ASIWAJU, IT’S YOUR TURN!

GBADEBO ADEYEYE urges the incoming administration to move swiftly and tackle issues that touch on the welfare of the people

Helder Camera once said, “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food to eat, they call me a communist”. Well, call Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu the Jagaban of Iragbiji or Chicago baron, he had been called worse names in the past. But, history was kind to him on February 25, 2023 when, like the biblical David, he buried all the political cynics at the most terrifying presidential poll in Nigeria. Now it has become more apparent than ever before that the most pronounced dangers facing our land are forces that threaten within. And since the survival of Nigeria is not just tribal or religion issue but moral imperative, it is essential that all potential enemies of the incoming government, particularly those captives of tribalism unwilling to recognize progress in race relations be reminded that peace is the highest aspiration of Nigerian citizens at this moment; the president elect will work to negotiate for it, sacrifice for it but not surrender for it now or ever! Unfortunately, the trouble with most politicians in our country, especially those critics of the former Lagos State governor and president elect, Asiwaju Tinubu, is not that they are ignorant; it is just that they know so much about the political lion of Lagos that isn’t so. Horace Manne said, “We should be ashamed to die until we have won some victory for humanity”.

That is why in a time like this when the mood in our society is grim, it takes a man of remarkable courage and conviction like Asiwaju Tinubu to step up and offer an inspiring message of hope, optimism and opportunity to Nigerian citizens. Of course, it is true that in Nigeria today, we have some people who cannot see a fat man standing beside a thin man without coming to the conclusion that the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one. However, it is also true that as the situation is in our country now, North or South, Asiwaju Tinubu is the only progressive democrat who can hold the nation together as the most fully Nigerian president without spending billions of public money to buy uniform for terrorists, and thousands of TV sets for a place where they have no electricity in the republic of Mali. And whether he is from Iragbiji or whether he attended elementary school at Adeniji Adele or Obalende, the president-elect is more committed to a belief in the promise of Nigeria than many political masquerades in our midst. His power of political arithmetic, his logic, ambition, mental sagacity and other qualities have set him apart from do or die politicians and their ideological father in Ota. For example, this is a man who made a profound impact on the development of Lagos even at the time when the federal government, under former President Olusegun Obasanjo tried to ravage the entire state government and claimed that Lagos would never survive; same way he closed business doors to Kingsway, Leventis, UAC, and other multinationals as a military dictator with anti-free trade policy that created the first graduates unemployment in Nigeria since 1970s. Whereas, freedom is contagious. economic freedom inevitably leads to political freedom. This had happened in South Korea, Taiwan, Chile, and other countries ruled by dictatorial regimes, except in Nigeria where economic freedom is suppressed by frightened political dictators or sabotaged by shortsighted policies that cut back on trade with the rest of the world.

Now let us get the record straight. Sir Winston Churchill said many years ago that, “The destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we’re spirits and not animals”. The same former British Prime Minister and Nobel laureate said further that, “There’s something going on in time and space; and beyond time and space which whether we like it or not, spells duty”. Agreed that Asiwaju had fumbled about his age in the past like millions of Nigerian citizens in the public service, but that only made him seem more human. Agreed also that he was not born on the island as claimed by some pundits including emeritus inmates, but Asiwaju is a son of the heartland. The people who voted for him did not do so because he was born in Lagos, but because of what he has in his heart.

The president elect is at his very core not so much Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo as profoundly Nigerian. Unlike the political cynics who seem to speak more from the head than the heart, Asiwaju Tinubu seems to be talking from the heart than the head. His authority has come not from established political structures, but from a special chemistry directly with Nigerian citizens from the North to Southern part of the country. But the question facing Nigerians now is, how will Asiwaju’s political gift, ambition and fine sense of the need to seize the moment will translate into the mundane business of organizing and operating the sprawling federal bureaucracy? The answer is, we don’t know. What we do know is that people are hungry for change, hope, and a way to leave a lot of bad history behind in Nigeria. And Asiwaju Bola Ahmed must move aggressively without fanfare and get early action on issues that are often ignored by our leaders as less important but are in fact very vital to the wellbeing of every family in our society; otherwise, he will be swept out as fast as he was swept in with the same broom!

 Adeyeye is Proprietor, Crown Heights College, Ibadan