who tagged him a tribalist! Awolowo was an honest politician who could not indulge in ‘playing politics’, but with fairness and instinct. He made his goodwill and yoruba-centric ideology known to his contemporaries but they destroyed it because he was honest and never consolidated with the enemy, who happened to be the most instrumental. The fact remains that; Power is not a given phenomenon, it is taken! And one of the way by which it can be taken is  negotiation. Awolowo is a man almost perfect, but his inability to maintain a conciliatory approach, even ethical politicking, coupled with making known his constructive ideologies contributed to his flaws. If Awolowo had arrived at the federal level, he would have re-amended the ethical domination and lopsidedness of then and diversified our resources by allocating them to everyone according to his needs, irrespective of ethnical background. An ideology he termed ‘Democratic socialism’

Permit me to explore more of the History… MKO Abiola won the annulled third republic election despite being from the south. He earned a massive vote from the North because he was a Muslim philanthropist. It was on this scale of religion and his humanitarianism activities which cut across ethnics that most of the votes were outpouring on him before the whole activities were annulled by IBB. No one ever played tribal politics can arrive at the federal level, even if how it is played seems detrimental to his subjects and will, but getting the power through negotiation with other parties, or setting up a mechanism through them is the goal! A candidate who is determined to exemplify an ideology must first politicise randomly around the climax of his aspirations and must be ready to be dynamic in both character and style of politics. If getting desperate is the only and surest way to get the power, he should! An ideological candidate must first find a tactic to get the power, that’s the only chance to execute his ideologies and also the only way the people could believe and complement he’s really idealogical. This is what I wanted to make you realise by exploring those two historic personalities.

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a man I will say possesses the qualities of Awolowo and MKO. He was the serving senator of Lagos west in the annulled third republic and also a governor of the state from 1999 to 2007. It is necessary to note that he(Tinubu) was a capitalist and a business mogul before he joined politics in the 1990s, because he had earlier worked with Deloitte and Touche, and also in the Mobil where he was an executive. There are also claims that he owned businesses abroad during this particular time and it earned him considerably. He’s a prominent figure in the politics of Nigeria and had been instrumental in raising many leaders, but Nigerians just hate him! Maybe it’s because he brought this administration to the limelight, which for the past seven years has been bad luck to the country and her citizens, maybe the hate is because of his being the party national Leader whose anticipated ‘change’ reflected so ironic… We all know it’s very commonsensical to say the APC achieved nothing in the past years, but let me ask you, what had the PDP achieved in their sixteen years in power? The PDP failed Nigeria, but the APC under Buhari fail woefully! APC is just a political coalition, ideologised by Tinubu in 2013 to serve as an effective machinery for his presidential aspirations. But Nigerians would say ‘how he had corrupted the country and Lagos funds isn’t still enough for his ego, he still wants to be the president’. I have come to realise, especially through the social media that; average Nigerians are essentially sentimental, either sentimental by emotions, affiliations or ignorance. How Tinubu governed Lagos will always be modelled forever in Nigeria and the entire West Africa, how he improved the working condition of the civil servant by increasing their salaries and paying them impressive incentives, how he embarked on different infrastructural programs, and finally how he was able to increase the Lagos monthly IGR from 600 million to 45 billion today, making her the economic hub of West Africa and fifth largest economy in the continent. All these are not a bricklayer’s job! Even if you say Lagos had had the relevance and influence from the colonial era, and also the prospective ingredients to be whatever he made it today, How about other states like Rivers that had been a top priority and oil well state since the colonial era, can they be compared to Lagos financial buoyancy and domestic revenue? Even if you say Lagos is an enormous populated state and has all the human resources that could make it, what about Kano? He ruled only Lagos, but you’ll see people from Rivers, Enugu, Delta, Kogi and others saying he embezzled their resources, how? 

Tinubu was awarded a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business and Administration with honours in the Chicago state university, thanks to the Punch newspaper who through their investigative journalism helped us confirm this… This man has all it takes to be the president of this country, he’s an economist, he can diversify our resources and exercise a pragmatic approach in dealing with the current economic recession and the naira devaluation. He will be a president of all Nigerians and not a president of one ethnic group. Even if you say he’s too old, I am not like those who will compare him to Biden anyway, because the US federalism is different from Nigeria’s, but I can boldly tell you that Nigeria is an ethical heterogeneous and a geographically wide country, those that can play her politics well are those who had been in it for years, Nigeria politics isn’t a child’s play! 

I’ve not written all of these to convince you though, the fact remains that; whether you are convinced or not, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the next president of Nigeria, which no man but only God can stop!

©️OBEBE MICHAEL DAMILOLA.

Obebe Michael Damilola is a student of Adekunle Ajasin university, Akungba Akoko (AAUA), Department of English and literary studies. He’s a political enthusiast, Passionate creative writer and essayist.