Tinubu, Pharaoh and Northern Nigeria

OF the 2023 electorate, 63.39 per cent, precisely 14,582,740 voters, didn’t see their president in Bola Ahmed Tinubu, compared to the 36.61 per cent, which came to 8,794,726 voters, who wanted him in Aso Rock. The Hausa/Fulani Muslim North, which accounted for most of the disavowing voters, was very clear about its choice, and it was not the man who is presiding today.

It wanted one of its own, Atiku Abubakar, to perpetuate the zone’s hold on power, but the Muslim/Christian North Central came through for Tinubu, despite being rejected in both his ancestral Osun home and adopted Lagos base. While basking in the advantage of incumbency in policy/decision making and re-election projections, it will serve him, to constantly look back as he hurries to wherever.

That election was about a year ago and his administration is also just 91 days shy of a year anniversary, but if he is convinced as disclosed by his spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, that his administration is being undercut for possible disassembling, then maybe a lot of anti-Tinubu voters are still actively saying “not my president”, in some sinister ways and how he surmounts that hurdle, is his call.

Yoruba will elevate the distinction and relevance of age and experience with, “bi omode ba subu a wo iwaju, bi agbalagba ba subu a wo ehin wo (adults are expected to be more circumspect in crisis situation than youth). The looking back is to help the crumbling adult factor the consequential landmarks and landmines that got him crashing, before continuing the journey.

In just nine months, Tinubu’s government has unravelled so shockingly that it is a miracle Aso Rock isn’t yet occupied by hungry Nigerians, and he has thrown away with his tongue the empathy that should mark his efforts as a repairer of the nation, badly mangled by his friend and predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, with his constant “don’t pity me, I asked for this job” boasts. As it is today, the president is a forlorn figure, presiding over a disappearing presidency.

The “B” part of Proverbs 29:2 has a prognosis for what Nigerians are passing through in Tinubu’s hands. It’s too painful to be reproduced here. For removing fuel subsidy on his inauguration day, a pronouncement the President has confessed was off-script and which subsequent events and developments have proved to be a mere giddy moment that almost always comes with some absurdity, many Nigerians are now equating Tinubu with the Biblical Pharaoh who took away the “subsidy” cushioning the suffering of the Israelites in their slavery, simply because they wanted to serve their God, which is akin to demanding a lighter burden.

I will paraphrase Exodus 5. Like today’s labour leaders, looking out for their own, Moses and Aaron, this time, running divine errand, told Pharaoh that God wanted to have time, with His own, who were in Egyptian bondage, just for three days. A livid Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.”

The emissaries warned there would be pestilence and calamity if the king refused. He got angrier, and withdrew “subsidy” the same day, without engaging thoughts on consequences.

Calling Moses and Aaron busy-bodies, the same way Tinubu’s handlers had been attacking those pointing consequences out to him, “the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens. And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens.

“And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, ‘Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves. And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.

“Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words.”

I have seen the video clip where Tinubu, on a soapbox, pre-APC primaries, talked about reducing the purchasing power of the people and imposing more taxes on them, to scattered applause from whatever audience in attendance. As frightening as such an agenda would sound, I want to believe it was just another bala blu moment (flub) when he either confused what his advisers had programmed into him or just a nonsensical mixup in explaining how to bring prosperity to his own.

Except if Tinubu is a modern-day King Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. In 2Chronicles 10:1-15, he forsook wise counsel and decided to further afflict his afflicted people, on the day of his coronation as his father’s successor!

When Israel asked for his manifesto, he said, “My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions”.

I have heard some of my Yoruba stock defending Tinubu with the conspiracy theory of Buhari and the Northern ruling cabal setting the subsidy trap for him and he, walking into it. I refused to buy it. One, Tinubu is supposed to be a thinker. Why act, then think? Two, Buhari was ruinous enough. His yoke on Nigerians was heavy enough. He chastised the nation with whips that lacerated. Yet he left a window for Tinubu. Subsidy was fixed, to end July 1, 2023, by Buhari’s arrangement. Like the advice given Rehoboam by the elders of Israel, the President should have departed from Buhari’s perilous path on the subsidy management, but again, like Rehoboam, he listened to those who “stood before him”, his years-long hangers-on.

While not defending Buhari, core North and whatever they might have been up to, including the recent infantile hunger cries, why did Tinubu abandon the wrongheaded, damaging Naira redesign policy of the Buhari era. Yoruba will say eni ti a ko ni ika to gba, o ni ika ninu tele ni. (Wickedness is mainly inherent).

What is frightening in the two Biblical cases of sudden “subsidy” removal is that God had hand in them. He wanted the two kings to lose their kingdoms. We are all familiar with how Pharaoh ended. I reproduce here how the “subsidy” crisis ended for Rehoboam.

“So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, what portions have we in David? Neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed unto their tents.

“But as for the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram, (the revenue man) who was over the tribute; and all Israel stoned him with stones, that he died. Therefore king Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem. So Israel rebelled against the House of David unto this day.”

Anything more to say to the president?