Asiwaju and strategic humility

TUNJI BELLO FROM PREMIUM TIMES

It was remarkable that Dangote himself referred to Tinubu as the “Asiwaju of Nigeria” on that important date to Nigeria’s economic history.

The incoming president and commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces must be ready to deploy more of that strategic humility when in office. There are more challenging times ahead. Two are quite critical: restoring confidence in our federal government and the ECONOMY. The Americans say it is about the “Economy, stupid!”

The title of this short piece is not exactly original. The phrase “strategic humility” was first coined brilliantly and diplomatically deployed by Henry Kissinger, the former American secretary of state, who marked his centenary a few days ago, in his recent book Leadership.

In that book, Kissinger did an analysis of six heads of state in the 20th century, who he considered as great leaders. They are France’s Charles De Gaulle, Germany’s Conrad Adreneur, America’s Richard Nixon, Singapore’s Lee Kwan Yew, Britain’s Margaret Thatcher and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat.

I may not necessarily agree with three of Kissinger’s categorisation, especially Nixon, Thatcher and Sadat. But that is a topic for another day. What I however find most interesting in the book is his take on Conrad Adreneur, Germany’s post-war chancellor. He cited Adreneur as a man who eased Germany into the mainstream of world power. It was a remarkable feat by a great man. That Germany found its way back into the centre of world politics (a privilege it still enjoys till today) is the brainchild of Adreneur, through his deployment of “strategic humility”.

I find these words relevant today as Asiwaju is set to take over the mantle of the nation’s leadership in a few days’ time. There is no dispute among those who have worked with him over the years (in government and at the political level) about his adroit deployment of political strategy in resolving the unsolvable. His instinctive respect for every individual he meets speaks of humility in leadership.

Nigeria is currently in a mess both economically and politically. We are more divided today than 10 years ago. I believe his coming is at the right time because we need a leader who can stabilise and rejuvenate us.

I recently saw a bit of what is to come. First in Port Harcourt, when he was invited by Governor Nyesom Wike to commission the state’s 12th Bridge and new courts. Governor Wike had asked that Asiwaju’s government should refund money that Rivers had spent on the new bridge and some federal roads in the state. Asiwaju’s remark was most Solomonic and statesmanly. He said, “I owe you nothing”. His reason: we still have in place a government headed by President Buhari, which must be respected.

Also, we have seen a plethora of project commissionings by President Buhari, which many expected he would attend beside the incumbent leader. But he chose to avoid them in what clearly is borne out of strategic humility, in not wanting to share the glory with the incumbent, as the latter deserves his shine and glory.