MASTERY OF COURAGE – LESSONS FROM PRESIDENT TINUBU’S EXPLOITS IN POLITICS BY YEMI ADUROTOYE
The man Bola Ahmed Tinubu has today risen to become a special case study in politics. This is because his voyage in the political sphere, particularly his journey to the Presidency, the apex political office in the country, was tortuous and tardy, the path was laid excessively with thorns and treacheries but he surmounted them all and triumphed. To say he is a strategist is not incorrect, that he is focused and forthright is to say the least, but to add that he’s courageous, resilient, dogged, and determined is stating the obvious. He is indeed a phenomenon.
This piece, aimed at celebrating him as he ends his second year in office as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, lays out the many lessons one can learn from his exploits in the political space, which are all laid with courage, a subject he had taken to mastering long time ago and putting it into action, unreservedly.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) was arguably well prepared for the Presidency, more than 30 years ago, he courageously took the plunge and dived into the stormy political waters, leaving behind him, the plush office of Treasurer, Mobil Oil, a giant in the petroleum marketing subsector of the nation’s economy. He was no doubt determined. His position was reserved for him for years, in event he finds things unbearable, he could return to it; but he never looked back. He left his comfort zone to face new life in the political arena, a region full of uncertainties. That could be said to be the foundation of his political journey. And he weathered the storm.
His first shot for elective political office was in 1992. He vied for a senatorial seat in Lagos under Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida-led military junta’s transition programme, and he won. He was not sponsored by anyone. He was without a godfather. He had a calculated attempt to stick out his neck and contest for the Senate President’s seat, but he sacrificed that ambition for cogent political reasons. What informed his backing down from contesting Senate Presidency was that Mashood Kasimawo Olawale Abiola (simply MKO Abiola) was contesting for the Presidency; in fact, he had emerged the presidential candidate of their party, Social Democratic Party (SDP). Both men are from the southwestern zone of Nigeria; so the zoning arrangement would not be in his favour. More so, he felt it was better for his kinsman to get the presidency rather than him taking home Senate Presidency.
PBAT knows who is ahead of him and who is behind him, which certainly helped him to master how to relate with them and how to support them. He has ever been known for taking well calculated steps with courage. His life is not ruled by fear or fret but by fighting just cause having his formula enveloped in divine favour.
The transition from military rule to democratic rule was truncated with the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election. The progressive announcement of the Presidential Election result was stopped abruptly in compliance with “Order from Above”. That disrupted his political journey, but he was not deterred. He gladly joined the struggle to reclaim the mandate for MKO Abiola. National Democratic Coalition, a.k.a NADECO, was formed to realize the goal of ensuring the triumph of democracy and have MKO Abiola sworn in as president. He was deep in the NADECO struggles while in Nigeria and when he went on political exile.
Upon his return from exile after General Sanni Abacha, the then Head of State, died in office, he didn’t return to the Senate. He contested for the governorship of Lagos State and won. He used the Alliance for Democracy (AD) as a political platform to realize that ambition. The struggle for AD ticket brought him into close association with Afenifere members, a political pressure group distinct from NADECO and entrenched in the southwest geopolitical zone of the country. He then restarted and re-oiled his own political machinery. In fact, some of the personalities in Afenifere were those he had close relationships with during the NADECO struggles. Both the powers of dedication and positive association fetched him good place and acceleration in politics.
In Lagos, as governor, he made his mark in a distinguished manner. He was distinct in performance, churning out projects and programmes to the benefit of all. He was credited as the man who laid the foundation upon which New Lagos is today built. New Lagos is the summary description of a state that captures peaceful coexistence of people from diverse backgrounds, where progress is possible in a better living environment with a bolstering economy, burnished to high rating. He clearly understands that credible performance is the magnetic force that draws continuous support from the populace.
President Obasanjo and his men deployed political subterfuge and military tactics, which swept away State Governors of the South West region who were from AD, replaced them with those from People’s Democratic Party, but not Tinubu. He was the last man standing among the AD governors. He was highly praised for not succumbing to ‘sweeping tactics’ of the PDP abracadabra.
At the nick of successfully completing (with applause) his 2nd tenure as governor of Lagos, Nigerians were already yearning for him at the national level. They wanted him to come and use the magic wand he used to turn Lagos State around for good on a larger scale on Nigeria. He was not the man to jump the gun. He didn’t file for the contest. He didn’t jump into the ring. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, a Yoruba man like himself, has just finished two terms as president. Tinubu saw it as an unripe time. He would not swim against the tide. He waited for his time, calculatively.
For ridding the political sphere like a colossus, for weathering the stormy political atmosphere, for managing the Centre of Excellence as an enigma with the needed guts and gumption, many started calling for him to pilot the nation’s affairs. He systematically drowned the influence of the opposition in Lagos while using his political machinery to build worthy lieutenants across the tribal divides. Lagosians as residents in Lagos are fondly called, did not only see in him a leader they can trust but they equally recognized his contributions to the state development and honoured him with the Chieftaincy title of Asiwaju (i.e. frontliner leader) of Lagos. The prestigious title was conferred on him by the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Aremu Akiolu, Permanent Chairman, Lagos State Council of Obas and Chiefs.
Asíwájú Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the Leader of Action Congress (AC), the new party that grew out of the ashes of Alliance for Democracy, AD, relinquished the Presidential ticket to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in 2007. Atiku was then vice president, but he was edged out of his party, People’s Democratic Party, PDP, when he wanted to contest for the presidency during the 2007 general elections. Atiku could not make it to the presidency. Asiwaju offered a similar gesture to Nuhu Ribadu, the former Czar of the Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, when he contested for the Presidency in 2011.
In 2015, the political maverick and tactician rolled his support for General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB, later PMB), and he won. Then Buhari’s party, Congress for Progressive Change, CPC had fused with Asiwaju’s Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, plus a section of All Nigerian People’s Party, ANPP and a breakaway faction of APGA (All Progressive Grand Alliance) to form a mega party christened All Progressives Congress, APC. Buhari contested on the platform of APC, and he won and became president. Many political analysts would say: Without Asiwaju, there can’t be the presidential office for Muhammadu Buhari because he had been serial loser in the electoral battles he fought thrice before 2015.
PBAT was angling for his turn, waiting patiently for 2023, when Buhari would have concluded second term in office. As a renowned strategist, he knew his turn may not likely be on a platter of gold. Though he had his men in government but they were turned against him. Before Buhari would end his first term, the Jagaban, another prestigious Chieftaincy title he took in Borgu Kingdom, Niger State, had been ostracized from the proverbial corridor of power. When Buhari’s second term seemed like a mountainous obstacle to the then Mr. President, an expert mountain climber was beckoned; Tinubu was brought back to the fold to lead from the front. He didn’t shrugged them off or pay them back in their own coins. He agreed to return and took the gauntlets for the party flag-bearer. And he sure delivered; Buhari got his second term.
In fact, while Buhari held sway between 2019 and 2023, a lot happened that could have punctured Tinubu’s ambition, but he navigated them all. The hatchet men in the Aso Villa piloted against his getting the party’s ticket, and he waded through all. There were political undercurrents and high wired, politicized dealings, which manifested in the forms of government policies at the Centre, which were targeted at worsening the political atmosphere and discourage the electorate from sticking out their necks for someone like him. These were days many thought Jagaban would succumb and give up his Ambition, he never did. He courageously and resolutely pressed on, he never gave in. For him, it was a determined, no-going-back pursuit like a troop on the battlefield that bombed the bridge with which escape can be made and singing: “We have decided to fight this battle, we have decided to fight this battle. We have decided to fight this battle, no turning back, no turning back.”
During that hot period, no group or institutions like Afenifere surfaced to pick up the rescuer’s job. Afenifere was more like an institutional compass for some politicians but not Asiwaju. He has worked for the presidency with all of his energies and tactics. He had no godfather; nobody, no group, region, or power centre that can boldly claim to have made Tinubu the President of Nigeria.
Among the many political treacheries he had to contend with was betrayal. Those who claimed to be loyal lieutenants switched camps and shifted allegiance. Some self-exited members of his innermost power circles, the likes of Rauf Aregbesola, Babafemi Ojodu, Yemi Osinbajo, e.t.c openly worked against him and antagonized him. In the South West, those who conferred on him the highest level of Afenifere Leadership betrayed him. Some bigwigs in politics stand up against him, Chief Ayo Adebanjo (now of Blessed memory) fought him to standstill. Chief Bode George, a retired military officer, swore never to get near the presidency if he should win.
Those were the odds against him. In fact, Obasanjo canvassed not for him but totally against him. Though Pa Reuben Fasoranti tried positively, the old man’s influence couldn’t add up. The propaganda machinery deployed against him swayed the majority of the Yoruba Youths to hate him as many were derelictically saying: “What else does he wants, he is old enough to go and sit down?” They wanted Jagaban to take the backseat, politically, assuming the role of godfather of some sort. It was unimaginable that Lagos and Osun States could decline voting for him.
The Igbo people of the South East region loathed him to a ridiculing extent. They openly despised and derided him as they had their favourite choice in Peter Obi of Labour Party. They gleefully joined those who lied against him, spreading calumnious campaigns against him.
As part of the unimaginable odds, the Hausa-Fulanis of the North-West region were not known to be highly committed to him. The various outcomes in the region showed this claim. He lost in Kaduna State and in Katsina State, home states of the then Governor Nasir El-Rufai and President Muhammadu Buhari, respectively. To come around and say they made him president is against logical reasoning. Instead, Bandits from this end increased the tempo of their violent killings and kidnappings.
Hurdles and bobby traps were laid out on economic fronts. But they all later turned out to be policy summersaults. The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, struck with Cash Swap policy as it came out with restricted and cladestinely circulated new naira notes that never penetrated the nooks and crannies of the country. citizens were made to go through the hardship of “no money,” a worse period of sufferings, seeing food but no cash to purchase them.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, was deliberately frustrated to make the nation’s teeming youths sit at home for an unprecedented length of time. The regulator national oil establishment, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, made the fuel queues appear again for unprecedented length of time at filling stations across the country. Electric power distributors could not make ends meet. The nation was for several months hearing of collapse of National grid.
All these were happening at the same time as they were
directed towards making Nigerians see no reason to go ahead with the all-important general elections and even make the political environment worse for the ruling party’s candidate. The Villa’s cabal almost succeeded in turning public opinion against Asiwaju after emerging the APC flag-bearer, and the presidency pretended not to notice that anything was amiss.
Jagaban might have had a dilemma in picking his running mate, but he eventually came out with one. He made a Muslim from Borno State, Senator Kashim Shettima, his preferred choice. For daring to arrive at the Muslim-Muslim ticket, he was so much castigated for it. On account of this point, the Middle Belters, who are predominantly Christians, were totally convinced total cast their votes against him. In all of these, Asiwaju kept his eyes on the ball.
In short, many were the odds against Asíwájú Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the race to the presidency. Even his then party chairman tried to rob him of the party’s ticket in the days heading to the primaries. Questions will be asked again and again about how he made it. How did Tinubu make it to the presidency? What caused the pendulum to swing in his favour? The great lessons here are: Getting to know about Power of Determination and deploying it, ability to shoulder on with Resilience. He is, without mincing words, a quintessential marathon racer in politics; his voyage took over 30 years to arrive at the Presidency. Asiwaju was no doubt dogged. He was indeed a master craftsman in political strategy whose life is solidly rooted in courage.
He indeed demonstrated astute boldness to announce that “Subsidy is gone” in his first day in Office through his official inauguration address. He grappled with the consequent turbulence, drafted in several palliative measures, but forged ahead. Today, he had succeeded in stamping out fuel subsidy. PBAT is renowned for making bold decisions. In erasing fuel subsidy, he took the bullet every leader before him dodged. He willingly sacrificed his popularity for the country and for all the states.
One may choose to ignore the facts, but the results in the aftermath can not be ignored. Tax reforms are about taking firm roots. Happily, key infrastructures are having gracious attention. The ambitious Lagos – Calabar Coastal Highway project is ongoing steadily. Nigeria economic development is on the recovery path. Jagaban may likely emerge as the best president we ever had in Nigeria’s recent history.
• Adurotoye is a journalist, Youth Leadership Trainer and Public Relations Professional and he could be contacted via 08052244985
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