2019: MY VOTE IS… (13) FOR BOLA AHMED TINUBU

In conclusion of our series MY VOTE IS…FOR or AGAINST (also available at https://linkedin.com/in/bala-muhammad-0784384), we today celebrate a politician who has epitomised contemporary leadership, mentorship and political dexterity over the past several years, but especially since 2015. Despite all odds, he also ‘delivered’ during these 2019 elections like he did in 2015. This politician is […]

In conclusion of our series MY VOTE IS…FOR or AGAINST (also available at https://linkedin.com/in/bala-muhammad-0784384), we today celebrate a politician who has epitomised contemporary leadership, mentorship and political dexterity over the past several years, but especially since 2015. Despite all odds, he also ‘delivered’ during these 2019 elections like he did in 2015. This politician is none other than Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Jagaba of ‘Nigeria’ and undisputed leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

ALONE AGAINST OBASANJO: By 2003, then President Obasanjo, who had four years earlier been sprung from Yola prisons, cleaned and ‘shined’ by the North, had become the dictator he had become. The Arewa that ensured he became president became the recipient of his unjust and unfair treatment. He also set out to undo the South West political class which had refused to toe his line and did not even elect him in the first place. Obasanjo had his way – almost. Only then Lagos State Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu called the president’s bluff and refused to be bulldozed. That lone stand against the Third-Termer Letter-Writer Dictator who invoked God’s Name in vain was what unravelled Obasanjo’s plans to reinvent Nigeria in his own image.

WITNESS TO 2011: This Columnist was witness to history in 2011 when Tinubu, alongside his associates such as Chief Bisi Akande, tried to consummate the now-famous Hausa/Fulani-Yoruba (or, more politically-correctly, Arewa-Yoruba) political marriage of convenience. On a fateful day before the presidential election of 2011, when Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP)’s incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan was perhaps at his weakest, the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) chieftains had prevailed upon their own presidential candidate Nuhu Ribadu, and convinced the candidate of the then All Nigeria Peoples’ Party (ANPP) Ibrahim Shekarau, to join a proposed alliance and step down for the then Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) candidate Muhammadu Buhari. But on one condition: that Buhari assure them that one Tunde Bakare, who was running with him, would resign after the election and allow ACN to install a Vice President of its choice. Current Minister of Education Adamu Adamu and current Kaduna State Governor Nasir el Rufai were some of the CPC officials this Columnist interacted with closely on that matter. In the event, Buhari couldn’t, wouldn’t, didn’t succeed in convincing Bakare to silently go. And the rest is history, and Jonathan ‘beat’ us all.

MARRIAGE OF HISTORY: Luckily, Tinubu did not give up on this Arewa-Yoruba political marriage which Awolowo never contemplated until late in the day in 1983. Tinubu waited till 2013, and reignited the plan, thus breaking the age-old Arewa-South East/South South Alliance of many decades. And in 2013/2014, it finally came to pass. Tinubu was ubiquitous, even though the trio of ANPP’s Shekarau, CPC’s Garba Gadi and ACN’s Tom Ikimi led the discussions in the latter’s Abuja home. This Columnist, then Adviser to Shekarau, was in the centre of it all – and worked in the drafting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Constitution at the residence of former Sokoto State Governor Attahiru Bafarawa. The Constitution Drafting Committee Chairman was Segun Osoba, one-time Governor of Ogun State. Other members included John Oyegun, Abubakar Malami, Chris Ngige, Adebayo Shitu, Niyi Adebayo and this Columnist. Osoba’s chairmanship on the committee didn’t leave us in any doubt as to who was ‘Oga-At-The-Top’.

MENTOR PER EXCELLENCE: Say what you want, for this Columnist, the ability of Tinubu to mentor the next generation of political leaders is perhaps his greatest gift. In this, there’s none like him. None like him. None like him. In Arewa or anywhere else. Yes, one may be his nephew; another may be the son of a friend – nepotism it’s called. But at least the ‘nepotised’ mentees usually proved themselves capable. Over here in Arewa, there is no mentoring anywhere, nepotistic or otherwise. Therefore, despite the presence of those bullion vans adorning ‘Villa II’ (Bourdillon in Ikoyi, Lagos), and in spite of the name-calling and shaming by the social media, Jagaba has been a mentor per excellence.

CHICAGO DISCHARGED ACQUITTED: Who remembers the so-called Chicago University scandal? Investing in the mass media such as the TVC and the NATION plus some political dexterity and sagacity have succeeded in putting paid to any trace of Illinois, let alone Chicago.

MUSLIM-MUSLIM TICKET: But for a certain ambitious politician who dropped a spanner in Tinubu’s works, the Jagaba would since have been Vice President and would most likely have been grooming himself to succeed in 2023, if not this year 2019. But a certain Saraki, who was checkmating Tinubu and marking him closely, raised the moribund alert of MMT – ‘Muslim-Muslim Ticket’. Saraki went on to become Senate President and…is now headed for a political oblivion. The door is wide open for another shot at MMT.

RIP AFENIFERE YCE: Awolowo, who was too full of himself to consider any Northerner worthy of a second look, did not succeed in ruling Nigeria. Abiola moved a notch higher – and won an election for the South West, courtesy Northern votes, something Awolowo could never achieve. Alas! Abiola’s ambition was truncated by the same people who later sprung Obasanjo from Yola and upon us. For this Columnist, the second greatest achievement of the Jagaba (after mentorship) was in his dexterity to silence, hopefully for ever, the irksome and tribalistic Afenifere, the irreverent Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE) and the Letter-Writing Obasanjo to political oblivion.

NOT ALL 100%: True, Tinubu didn’t win everything. In fact, neither did Moshood Abiola, perhaps the most nationally-accepted Yoruba political leader before now. At one time, Tinubu had Four A’s (Osun’s Aregbesola; Oyo’s Ajimobi; Ogun’s Amosun; and Lagos’ Ambode. One other ‘A’, Ondo’s Akeredolu, who was recalcitrant at first, appears to now realise that the corridors of the Villa pass through Bourdillion. A certain ‘F’ called Fayose out there in Ekiti has now finally been replaced by a more friendly ‘F’, Fayemi.

YOU DIED ALIVE: They say he’s eighty; that he lies about his age. Who doesn’t? “Tinubu ill and flown abroad” has been a refrain of his enemies – but he was the one who ultimately went to greet our own leader, Buhari, in London, and not vice versa. Those dance steps on the social media look young for a man of 80. Carry on!

EVER SO LEGENDARY: Tinubu’s notoriety has reached even my state, Kano. Despite protestations and denials, the gossip media was agog with ‘Tales of the Unexpected’ – that the Jagaba was holed up in Kano during the Supplementary Elections to ensure that APC (even if not Ganduje) gets re-elected so that our solid 2 million votes do not go ‘astray’ with a possible PDP government. If that is so, One Good Turn Deserves Another. The midwife always sees the baby first, before the mother.

AMBODE SANWO-OLU COUP: In the South West, and especially in Lagos, loyalty to the Jagaba is the beginning of wisdom. Sadly, Ambode realised that when it was too late. Thinking that Buhari could save him, he ensconced himself in the Villa. As if he does not know – Buhari couldn’t, wouldn’t, didn’t save him because Buhari couldn’t, wouldn’t, didn’t even save his own.

SO 2019 AHOY?: As we head towards a Buhari Second Term, considering all factors discussed herein, should we expect a ‘Tunde Bakare’ about-turn? Will someone resign to pave way for someone else? And, if that should happen, can we also expect a certain Fashola to head the 2023 Villa ‘Cabal’? No problem, but on one condition, or two: how about committing to at least that elusive Kaduna-Kano Modern rail line a la Lagos-Ibadan? And a promise never to bite the finger that ‘thumb-printed’ you!