Tinubu: The Unrivalled Political Colossus of our Time
By Mohammed Belgore
Once, Ptolemy Sotter the Greek General and Historian imposed upon himself the task of narrating the life and times of one of the most historically remarkable figures, Alexander the Great.
He simply said: “I have known many great men in my lifetime, but only one Colossus.” To him Alexander the Great was the most remarkable of men to ever grace the planet earth.
Indeed Alexander the Great was a King whose feats and achievements were almost impossible to match, yet Bola Ahmed Tinubu as far as this writer is concerned, is a colossus of contemporary times.
In the build up to the 2023 general elections, precisely a few days before the APC primaries, Tinubu dropped what looked like a bomb in Abeokuta.
To describe that moment, I borrow the words of John Steinbeck who said that “As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment.”
The indefatigable former governor of Lagos state while addressing delegates in Abeokuta, spoke like a man whose confidence knows no vulnerability.
He said it was his time. Speaking to the audience in Yoruba, one of the highlights of his speech, was his assertion that “Egbe ki ni yi wa, Emi lo kan,” which in English means, “give me this mandate, it is my turn.”
Many believed he had shot himself in the foot because he spared no one in the verbal execution, one could say it was fueled by desperation, yet a more accurate judgement would be to say that he spoke the way he did because he had no reservations, no iota of doubt as to the trajectory of his destiny. He believed there was no force on the surface of the earth that would stand in his way because it was his time.
Perhaps as rumour had it at the time, there were certain individuals who made up a cabal at the Presidency. It was rumoured that this cabal was working to truncate his ambition. His vocal bomb in Abeokuta would seem to have been a response to the Aso Rock infantry cabal.
He responded like a political field marshall, he didn’t care whose ox was gored, even the President at the time, Muhammadu Buhari, was not spared from the rays of the bomb blast that Tinubu detonated.
Tinubu explained how without him Buhari would never have been President and then turned to speak about the Governor of Ogun State, Dapo Abiodun. “Even this one behind me, Dapo, he knows that if not for me, he would never have been able to become a Governor,” he said, speaking Yoruba.
Ordinarily one expects the governor who sat behind him to have worn a demeanour of irritation because he was meant to perceive Tinubu’s statement as a condescending jibe, but rather he was nodding his head in affirmation.
That moment in time was a confirmation of his divine assuredness of who he truly was and his soldiers, his political prodigies, like Governor Abiodun, knew that this was a colossus.
The day of the primary election finally arrived and the events of that fateful night further corroborated the fact that Tinubu was actually in competition with no one .
When it was time for the other aspirants such as Godswill Akpabio, Ibikunle Amosun, Kayode Fayemi, Abubakar Badaru etc to speak to the delegates, they merely stepped down for the man who the cap firmly fits.
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Tinubu went on to win the primaries. His vocal bomb blast in Abeokuta rather than destroy his ambition apparently accelerated his ascension to the throne of the APC presidential flag bearer.
He had reminded everyone that he was the true colossus of our time. He had surmounted the first hurdle, it was now time to face the second hurdle of the general elections.
He recognised that it was in his best interest to pick a Vice Presidential candidate that would guarantee him the necessary votes to win the general elections.
His verdict was to pick a running mate who had to be a Muslim from the North East in other to gain votes from the core north – northwest and northeast.
A Muslim-Muslim ticket was as a matter of fact a slippery slope. It was by no means an easy decision considering the country’s fault lines.
Many other politicians would have found such a decision too weighty to risk, but Tinubu in his excessive confident manner, damned all consequences and made his decision. He knew where he was going, he knew how to get there.
In one of his speeches during the campaigns he asserted that “some may be running, I don’t know where to, but me I am running to Aso rock”, it was a funny statement but another testament to his unflinching resolve that it was indeed his time.
A few weeks to the general elections, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) decided to embark on the controversial naira redesign policy which caused an unprecedented cash crunch.
Fuel queues escalated for no apparent reason. The conspiracy theorists, perhaps rightly, judged that this was all to make his ambition even more difficult to achieve.
Tinubu in his usual unflinching resolve at a rally would then say again in Yoruba that, “if they like they should make Naira scarce, they should make petrol scarce, whatever they do, I will still win!”
The day of reckoning finally came, Nigerians took to the polls. It was indeed an election like no other in Nigeria’s history, for there were four (4) major candidates, representing the PDP, APC, Labour Party and the NNPP.
At the end of the game the referee blew his whistle, and the umpire announced Tinubu as the winner. He had reached his destination like a heavy duty truck in whose way nobody dared to stand. He cleared all his obstacles.
Finally the day of his coronation arrived. Tinubu in his inaugural speech hit all the right notes and sounded like a King who was ready to rule his Kingdom with the wisdom of Solomon, and the temerity of Alexander the Great.
In what was a shocker, Tinubu announced the continuation of his predecessor’s fuel subsidy removal policy. He wasted not even a second.
This was again a move that further spoke of the confidence he had in himself, his predecessor kept on postponing the evil day for the fear of the resultant backlash, but Tinubu took the bold decision for the greater good, regardless of the initial pain. The newly crowned GCFR said succinctly, “subsidy is gone”.
Nigerians now await their fate, and like someone once said to me, if Tinubu is determined to make Nigeria better, only death can stand in his way, if on the contrary he has no patriotic zeal for the country and doesn’t care to set the nation on the right path, we are in trouble because he is a man of unconquerable forces.
Perhaps the colossus will rescue Nigeria from the doldrums of darkness, perhaps our suffering has just begone. Only time can and will tell. I expect it will be the former. Nigeria will be great, again.
Mohammed Belgore, a legal practitioner, writes from Abuja.
