by Favour Afolabi
This morning, I woke up to a posting by The Cable with the title “Anxiety mounts as Buhari keeps Tinubu, Atiku, Fashola in the dark over new cabinet”; and I could only think to myself – “St. Bourdillon and Others continue to hold the nation hostage!”
I really do find it very laughable when the same folks that were urging Tinubu on to push for the emergence of Buhari as President now begin to suggest “Tinubu has done enough; he should retire!” The question is “Retire to what exactly?”
I was shocked further when even OBJ made similar comments during the week – coming from a Man that has refused to retire – making sure he had a hand [and a leg] in the next three Presidents that came after him, I find such a position to not only be hypocritical but tending towards senility! Remember how “Tinubu was visiting Obasanjo” every other week prostrating to him saying “You are the Father of our Party; lead us?” How can the same OBJ come back after a few weeks telling “Buhari to ignore Tinubu” after he collected several prostrations from Tinubu on behalf of Buhari?
How do you tell a Man to retire from reaping his investments on the day the dividends are to be shared? Who does that? Why do folks preach to others what they won’t practice? You can say what you want but even though everyone knows that I am not a Bourdillonist, the History Booksalready have it on record that Buhari’s Presidency has boldly written on it the Made in Bourdillon tag and no amount of blackmail; counter-theories can erase that from the history books.
I would not even bother to attempt to write a bookon this – it was the same Bourdillon Plc that produced the Fashola and Fayemi that became the poster boys of “How an APC Government in the center would change Nigeria to the USA in 4 years” propaganda that was being sold by our intellectuals at home and abroad; and it was this same Bourdillon Plc that mandated it’s Governors to direct their states resources to fund Buhari’s local campaigns all over the nation [We already know how many of them have now left their states with crazy levels of indebtedness and can no longer pay salaries].
It is this same Bourdillon Plc that provided the Private Jets that Buhari was using to criss-cross the nation as though he was already the President.
When Bourdillon Plc was buying into media houses; and placing the editors on side payrolls; sponsoring trips to Chatham House to buy up international support for Buhari’s candidacy; paying bloggers to continually put the heat under Jonathan’s government; ensuring that there was one joke per week to mock his wife – Patience, and many other nocturnal activities Bourdillon Plc embarked upon to ensure Buhari won the elections, where were all the people now suggesting to Tinubu to retire?
It was this same Bourdillon Plc that the Organized Private Sector [OPS] rallied around when they noticed the tide was turning against Jonathan as they began to channel funds towards the Buhari Campaign leading to even an Aliko changing parties while others like Wale Tinubu of Oando [related to Bola Tinubu] began providing support financially and logistically in the closing days of the campaign. It was this same Bourdillon Plc that all others looked towards to ensure that their investments would be recouped expecting to be allowed to produce “the next Minister of…” or “Head of a particular MDA.”
Some of these people have now become Mathematicians and Statisticians claiming “The North surpassed the South-West with number of votes cast for Buhari” – what they don’t tell you is that “it was Bourdillon Plc that ensured the legitimization of Buhari’s victory” – it was Bourdillon Plc that suggested to the world that “Once Buhari loses, then Jonathan must have been planning to become the next Mugabe and he must be resisted!”
Even if Jonathan had won the election, the result would have been largely rejected by the International community due to the extent of negative propaganda already sold by Bourdillon Plc versus Jonathan so while the Core North produced the numbers, it was Bourdillon Plc that produced the brains behind the victory!
When all of these political transactions were ongoing, our fake intellectuals who would now tell you that Tinubu should retire saw of all these and rejoiced that the stage was being set for the elimination of Jonathan’s Presidency. In essence, all those that urged Tinubu on, celebrating him as “The Machiavelli of African Politics” were basically playing him 419!
Fast-forward to after the elections, Bourdillon Plc comes to collect profits from its investments in its subsidiary “Buhari Aso Rock Enterprises” and alas, the sub-company begins to give excuses like “You cannot pick my Ministers” – for where? Then to rub more salt into the injury, you rob the same parent company of producing “The Senate President and Speaker of the House” – all within hours – this was after you embarrassed “The Chairman” of the company by having he, his wife, and other associates go wait in the sun for you for hours while you were executing a side-coup against him a few meters away from where you posted him to go wait for you! Na lie, Chairman can never be happy with you – eewo orisa; lai lai; Fadeyi Oloro o stylee!
Well, Chairman sef apparently forgot that Saraki’s dividend was always agreed to be paid back in full with the Senate Presidency for the great role he played in the destruction of PDP via the new PDP machinery so when he noticed that Chairman was trying to steal that payment from him, he basically presented the cheque to be cashed in the middle of the night even though the signatory to the account had not yet given the accounts officer the go-ahead to pay even as Gbajabiamila who was to reap similar dividends regarding the House couldn’t muscle up the level of courage Saraki deployed in the Senate – he apparently didn’t have his own Atiku!
So it seems this APC is apparently a party that was built on the notion of Common Hatred for Jonathan and would in the foreseeable future continually betray the agreements they had within and among themselves in the party especially now that the common enemy has been eliminated – they would have find newer enemies.
Back to Buhari versus Tinubu, the President should know that “once you begin to receive letters and advice from Obasanjo, your end might might just be near” – those advising him today to “forget about Tinubu” would vanish into thin air the day The Lion reminds Buhari that he once played him 419 in 2015 – and I would be here doing a Part II to this series, gloating that “I told you so!”
As Buhari sends his ministerial list to the National Assembly this week; and as many other agency heads are named in the coming days, the polity shall continually be treated to this ongoing drama of Manufacturer v Brand!
Lesson [never] learnt – when you make a man into a god, the day you cry to GOD to deliver you from this god that you have made unto yourself, HE is not likely to respond to you!
Favour Afolabi is founder and principal consultant at Online Republic Media and president and CEO, Viva Realty. He tweets from @FavourAfolabi and is on Facebook HERE.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
