In the last 24 years, I have checked around the political space in Nigeria, and yet to see a politician that has been so persecuted, maligned, betrayed and pilloried like President Bola Tinubu.
I began to write about this special specie two years before he indicated interest in the presidency. I remember an article that I titled ‘Tinubu, child of necessity’ and another one, titled, ‘race to Aso Rock, no one can stop Tinubu’ and so many more
These were parts of several articles I wrote about this political enigma of our time, who is now the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
I am not writing to bore anyone with the history of Bola Ahmed Tinubu because everything about him is already in the public space.
A few days ago, a one-week event was rolled out to mark the 10th year anniversary of the demise of Dr. Olusegun Kokumo Agagu, a former minister and governor of Ondo State. The event took off in Akure with a colloquium in his honour and followed with the unveiling of his statue erected by the students of the Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa
It was also followed with a well attended Thanksgiving service held at the Anglican Church, Iju-Odo, the ancestral home of Dr. Olusegun Agagu, and the event eventually ended on the 13th of September, 2023 with a book launch in his honour at the civic centre in VI ,Lagos..
In all, if Agagu were to watch the series of events held in his honour inside his grave, I know he will be celebrating and want to come back to this world again. Unfortunately, he was no longer with us. Therefore, this kind of celebration is good but would have been more relevant in his lifetime.
I have decided to input this story here to be able to drive home my point. I still insist that as a people, it’s a share misplaced of priority on our part as a people to celebrate our best brains when they are no longer with us. Most times, we cry for lack of visionary leadership as our major bane of progress but it has been clearly established that the few ones that emerged in our political spaces were brutalized, betrayed, castigated and frustrated to the extent that they died young. Sometimes they could not withstand the shocks from the people they love. In the end, the same people who were responsible for their untimely death would file out around their graves to celebrate them.
When Agagu was alive, he was persecuted by his own people and removed from his second term in office by the court in controversial circumstances. But after his death, people are all over the place, singing his praises. But alas, a man who was once despised is now being honoured in grave by the same people who once vilified him.
Why do we love to dig the graves of our best brains while they are alive only to roll out the drums as soon as they close their eyes in death? We now celebrate them as heroes.
Some Nigerians who could not manage their emotions could hate leaders for no just cause. They maintain bellyful animosity because of different political affiliations. Their weapon is the pull him down at all costs syndrome. Why should we continue to destroy our benefactors, only to stand by their graves to describe them tomorrow as the best person on earth? Remember the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo was described as the best president Nigeria never had.
A child of destiny, who is here discharging his mandate to humanity is being vilified daily by people without any pedigree. What a shame of a nation? Some of our elders who should know better have also desecrated in the market square
Today, Aisha Yusuf, the noise maker, who says president Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not her president despite the election petitions tribunal decision, should be picked up by the DSS.
I have also written that Peter Obi should also be picked up by the DSS because he has a hidden agenda. His campaign mantra of ‘ take back your country is a call to anarchy and revolt against the country. It is same crime as calling for a revolution just like the Arab springs or insurrection. Why should the youth take back the country forcefully from the established authority? The only process by which power can be transferred to the young or old and elderly people in Nigeria is through the constitutional democracy. Peter Obi wanted a change through the back door (the military or revolution).
His agenda was not because of the 2023 general elections. He only came to continue the Biafra project with Nnamdi Kanu. It’s on record that he never denounced the sit at home order until the military and other security agencies stepped up their games.
Why should a person like the former number two man in this country who we know as a political ally of the current president go to the level of making attempts to bring his friend down in far away United States of America?
Nigerians are going through tension over the subsidy removal and the deregulation of the foreign exchange markets and the impacts on the economy yet this does not border the traducers. They prefer spending several millions of dollars on enquiries to know if Tinubu went to school at all or attended Chicago State University. This is very ridiculous!
If Tinubu didn’t go to school, how did he work for various multinational companies, including ExxonMobil? How did he become an accountant? Why did we allow political ambitions to blindfold us as if there would not be tomorrow?
Now, all the battles, the insults, the propaganda, and the resources that should be deployed into useful purposes have been wasted in an attempt to destroy the image of the destiny child, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Now his image is soaring as the president of the most populous black nation in the world and unauguably the biggest economy in Africa. Chicago State University just reaffirmed it once again that he actually attended their school.
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar should, by now, retire and face his business in Dubai because Wike has taken over the body and soul of the PDP and I doubt whether he can be in the same political party with Wike now or in future. I have also not forgotten that his boss, OBJ, once said: “Atiku can’t be the president of Nigeria in his lifetime.”
Tinubu should be allowed to reposition this country on the right trajectory where there is inclusion, equity, and justice. Where there is the rule of law and even distribution of available resources and opportunities.
Enough of these distractions! Allow this child of destiny to deliver on his mandate.
It is sad that those who were beneficiaries of our courts system (judiciary) yesterday are now castigating the judges today because this time around, the pronouncements of courts didn’t favour them. We also know that it is within their right to appeal.
It is high time those who lost out in the 2023 general elections began to plan for 2027.
Elections can’t be won on the pulpits or ethnic basis. Not through the social media or barrel of guns,
A word is sufficient for the wise!
.Otunba Sola Olatunji, Chairman, Ikale Heritage Development Association, writes from Lagos
