By Tunde Olusunle
Signs that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will run a government by proxy if elected, emerged at his outing at Chatham House, London, earlier in the week. Tinubu, who has made a tradition of avoiding public speaking events in the run-up to the February 2023 elections, jettisoned the Arise Television “Townhall Meeting” organised for the major presidential contenders, Sunday, December 4, 2022. It was the latest in Tinubu’s non-appearance at similar engagements since he won the presidential ticket of his party last June.
Last August, Tinubu was conspicuously absent at the annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, (NBA). Presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and the candidate of the Labour Party, (LP), Peter Obi, honoured the invite at the conference held in Lagos. Tinubu’s running mate, Kashim Shettima, stood in for him. In September, Tinubu was again absent when presidential candidates of all the political parties endorsed the “2023 election peace pact.”
The National Peace Committee, (NPC), organisers of the
peace pact, is chaired by Abdulsalami Abubakar, a former military Head of
State. Tinubu was again represented at the event by his running mate, Shettima;
the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku, attended in person. Obi, the candidate
of the Labour Party, (LP) and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples’
Party, (NNPP), were also present.
In what has become his trademark, Tinubu shunned an earlier Townhall Meeting also convened by Arise Television early November, where Atiku was represented by Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa, his running mate. On the eve of the second edition of the Arise Television, Tinubu jetted out to London, supposedly to headline an engagement on Nigeria’s political process.
This was by way of
addressing the British Royal Institute. He was supposed to have focused on the
2023 general elections, with specific regards to national security, economic
and foreign policy imperatives. Director, Media and Publicity of the
APC-Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Organisation, Bayo Onanuga, had previously said
his principal “would not be blackmailed into attending the event.”
Atiku, Kwankwaso and Obi dutifully attended the interview programme, which was simultaneously transmitted to the world from both the Lagos and Abuja studios of the organisers, anchored by Charles Aniagolu and Adesuwa Omoruan respectively. The attendees addressed issues related to poverty alleviation and the holistic re-engineering of the critical education, healthcare and human capital development.
In what was a temperate and convivial
ambience, Atiku, who is rigorously grounded in both the public and private
sectors, promised to remove red-tapism and block wastage in government if
elected. “Overheads” and “recurrent expenditures” which are often blurry and opaque,
constitute major drainages to public resources, emasculating appropriations for
actual socio-economic growth.
The “question and answer” session, which followed Tinubu’s
address, however, visibly exposed Tinubu’s suspect capacity in one-on-one
dialogue. In a visibly striking pattern which amplified this possibility,
Tinubu severally called up members of his entourage to answer the questions
posed to him. He had on his delegation, Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Femi Gbajabiala; Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai and his
Jigawa and Cross River counterparts, Abubakar Badaru, and Ben Ayade. Former
Ekiti State chief executive, Kayode Fayemi, was also present.
Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State, Abdulrahman Danbazzau, former Chief of Army Staff, (COAS) Adams Oshiomhole, the immediate past governor of Edo State, were in Tinubu’s team. There were also Dele Alake, a seasoned media practitioner and Wale Edun, a top player in the economic and financial sector. Both served as commissioners in Tinubu’s state executive council, when he was Governor of Lagos State, between 1999 and 2007.
El Rufai, Ayade, Alake and Edun
were variously called out by Tinubu to provide answers to questions directed at
him. The outsourcing of the questions was a watershed in political engagements
anywhere. The world has taken due cognisance of our leadership recruitment
prototype, at the topmost echelons in Nigeria. Shockingly indeed, subsequent
online videos and images of the event allege that the few questions Tinubu
responded to were by the grace of a teleprompter, intricately placed on the
desk before him!
What Tinubu did
in London is akin to what happens in so-called “examination miracle centres” in
Nigeria. Lazy and desperate youngsters enrol in nondescript “extra mural”
examination coaching centres, pay a premium and other people are procured to
write their West African School Certificate Examinations, (WASCE) and the
National Examination Council, (NECO) examinations for them. They turn out with
“A” grades, but they are barely able to answer the most basic questions posed
to them, to defend their certificates as it were.
Back in 2015, by the way, Buhari, despite his well-established
communicative deficiencies, never reassigned questions directed at him. How he
has outsourced authority during his term in office will constitute another
discussion. It would have indeed been more dignifying for Tinubu to have
attended the Arise Television Townhall Meeting in Lagos. Any of the governors
who travelled with him would have done a better job of the delivery of the
address which was well written by the way. Tinubu and his party owe Nigeria and
the international community profound apologies. The much publicised Chatham
House appearance was a humongous disaster.
Tinubu’s appearances on the soapbox across the country since the flag-off of campaigns have been characterised by concerning verbal gaffes and wobbly coordination. When he is not calling Delta State “Niger Delta State,” he is offering prayers for the success of the main opposition party, PDP.
While on
a recent campaign visit to Bayelsa State, the APC flagbearer struggled to
pronounce the words “recreate” and “technological.” Out there at the Chatham
outing, even when he had the dais all to himself, Tinubu stuttered in
instances, including having difficulties with an expression as straightforward
as “co-contestants.” These serial blunderings have inspired several social
media skits and videos, highlighting worrying cognitive challenges of the APC
candidate.
The obvious plan of the APC is to paper up, cover up in glass
and gloss and foist on Nigerians a president with such worrying vitals. Or
else, why the Tom and Jerry roulette about a man who intends to superintend
over the lives and affairs of Africa’s most populous country remain eternally
shrouded in mystery? This is even when Nigeria is yet to recover from the long
years of the locusts of the Muhammadu Buhari catastrophe, which has subsisted
since 2015. A man who survives drowning is more circumspect when he sees a
large body of water.
This reported fraud perpetrated by the APC has impugned the
integrity of Chatham House as a centre for serious intellection. The
Administrators of Chatham House should interrogate who gave approval for the
staging of this blatant fraud within their premises. The APC has obviously
exported its alleged corruptive tendencies to London, to destroy a once
respected British institution. Future participants at Chatham House engagements
will be more discerning henceforth.
Nigerians must be circumspect and resist the installation of
another “royal president” who will oscillate between the comfy cocoon of the
presidential villa and the world class medical facilities of Europe and
America. We cannot go to the Saturday, February 25, 2023 polls blindfolded, the
way we did in 2015. We cannot afford another president who will be a serial
medical tourist, logging a whopping 225 days of our collective life and
existence. A very popular Yoruba adage tells us that even as we shed tears, our
eyes are not blind to goings on around us.
Tinubu’s managers and handlers owe Nigeria the obligation of
allowing us to engage with the man who aspires to make presidential broadcasts
to us, post-May 29, 2023. Nigerians must prevail on Tinubu to talk to us
face-to-face like Atiku, his principal challenger who is ever enthusiastic to
reassure Nigerians how we can collectively rebuild our crumbled national
edifice. The title of the very incisive book: This House Has Fallen: Nigeria In
Crisis, by the German author, Karl Maeir, cannot be more apposite. Nigeria
doesn’t need a masquerade as leader. We need a tested Atiku Abubakar who can
very ably provide full-steam leadership straight out of “Eagle Square,” Monday,
May 29, 2023.
*Dr
Olusunle, poet and journalist, is Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to PDP
presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar
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