Even before Sharareporters, once an ally, now rattler of Bourdillion, published its bully-eye exclusive on the return of former Lagos State governor, Senator Bola Tinubu, from his medical round-trip, those close to happenings in his political base knew he would have to be home-bound before he is bound and bundled into political irrelevance and irreverence. Yoruba will say, bi iya nla ba gbe ni sanle, kekeeke, a ma gori eni. From the calculations on ground, Tinubu’s space in APC has not only badly shrunk, despite all the presidency noise but his backyard also egregiously-raided in the first two congress exercises. If he stayed away and the state chapter is lost to opponents, his ambition, grip on the state politics since 1999 and most importantly, the need to continuously shield prying eyes from the account books in the last 21 years, would be seriously compromised. He had to be home.
From the little I know, Tinubu didn’t return mostly because of the flourishing intra-party opposition to his reign as Lagos warlord. He returned because of enemies-within, allies who are either angry and using his absence to do him in, or worried he might not return and decided to butter their loaves, elsewhere mostly with his notable critics and opponents within the party.
Funny enough, it took an “enemy” visiting him in London for the leader to be heads-up, about the ajalu (calamity) about befalling him, which was in the course of telling the Leader how badly he had handled the surplus goodwill of yesteryear. The “enemy” had told him, he would be the one to right his wrongs, when the ailing leader, pleaded with him, to help pacify angry associates who publicly identified themselves as his nemesis. When “enemy” would not budge, Leader assured he would make amends. That couldn’t have been in London.
While away, supporting leaders of the party genuinely worried he might not return, started seeking “disturbing” alliances to preserve their relevance in their domains (LGs and LCDAs), thereby creating a power structure in the party that has verisimilitude with collegiatism. That is the nature of man because nature abhors vacuum. But he can’t punish anyone over it. He still sits at peak of the pyramid. Only that, instead of everyone worshipping at Bourdillion, small shrines are now erected in homes of the emerging mid-level leaders. If I were him, I would preserve this arrangement. Enikan ki nje awa de (No man is absolute). Yes, I have heard about disappointments of the past and how dedicated assignments were bungled, compelling him to be overseeing practically all needed to preserve his hegemony.
But there is a downside to being all in all, which manifested greatly when he left town. The outgoing party chairman’s rump as a figure-head was compellingly out. The party drifted and almost collapsed on his lap. The much-touted GAC members were scavenging for relevance all over the place with nocturnal calls, pleading with Tinubu’s known enemies to help get their wards’ excos in, in Abuja. Any system that is completely reliant on one man will ultimately fail and fall. That is the bane of Nigeria’s local government administration today, especially in the North where the council chairmen, particularly in rural areas, hardly report for duty. The secretariats are always like ghost towns, with everyone ogling somewhere for the next allocation when the chairmen would visit. This isn’t peculiar to the North. In a house where nobody gets anything done until daddy is home, such system will fail the family.
Asiwaju has seen what Yoruba will call firifiri (a close shave). That should tell him no man is God. I expect his worldview about power, influence, position, ambition, wealth, money, health and worth to now align with Solomon’s. History’s greatest ruler wrote in Ecclesiastes 1: 2 “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity”.
…a new age for the leader
The News Editor loves referring to him as “our leader”. The boss of the enlarged newsroom, the second in command. God has lifted him to so many heights. Wednesday, October 13, Tribune’s no 1 journalist, Alhaji Tajudeen Debo Abdulai, was a year older.
For taking Gibbers through prenatal and cot-age, this space will always be available to celebrate him as long as the child he helped raise lives. Gibbers is a decade plus. May it grow old, so there would be no bangles to cast in vain. As the one we call ENT, possibly the longest serving active and functional Editor in the country today, grows older on the job, he has become frighteningly hands-on, so much that flowing with his frequency, now requires laborious catching-up, doing the combination of sprint and marathon. At midnight, he is giving instructions on editorial content. If he dreams up an idea, the line editor or bureau chief concerned and connected is likely to forfeit his dawn sleep, which experts say is the sweetest.
When I see young people stretching like plastic being immolated, preparing for school at dawn, my conviction that western education in Nigeria is being conducted under a punishing atmosphere, especially in Southern Nigeria, is settled. School hours should not start before 10a.m. Period. Maybe someday, I would have the opportunity of implementing this model somewhere. Who knows.
When Alhaji wants the job done, he goes for it. I figure him as a player in Arsenal’s locker room. He would be a Thierry, best of the best in the game, speaking with both his boots and mouth. Genial, generous, confident, well-mannered and constantly looking well-groomed, Alhaji Abdulai will remain in memory as the one who over-believed when Gibbers was without form and void. May the Spirit of the Most High dwell with this fine gentleman.
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