[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here is something so amusing about the self-styled Asiwaju of Lagos, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He likes to mount the moral high horse during any contest. He likes creating the impression he is fighting a just cause; a battle to defeat evil and enthrone good. And that is exactly what he has done in his latest spat with John Odigie-Oyegun, former Edo governor and national chair of his ‘party’.
Bola Tinubu’s choice of words not only showed someone who is very bitter, but also someone who has been looking for an opportunity to ventilate for a long time. The language of the writer reeked of venom and anger. Oyegun was sure at the receiving end of excruciating vitriol! But it goes deeper than that.
It was a manifestation of a deeper crack in a political patch-up that came up, peopled by political strange bed-fellows who hoodwinked their compatriots into believing Eldorado had come.
However, if there is anyone to complain of imposition, it should not be Senator Tinubu. His supporters (they are many and can kill their parents to show how much they love him) see him as the best to have happened to Yoruba since the death of the late Obafemi Awolowo. That is why they listen to him and obey him sheepishly.
But is Tinubu a democrat himself?
He is not. And that is why he is extremely bitter by the outcome of his misadventure in Ondo State. This is NOT justifying any malfeasance that might have taken place at the All Progressives Congress, APC, primary of last month.
The difference between what happened in Akure and what Tinubu has been doing in Lagos since 2003 is what he is doing right now: negative ventilation by the aggrieved. Aggrieved parties were always cowed into submission. Some of them monetarily compensated while some were cajoled or blackmailed into silence.
Tinubu, in all sincerity, can NEVER stand before God and say party primaries under him in Lagos could stand any test in minimums of democratic best practices.
He knows. His supporters know. Observers know. He who wants is the man or woman that wins. In 2006, Fashola could never have won on his own. Same applicable to Ambode in 2014. These are inconvenient facts. From AD to AC; from AC to ACN and now APC, there has never been internal democracy. It is whoever the leader wants. The man or woman he can ‘do business’ with.
In the piece, Tinubu, through his spokesperson, kept mentioning democracy and democratic practices as if he is a bastion of these timeless tendencies. He is not. No Nigerian politician is. Now, the problem is this: Tinubu has done this successfully over the years in Lagos and believes, tragically, that he can replicate that at the national level now that APC has gone beyond the South West. He is dead wrong.
Senator Tinubu has vehemently worked against Dr. Bukola Saraki for the Senate Presidency and he failed. Same for Dogara for the House of Reps. He was also bloodied in Kogi. Has been humbled again in Ondo.
Tinubu must also be reminded that he is about taking on people he can never win against. His only weapon is the media. He does NOT have more than that. He will deploy it. Pay writers and ‘mobilise’ the so-called fake civil rights activists on his payroll to start the campaign and whip up sentiments against his party’s leadership. He will use his media channels, namely The Nation, TV Continental, Adaba Radio, and so on, to do this
But he should also know that no empire lasts forever. The justification or otherwise of his latest battle is secondary. What is not in doubt is that he has been out-foxed and he should just take it in his strides and move on.
Finally, let me re-jig his memory in case he has forgotten. In 1998, he did NOT win the then Alliance for Democracy, AD, primaries for Lagos governorship election. Based on votes cast, a certain Funsho Williams, now of blessed memory, won. But the then Afenifere leaders, then differentiating between ‘Abacha (bad) politicians’ and ‘good ones’ and incorrigibly determined to favour the latter, decided Williams would not get the ticket. And he did not.
Till today, the votes of Alimosho Local Government were never counted yet Tinubu was declared the winner. If he did not become governor, via the immoral vetoing of those old men, perhaps, he would not be where he is today.
Moral: Providence gives us some. And takes some away from us. What It does not do often is not giving us the grace of introspection to accept Its verdict. And that is where mortals often make fatal mistakes…
Samuel Ajayi is a Nigerian journalist. He runs a blog, SamuelAjayi.com. Connect with him on Facebook.
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the authors.
