By Bayo Osiyemi
I have never been passionate about any Nigerian politician after Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Alhaji Lateef Jakande, as I am currently, of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Asiwaju of Lagos and the Jagaban of Borgu.
I practice and play partisan
politics in Lagos, so he is undoubtedly my political boss. But beyond that is a
fact of history which cannot be obliterated.
From my first encounter with the
man that appropriately fits the label of “small body, big engine”, Senator
Tinubu struck me as a man of destiny on who jealousy, envy, treachery and
perfidy cannot diminish.
When he ran for the Lagos West
senatorial seat in 1992, I was one of those not enamoured of his razzmatazz at
the time. It wasn’t that I didn’t see something special in his ways at the time
but I refused to get swayed to his side on a strict matter of principle and
fidelity.
While on the hustings during the
run-up to the primaries, he visited party leaders in the monolithic Mushin of
the time which included Itire-Ikate, Isolo, Oshodi up to Ejigbo. At that time,
Mushin shared boundary with the old Alimosho.
Chief J. Olusola Solomon, the man
who spoke Egba dialect, who was the elder brother of the father of Senator
Ganiyu Solomon, was our LGA chairman and I, one of the budding leaders in that
local government area.
Chief Solomon, to date the most
persuasive, most authoritative and most assertive party chieftain that area has
ever had, introduced the then young aspirant for the Senate seat in his typical
inimitable style and when Tinubu took the floor, it was evident he was not
flash-in-the-pan. He sounded urbane, suave and street wise; and proved even at
that time, he was not a poor or wretched political activist. He blessed the
sitting of that day with “some dough” which swyed many minds in Mushin that
day.
Young as I was then, I chose to
be an odd man out, who though caught between taking some cool cash to massage
my youthful lifestyle or sticking to an earlier agreement on another candidate
of our caucus, chose the latter on a matter of principle. I did not follow the
Mushin multitude; I followed my mind and went to Ojo venue of the SDP primary
to vote for the candidate of our caucus. That candidate lost as he was trounced
silly by Tinubu.
Convinced that I had lived up to
my principle of keeping faith, I later visited Candidate Tinubu in his, I hope
I got that right, Bishop Oluwole street office in Victoria Island, to
congratulate him for his emergence and to assure him of my support and vote as
we prepared for the election proper. I want to believe he appreciated my
principled stand and his likeness for me thereafter, I strongly suspect,
sprouted from there.
I believe the recourse to that
history is absolutely necessary to let it be known that I don’t belong in the
category of those our people in Yorubaland say “ko le s’ododo, nitoripe o ti je
doodo”. Translated literally to mean that he cannot be truthful because he had
consumed the “fried plantain” of bribery and ultimately, compromise !
Over time, I had sat down to
ponder the Tinubu phenomenon. His achievements so far cannot be equated with
those of Chief Awolowo and Alhaji Jakande individually but, if the truth must
be said, this Tinubu man has packed together the finer attributes of the other
two great politicians into his political modus operandi. It is the main reason,
to my mind, why I am supremely convinced that Bola Tinubu’s BEST is yet to be.
Before I am quoted out of
context, let me say here that Tinubu has not told me he is running for the
Presidency, after Buhari in 2023 but I strongly believe that after the North,
the presidency should come to the South West in 2023.
Some may ask, why not South East
?
My own candid opinion is that in
this matter of APC, the South-West did much better than the South-East in the
formation and the footwork that gave Buhari, Nigeria’s version of America’s
Abraham Lincoln, the coveted Presidential crown. Buhari, a conscience-driven
person, has severally acknowledged this fact.
To be sure, the South East merits
the Presidency, but not over and above the South West at this time, except
fairness, equity and justice have other names to those espousing the idea of a
South East presidency. When it is rationally their turn, all believers in a
united Nigeria will certainly support their bid.
That settled, we should, in
looking to a South-West presidency, not allow ourselves to be goaded into any
permutation beyond Bola Tinubu for 2023.
Yes, SW parades a galaxy of stars
who are also suitable to enter the presidential race . VP Osinbajo, Fashola,
Amosun et al. But everything considered, in my well-considered view, Tinubu
fits the bill best of all. It is settled matter that all these names were
discovered by Tinubu and guided, to become the political colossuses they
proudly are today.
I took an excursion to history
earlier in this article on Tinubu trajectory deliberately and advisedly. He did
not wade into the political waters ill-prepared. He came into it as a man of
means, which I can attest to in the Mushin scenario I painted here and in his
well articulated contributions to NADECO and the struggle against arbitrary
rule towards the enthronement of democracy in our land; for which he was
acknowledged and recognised by the powerful democracies and nations of the
world.
What do I mean by saying that
Tinubu fixed Lagos? It is fair account of history that Mobolaji Johnson remains
unforgettable for working assiduously for the creation of Lagos State, and as
its pioneer military administrator and later governor, did the best of which he
was capable, to lay the foundation on which other governors, civilian and
military, built.
But Lateef Jakande left his
indelible footprints in governance as the first civilian governor who did the
most pioneering job in the state including, but not limited to, the opening up
of the Lekki corridor, undoubtedly the cash-cow of Lagos; the establishment of
the Lagos State University, the mass housing estates in all the divisions of
Lagos State as well as the state television (LTV8) and the abolition of the
iniquitous shift system in schools.
Yet, if Jakande turned the forest
of Lagos to a town, if you permit that manner of expression, Tinubu, to his
eternal credit, beautified that “town” of all those who came after Jakande.
On the road to his present
station in life, Tinubu burnt the midnight oil and candle and unsparingly drove
himself hard because he was busy in his “laboratory”, seeking solutions to the
multitude of pròblems besetting Lagos and proferring solutions to them.
Today, it is beyond debate that
the template he drew up from his time as governor is still working for the
state. If it wasn’t working, the state will not have earned for itself the
undisputed appellation of “centre of excellence” in the country.
Also, his ability to fish out
performers as governors of the State after him, is not commonplace asset;
otherwise we should have seen such feat replicated in other states of the
federation since.
These points make him a priceless
asset to be sought after. If he fixed Lagos, I am goddamn convinced he can fix
Nigeria.
I won’t claim absolute knowledge
of all the frontline politicians of national stature; but I will wager on my
bottom naira if Tinubu is not the hardest working of them all.
I recall my courtesy call on the
Oba of Lagos at his Idunganran Palace shortly after his coronation and my own
return from self- exile in Europe in 2008. After a good lunch with Kabiyesi
Rilwan Akiolu and I signified my intention to take my leave of him and proceed to
pay a similar visit to Tinubu at his Bourdillon Road residence, he asked me to
help prevail on the Asiwaju of Lagos to slow down, that the man was
over-working himself.
The reply Tinubu gave me when I
delivered Oba Akiolu’s message was and still instructive:
“Prince, there can be no rest
yet; because there’s still a lot of work ahead”
Ever since, the man Tinubu has
not looked back. If anyone says he cannot see what he has been doing since
2008, then that person must be wearing blinkers.
Politics can be a game of chess.
It is also a game that cannot be played shunting God aside in the schemings.
God is of equity, fairness, justice and conscience. Those who disregard the
Supreme Being in their games always reap the whirlwind of their dishonesty and
perfidy; the pity of it is that they never lived to have the consequences stare
them in the face. That falls in the realm of spiritualism.
On terra firma, I cannot but
remember the Awujale’s pet-song of “eyi ma dun to ee; eyi ma tun to ee; eyi ma
dun to niti gbajumo; aiye ile o, eyi ma dun to niti gbajumo; eni baa sope ko
dun to, ko see tie, ka woran ..”
Seriously, theres no politician
of Yoruba descent that òne can realistically compare to Tinubu at the present
time. People of Tinubu’s type attract mostly undeserved criticisms to
themselves; but called by any name, honey is nothing except sweet.
He must have been a diligent
student of Awolowo school of thought where the sage postulated years ago that
one needed financial resources in large quantum to battle reaction, negativism
and underdevelopment to submission.
The narrow-mindedness,
heartlessness and petty jealousy with which some of his kinsmen embraced to
thwart Yorubas best opportunity for Awo to become the President in his time,
should not be allowed to rear their ugly heads to thwart another golden chance
for the Yorubas and inexorably the Nigerian nation this time around.
I submit in all seriousness and
sincerity that Bola Tinubu is Nigeria’s best hope, come 2023, after Buhari’s
Presidency.
*Bayo Osiyemi, a former chief
Press Secretary to Lateef Jakande, wrote this on his Facebook Wall
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Correct!! You can say all of these again and again.
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