For the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed
Tinubu (ABAT) LLC, these are trying times. These times are sour and very
discomforting. The times are painful and full of regrets. The “greatest
political strategist of our generation” as his employees and ardent
supporters would like to refer to him is reeling from debilitating
political injuries. There is gnashing of teeth and mopping of lips in
the ABAT LLC. Even, for those who are not fans of the mercantilist made
for profit political outfit called ABAT LLC, the garish groans oozing
out of Bourdillon has been eliciting pores of pity and chasms of
empathy.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu
The Chairman and the CEO of ABAT LLC is
no other person than Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu himself. He has been a
lonely man in recent days. No place could be lonelier than a wilderness,
especially political wilderness for someone who lives and breathes
politics. From the look of things, the “greatest political strategist of
our generation,” has strategized himself out of relevance and serious
contention in the political dynamics of the All Progressive Congress, a
political party that was his brainchild to a very great extent.
Through
overconfidence, carelessness, naivety, contempt of and for history,
disrespect of elders and odious knack for cold-blooded acts of political
perfidies, he has strategized himself into trouble waters. The trouble
waters do not seem to be ordinary, they are hot trouble waters. And
because they are hot trouble waters, they burn and hurt very badly. To
his credit, he is bearing his cross very silently and stoically. He is
taking the hand that fate has dealt him. He is licking his wounds in
secrecy while putting up appearances of a satisfied and satiated
political godfather. He is pretending that all is well when all is out
of sync. He has become emblematic of the good old saying, “Not all that
glitters is gold!”
The present administration led by President
Muhammadu Buhari would never have seen the light of the day if not for
Asiwaju Tinubu. His contributions in so many ways are public secrets. It
is not something one should dwell over again in this piece. One is just
giving this a mention because it is very telling when someone of
Tinubu’s caliber, a political godfather of no small means, one who has
made and unmade many political careers and ambitions, has been reduced
to political invalid. And from the feelers that are out there, like the
Americans would often say, “he ain’t seen nothing yet!” The extent of
humiliation that Asiwaju Tinubu has been subjected to by the Buhari
Presidency he empowered could only be fathomed when it is realized that
Tinubu could not boast of any candidate in the cabinet of President
Buhari.
From Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, one of the sworn enemies
of Tinubu was appointed to his chagrin. He could not stop it despite
all his efforts. In Ogun State, Anambra born Yoruba retired General
Olusegun Obasanjo – Onyejekwe, nominated the Minister of Finance, Mrs.
Kemi Adeosun. From Oyo State, President Buhari chose the gubernatorial
candidate of his political Party, CPC, in the previous election, Alhaji
Bayo Shitu as Minister. From Ekiti State, former Governor Kayode Fayemi,
the man with a conundrum of fraud allegations around his neck and
ankles, who was another beneficiary of Tinubu’s godfatherism went behind
him to ingratiate himself with Buhari to get a Ministerial appointment,
again to the chagrin of Tinubu.
In Osun State, when Raufu
Aregbesola’s second term election was on the ropes, Tinubu went to
prostrate to former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola to get support for his
protégé. The promise given to Oyinlola was to give him the Ministerial
slot of Osun State. And indeed his name was sent to Aso Rock. This was
until another powerful politician from Osun State who had stones to
grind with Oyinlola went there behind Tinubu to complain to President
Buhari. President Buhari then asked the powerful politician to bring in
substitution and the rest is history. Ondo State has never been under
the influence of Tinubu and he had no say whatsoever on who was
nominated. Mr. Claudius Daramola used his Northern connections from his
school days in Sokoto, Zaria and Jos to gain the confidence of President
Buhari.
The power base of Tinubu is supposedly the Southwest
States. For the untutored and the gullible, Tinubu is still the most
powerful politician in this hemisphere. But for those who understand the
dynamics of politics, Tinubu is fast becoming what the Yoruba calls
“agbunrin esi.” While things might still take a new turn, which
indicators are at variance with, it is evident that the once stronghold
of Tinubuism is fast dissipating if it has not already dissipated. What
is currently subsisting is a star that is gradually dimming as a result
of uncouth politicking inebriated with absence of etiquette and basic
values that civilized humanity has come to hold dear.
But this is not
an unexpected outcome for a for money/profit mercantilist organization
like ABAT LLC dubiously appareled in political garb. An organization
that is founded on the sole principle of money making through the
appropriation of political power for individual ends as opposed to the
peoples’ interests and the advancement of the society. The individualism
that forms the basic tenet of Tinubuism and the operational philosophy
of ABAT LLC is functionally related to the series of treacheries that
define its character and form the seeds of its destruction that is
presently unraveling.
The apogee of Tinubuism was 2012. In the years
leading to that point, Tinubuism was riding the waves. It had displaced
and replaced the original Afenifere leadership and branched out to
sponsor and control Afenifere Renewal Group. Tinubu had undercut the
Alliance of Democracy, betraying those who paved the path to Lagos
governorship victory for him and became the godfather of Action
Congress. He deceived the former Vice President Abubakar Atiku and
dangled the AC presidential ticket in his face only to sell him out at
the last minute. He repeated the same perfidy with Nuhu Ribadu who
became so frustrated he had to go and join PDP.
Before that time he
had faced down the political vampire called Olusegun Mathew Okikiola
Obasanjo-Onyejekwe. Tinubu fought Obasanjo-Onyejekwe to a standstill and
refused to be bullied. He was the lone survivor of all the AD governors
during the reelection of 2003. With his AC and control of Lagos, he had
strategically conquered Osun State, followed by Ekiti State. Oyo and
Ogun were later to be added to the price. The success was pulsating. He
imposed governors and senators across the land. He imposed members of
Federal House of Representatives. He disregarded the grassroots and the
feelings of the voters who did not seem to have a better alternative to
the PDP as he forced a lot of unpleasant candidates down the throats of
the Yoruba voters.
He began to feel his own sense of invulnerability.
He began to see himself as something other than ordinary. He felt and
began to act like a god. His confidence became imbued with ebullience to
the point that he publicly insulted all the Yoruba Obas calling them
unprintable names. He was walking in the clouds when he liked and walked
on water when he preferred. He was riding high beyond his own
expectations. He has found himself where he did not expect to be.
Tinubuism became the domineering philosophy on the political landscape
of Yorubaland with pockets of spineless opposition here and there.
When
Ondo State resisted the advance of Tinubuism with the help of Dr. Segun
“Iroko” Mimiko, in 2012, Tinubuism in the Southwest started receding
like a jaded and fading “Ankara cloth.” From that year, cracks in
Tinubuism began to show for those perspicacious enough. At that point in
time, the crises between him and Kayode Fayemi had begun to fester to
where Tinubu decided to raise a protest candidate against him for
re-election. The crisis led to the weakening of the APC that Governor
Ayodele Fayose came to exploit to kick the party out of Ekiti State.
Tinubu’s
woes became metastasized by Aregbesola’s messing up of Osun State to
the best of his ability. He did everything to please his godfather. He
even destroyed historical schools allegedly to pave way for the
ever-expanding business of his mentor in defiance to the crying and
wailing of the people of Osun State. Governor Abiola Ajimobi was glad to
be part of the ACN but did his best to maintain his independence. He
refused to lick the boots of Tinubu and was not enthused about paying
homage at Bourdillon. Governor Ibikunle Amosun also did not seem to
enjoy bootlicking. He maintained his dignified distance from Tinubuism
while working diplomatically with Tinubuists. Fashola was getting into
trouble in Lagos for trying to be his own man. It was the same thing
that got Fayemi into trouble in Ekiti.
