NIRAN ADEDOKUN FROM PUNCH
Against all odds, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was sworn in as Nigeria’s 16th President on Monday. It is an event that should not surprise any realist conversant with the Nigerian situation. The 2023 presidential election came with many irregularities, without a doubt, but it also presented significant shifts in Nigeria’s electoral configuration. Two of such dislocations are that politicians can no longer take Nigerians for granted and that if we maintain fidelity to technology’s opportunities, the people’s votes will be increasingly impactful. But I digress.
Tinubu’s victory in the elections was hardly surprising. Unlike the precipitous Peter Obi revolution, which shook Nigeria to its roots, Tinubu worked hard for his medal from the outset. For instance, the presidential primaries of the All Progressives Congress were the most keenly contested. When they went to the field on June 6, 2022, 13 other people, including the then Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, slugged it out with him.
Although candidates of the People’s Democratic Party also had a battle, the stakes were higher in the APC because its status as the ruling party gave its aspirants more impetus.
Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian People’s Party, the two other leading candidates, had their tickets on a silver platter literally. While three opponents who went into the primaries with Obi stepped down, Kwankwaso was the sole aspirant in his party.
During electioneering, Tinubu put in tireless work. Despite concerns about his health, he traversed the whole country, travelling to many states—two, three, even four times. While the PDP, which could give him the actual fight, called the bluff in five of its 15 state governors, the Labour Party had limitations in most northern states, where ultimate winners of national elections usually get their haul of votes. Tinubu was efficient on all fronts. Most altercations in the APC were resolved before the elections, regardless of the cost. In cases where reconciliation was impossible, he made overtures to enemies of his enemies, turned them into friends, and received bountifully from people like Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State. Tinubu worked so hard at these elections that he took almost nothing for granted!
Yet these last few months were only the tipping point of a lifelong preparation for Nigeria’s presidency. When he ventured into politics in 1992, the presidency seemed like the end-goal for the man widely known as Jagaban.
But from 1999 on, keen observers of the polity were left in no doubt about the mission Tinubu had in sight. Every friend, enemy, and political associate he made and every step he took, including aligning with former President Muhammadu Buhari to form the APC in 2013, were towards the end we see today. It would be a disaster unforetold if a man who has prepared for this office all his life got in there and made a mess of it! This is more so if he is humble enough to draw lessons from the uninspiring performance of his predecessor.
Regardless of how much he thinks he has prepared; however, President Tinubu must consider himself extremely lucky to be in that seat today. Why? He is not the first to desire, prepare for, and qualify for that position.
Compared to someone like the late First Republic Premier of the Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, any qualifications Tinubu may parade would pale into insignificance.
Awolowo, who released his first book, Path to Nigerian Freedom, in 1947, just after he was called to the Bar in London, was not just a politician; he was an intellectual and philosopher, the first man who postulated that federalism was the way to prosperity for Nigeria and Nigerians. He joined those who fought for Nigeria’s independence, and evidence of his six-year leadership of the western region still exists in the human capital, physical infrastructure, and even economy of the states in western Nigeria.
It upon Awolowo’s death, that the late Chief Emeka Ojukwu wrote: “He was, for a long time, the only Nigerian leader that enunciated principles and played down personalities… He was loved and feared, but above all, he belonged to the people he professed to lead. At his death, I had the singular honour of proposing for him this epitaph that has endured — he was the best President that Nigeria never had.” Despite his overwhelming qualifications, preparation, and efforts, the late sage did not make it to the presidency. Tinubu has!
