“Life is politics, you do it or it does you.” – Bangambiki Habyarimana
If Bola Ahmad Tinubu would be wise enough not to attempt at running for the Presidency, it would have been the wisest decision he has ever taken.
Tinubu literally owns the Southwest, that’s a given. He also has a good number of following all over the North, but may not necessarily be so, if not because of his support for Buhari during the 2015 Elections. I really wouldn’t say he has any footing in the South-south and Southeast.
The sore of the 2015 Elections still remains fresh in the hearts and minds of the people from that bloc especially with their belief that Tinubu contributed enormous resources in all definitions of the term, and deployed them to destroy their son, politically.
The new (not nice) trend IPOB is adopting, that is of attacking Igbo leaders either for wrong or the right reasons will also affect Tinubu’s standing in the East so very much. The latest of the IPOB misadventure is, the reward of 1 million Naira Nnamdi Kanu offered to any person or group that could provide him with the itinerary of Igbo Governors when they visit Europe. This is a very wrong precedent Kanu is launching. And I hope he fails woefully!
Someone may think I’m not Igbo as such I have no right to comment on this, in answer to that unasked question; till Nigeria splits (which I don’t hope for. I’m still a citizen and hold such people as the former Deputy Senate President in high esteem). An attack on his person is not an Igbo affair. It was a Nigerian Statesman, dressed in a regalia that bore our nation’s greatest insignia who was humiliated in Germany. That humiliation was done to the whole country and the continent of Africa. If unchecked, these things would continue like wild fires. I have heard some myopic minded people already saying the Igbo have waged a revolution upon their leaders. It will be a very wrong way of correcting whatever mis or maladministration they feel they received from their elected officers. Civility and decorum must be used in making their points and never violence as that, only begets violence.
Weighing these odds side by side the clamour by some people, for Tinubu to contest for the highest office in the country will be fatally wrong, at least politically. The late Shehu Musa ‘Yar Adua was larger than life until he ventured into politics which led to the loss of his life. He was referred then by the press as, “A Kind Maker Who Wanted To Be King.” He May have failed to realise, kingmakers never become Kings.
Tinubu is a great politician. He silenced Obasanjo and has turned him into what the Hausa man would say, “Birin Wasa”! He has pocketed (not financially), the Yoruba academic elite, religious, political, women and youth leaders. He has built an empire of success upon success. If only he would do the same in the South-south, Southeast and the entire North. Providing that leadership which the 3 latter regions don’t really have, he would have been a President without having to go through the trouble of getting their by the ballot.
I hope he reasons. I don’t have any candidate for the office of President. I don’t care where the next President would emerge from, but I certainly care about the kind of person we would get as such.
“Let no one ever intimidate you, you are standing on no one’s ground. But again, some have claimed the earth as their own and usurped power from the rest of us. But they are usurpers; power belongs to every one of us. Seek it as much as possible. There is no shame in that. In fact it’s a necessity. Either you have power or you are trampled to death in the stampede to get to the top.”
– Bangambiki Habyarimana
*Bello Mukhtar*
