By Tony Eluemunor
You have to make one remarkable concession to Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu; he has “guts”.
And by guts, I mean something akin to resilience or determination. Yes, “grit” could be more like it. Grit actually refers to a hard coarse-grained siliceous sandstone, so it should do justice in describing a politician who is chummy with the “agberos” of Lagos state, yes, those crazy devils may care street goons of Oshodi bus stop and such other mean sites of the mean Lagos state. In fact, from what I have read about Tinubu, he may be the chummiest politician to those goons.
Yet, the chumminess and the goonness of certain politicians and groups are not what this column set out to interrogate today. It just happens that even goonness should have a limit. So, too, personal interest.
That is why you could describe Tinubu with words such as willpower, resolve, purposefulness and the like and you would be 100 percent right, but if you bring in a word such as courage, you would become a liar.
This is because courage is the virtue of the heart, and it goes beyond animal or primordial self-interested determination to embrace altruistic attitudes.
A really courageous man could be found fighting for the public, for the downtrodden, for the poor and the weak.
He could be motivated to fight to death just for the ideas be believes in or for other peoples’ interests, or for the benefit of his country or even Mother Earth. I have searched for Tinubu’s central cohesive support and stability source on which his presidency bid is anchored.
Pray, is there any national reform or unifying agenda or developmental idea or Africanist or Nigerian dream that Tinubu has become its lynchpin? Really, I have not found any that one can write home about…with pride. Yet, we should not paper over Tinubu’s tenacity.
In the weeks preceding the All Progressives Congress’ National Convention, the signs were all over the place that certain leaders of the party did not favour Tinubu to emerge their party’s presidential candidate. Bu he fought on nevertheless.
And he proved that fortune favours the bold as he won the national primaries and the prize – the presidential ticket.
Ordinarily, I should rejoice that such a determined fellow is in the contest to become the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Instead, I am alarmed. Why? Here is my explanation: Bola Tinubu was one of those who brought about the amalgamation of parties that birthed the APC, which won the 2015 elections and began to administer Nigeria. In fact, Tinubu has been reported to have said that he made Muhammadu Buhari president, and because of that sole fact, it is his turn to succeed Buhari as president.
Had President Buhari’s administration provided Nigeria with a golden era, a period of peace, a time of unprecedented prosperity, the case for a Tinubu presidency would have a self-sustaining and totally justified one. Unfortunately, the Buhari administration has been an abject failure.
As year 2021 turned into 2022 Buhari said that he had about 17 months left in the life of his administration and that he would so make faithful use of it to better the life of Nigerians that it is at the end of those 17 months that Nigerian should actually judge him.
Hope was alive then. But if the Sunday Independent of July 17 faithfully reported what Buhari said in Daura, during a visit to his hometown, then, Nigerians should forget about the remaining months between now and May next year because Buhari has scored himself spectacularly well.
In my reckoning, he even accused Nigerians of ingratitude. He said, and I quote: “If only we knew what other countries in Africa are going through, we will be grateful to God and protect our country. Other African countries are passing through a lot. As leaders, we are doing our best and we will keep doing our best to address the situation. I am praying that the Almighty God will give us more strength and wisdom to protect our people, and fulfill our promises of ensuring well-being”.
SO, with just nine months to go, Buhari is still praying to fulfill the twin promises of combatting terrorism and making life materially better for Nigerians. He has already used up seven years and three months.
Hey, what brought about such soul-searching from Buhari, after all, his administration had been blustering all the while that they have achieved much and that Boko Haram had been de-graded? According to the Sunday Independent report, “The President said his administration would keep doing I best to address the concerns on security which the Emir of Katsina and Governor Aminu Bello Masari highlighted in their remarks”. Highlighted?
Unfortunately, the Reporter who filed that story failed to tell us what exactly the Emir and the Governor said. Did they mention a timeframe in which insurgency deteriorated in Katsina state? Did they mention the number of deaths? What exactly did they say? Well, we may never know.
My experience as Dodan Barracks Correspondent for Newswatch magazine in 1986 and as Aso Rock Correspondent for the Guardian and Daily Independent for first six years of this Republic, told me clearly that the Reporter relied on State House statement to write his story.
If he had called his colleagues in Katsina, he may have had an inclination into the complaints the Emir and the Governor made. Complaints? Yes, I used that word based on Buhari’s next sentence: “I have heard all that the Governor and the Emir have to say on what people expect from the Government. I will not add anything. I am the one receiving the others. I will continue to do my best”.
He will continue to do his… “best”? There lies the trouble. His best has not been good enough for Nigeria and Nigerians. And the man who said “I made Buhari President” has not apologised to the country for the mess he made.
Instead, he is asking us to reward him for dragging the nation backwards. Backwards? Well, I will justify my usage of that word; the Naira value in the foreign exchange market is disastrous and shameful. Insurgency has become worse under Buhari.
National cohesion is almost non-existent and Tinubu has worsened that cohesion by presenting Nigerians with the choice of a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the President and the Vice-President.
This is where Tinubu’s iron determination begins to turn from a shining virtue to a something less than that, after all, it takes some determination for a thief fresh out from Kirikiri prison to venture to return to his profession days after being his release from jail. Guts could be used for good or evil. Or, did Hitler lack guts? No, he had it aplenty.
The guts I wanted to see in Tinubu have yet to be displayed. He did not raise his voice to complain for the past seven plus years of this administration that the intended benefits that should have accrued to Nigerians from the service of this administration had not materialized. Instead, he has been busy preparing to succeed Buhari. Is becoming a president not linked to a belief, an idea or ideology? Now, pray, how does Nigerians know if what Buhari implemented as policies were the same ones those who formed the APC agreed on initially?
Or could it be that no policies were agreed on? Could it be that the only agreement Asiwaju bothered about in those party formative days were that he would succeed Buhari? Please, whoever said that “great empires and little minds go ill together”? Yes, they do.
It takes courage to fight for the good of the country, even if that fight could make a man or woman lose the opportunity of becoming President. Such is the courage I have never found in Tinubu.
Contrasted with that, even a rat would fat for what it thinks will benefit it personally! So, the determination I would applaud in a presidential candidate is the sort that is primed to produce a society-wide result, not crass personal gain.
*Eluemunor is a commentator on public issues
No comments:
Post a Comment