REMINISCENCE OF A FREEDOM-FIGHTER

The forth coming elections will present us with contrary indications, writes William Eleje-Abili

The up-coming general elections should fill us with a sense of fore-boding and will certainly present us with contrary indications. At a point it began to look as if we’re trying to stage-manage state failure and derail the electoral process by subterfuge… After the general elections, the biggest decision facing the country is how to re-structure the federation, devolve power to federating states, depolarize energy and economic opportunities and de-agglomerate the federal capital territory, but we are still talking about re-structuring as if it’s balkanization…

Solomon and Queen Sheba had a sweet heart to heart chat. Solomon was a Master, no King like David his father. Solomon was Master-judge, Poet and Philosopher. David was a Musician and Commander- in- Chief. Whether King the Ruler or Master the Sage God has made them so… They’re two fascinating characters on the political turf today, one sounds a servant the other, a master… We are behind that kind of Obi talk but Tinubu speaks and is ahead… Obi sounds sweet motherly talking smart, Tinubu sounds family fatherly narrating dreams… I use to listen to Tinubu a lot and it’s not often he speaks until I heard Obi. I began to wonder if indeed a mathematician is smarter than a philosopher.…To establish the truth if any in the above assertion, we must hold Atiku constant but the acronym SMART would have to be the defining leit motif of the hypothesis and having studied for the test, I found that though Obi is feasible, Tinubu is viable. Obi is what we need, Tinubu is what we lack. When it comes to mobilization, Obi more than even Nnamdi Kanu is a man to watch but Tinubu has a country-wide super-structure. Obi is a mathematician with figures he figures out things, Tinubu is a Philosopher with word he figures outer things. Mathematicians solve problem defined by philosophers. The philosopher with words like Adolf Hitler voiced magical spell on the world, Albert Einstein the mathematician figured out how to dispel it. John F Kennedy the philosopher said go to the moon so he built, but it is mathematicians at NASA that constructed the ivory-tower; philosophers built Dubai and Singapore, mathematicians constructed them…

Solomon the philosopher built the house of God, Bezaleel the mathematician constructed it…

Obi was not favored by geo-politics but it would have been fascinating to watch him perform with Tinubu, for while Obi as an obedient servant will be stringent with details of good governance standards and rule of law, Tinubu will not be given to micro-management…. Obi is specific, he is seeing what many are seeing, Tinubu is vague he is seeing what many cannot see. Obi performance can be measured, Tinubu is not subject to quantitative analysis.

Tinubu is saying what doesn’t look readily achievable Obi is talking what looks achievable. Obi is sounding realistic, Tinubu is surreal. Obi’s ideas look like those whose time has come, Tinubu looks ahead of his time. Tinubu is looking at the roof, Obi is looking at the foundation. Obi looks an immediate task, Tinubu looks a distance assignment both of them are dramatis personae, constituted personalities that handed over to clones of sophisticated vision and formidable system. Tinubu had a great dream for Lagos, Obi put a formidable system in Awka. Vision is a plastic lens, easy to change or at best a glass of broken promise, but very difficult to change is any vision, it is a value window.

Tinubu is unfolding like a sagacious politician trying to share a powerful vision but it would appear that many will rather have the value of a choice window. I would have liked to see Tinubu rub shoulders with the President of Kenya, President of Ghana, President of South Africa, President of Rwanda but it is looking more like Kwankwaso and Wike who I see as honey for they’re both neutralizer and catalyst, will be the ones to probably decide which of them will emerge, the philosopher and teacher, the mathematician and evangelist, or the factor held constant but never…

Tinubu has a fascinating dream that can capture the imagination of the discerning but is un-likely to clash with his benefactor and his incumbent, he’s not talking smart. Obi must find a way to work with political infrastructure, he has no structure. Tinubu can work hands down, Obi has to be up on his feet. None of the three key actors can show good reason to be optimistic, meanwhile Kwankwaso, who meticulously balance his ticket has been more or less mute, Atiku whom we held constant not only moves, he has a movement and don’t forget that the Hausa-man will leave you with ninety-nine if he can keep number one, while the Yoruba woman is more Yoruba in London than in Lagos…

Eleje-Abili writes from Lagos