Nigeria must emerge as a nation and those leaders who are not Nigerians must be rejected. Ahmed Bola Tinubu is one of them.
Reading the headline I chose for this piece, I know your heart may be screaming: what again? You are quite used to the whole lot of accusations the president has faced the courts over and which at least Nigerian courts have given him a clean bill of health. I promise you this is not one of those accusations. But we must interrogate this question; Is President Bola Tinubu a Nigerian? The president claims to be an indigene of Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria, even though his enemies say he is an interloper there; that his state of origin is Osun and that he hails from Iragbiji town. Nobody has been able to establish that, no court has ruled on that.
We can safely say that we don’t know the secondary school Mr. President attended. Let’s just stop at that so that we don’t begin to mention his alleged non-attendance at the Government College, Ibadan over which there have been so many controversies. Some smart-aleck say all records pertaining to that have suddenly vanished from that old school. Who keeps records in Nigeria? But Reno Omokri who knows how to find his way round in God’s own country, which its current president, Donald Trump has turned to Satan’s citadel, America, after a very diligent search has, at least as he made Nigerians to believe, turned around to tell the nation that President Bola Tinubu attended Chicago State University. Reno was at the peak of his ‘amebo’ career (amebo is the name given to a career gossip by those who created the popular television soap, Village Headmaster on NTA many years ago) with Atiku Abubakar who wanted to be president in 2023 and so locked horns fiercely with Bola Ahmed Tinubu. At the tail end as it became a reality that Nigeria’s magical political elections would not favour the Adamawa born serial presidential contender, Atiku Abubakar, Reno Omokri tactically withdrew his search for Tinubu’s identity and began a great ‘Amebo’ megaphone for Bola Tinubu. Reno’s sudden about-turn was so professional that even his worst critics cannot but praise his dexterity at reading the political thermometer in Nigeria and turning to face the direction which will butter his bread.
You say Reno is not a good example of stable loyalty and that he is one of those who prevent good leadership from being recruited in Nigeria. But he will soon be on his way out of the country as an ambassador. President Bola Tinubu had nominated him and the Senate, which does the bidding of Mr. President, has rubber-stamped that nomination. If you also want to move up in Nigeria, you better take lessons in Reno Omokri’s school of political philandering. Who cares about truthfulness? Who cares about merit? Who cares for unity and brotherhood, Who cares about the progress of the country? Who cares whether the poor and the disadvantaged are attended to in Nigeria? As long as your bread is buttered, the poor can remain in their pernury, as far as your family does fine, other families can go jump into the lagoon. You didn’t learn Omokrism in vain, it costs you damage in reputation but you are there, you are at the top, let the critics go to hell. So blurring the edges of real investigation, the stuff on which David Hundeyin is labouring on day after day, has meant the security service chasing him from pillar to post, Reno Omokri has proved the authenticity of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s place of origin as Lagos and his well-earned certificate from Chicago. The rest is history. David Hundeyin will tell you the story of the pains of being genuine, Reno will tell you the sweet story of being a court jester and of playing to the gallery even if it means twisting facts and telling lies.
I hope your heart is no longer palpitating. I don’t mean evil but just to interrogate the question, is Mr. President a Nigerian. We must do this Reno Omokri or no Reno Omokri. We must do it David Hundeyin or no David Hundeyin. We must do this for the sake of defining in practical terms what Nigeria is. And we say from the outset very boldly, Mr. Bola Tinubu is not a Nigerian. In fact, as of today there is not a single Nigerian among the over 250 million people that live within the geographical space that is called Nigeria. I’m getting old now and have seen many leaders come and go in Nigeria. Sad to say, I have not seen one of them that is Nigerian. Perhaps if Obafemi Awolowo icon of issue politics in Nigeria and first premier of the defunct Western Region, had not been either rigged out or schemed out of leading Nigeria, he might have made a difference as a real Nigerian. Garrulous and proud Olusegun Obasanjo, who got himself the title of founder of modern Nigeria, is after all not a Nigerian. He pretended to be but it is very difficult to be what you are not in your heart. I had the opportunity of entering his Hill Top mansion in Abeokuta where I saw in one of the spacious rooms where I had to wait, for it is only more privileged mortals than me that can go further; a giant painting of the Owu chief standing so tall and dominating. Under that giant painting was written, ‘’Founder of modern Nigeria.’ When I took a look at that idol I thought may be it was a consolation gift to Obasanjo for his failed third term project. Up till today Obasanjo is still claiming that he did not not seek a third term. The more he denied the more credible evidence pour in that he actually did. How can Obasanjo be such a liar and still want to be a Nigerian. That painting showed me that Reno Omokri is not the only one in this ‘Amebo’ game, there were others before him and there will be many after him. Who coined that term ‘Founder of modern Nigeria’ for Obasanjo. Let’s give it to that person who I don’t know, he is a great sychophant. If Obasanjo is proud today, if Obasanjo always want to give himself the credit of the only one who has the solution to all Nigerian problems, if he feels he is above all our laws, if he feels he can do anything and get away with it, whoever created that ‘modern Nigeria founder’ title gave Obasanjo all those attitudes. It tells you there was an old Nigeria; that it ended before Obasanjo but there is a modern Nigeria that began with Obasanjo. Obasanjo in his delusions like to rate himself above iconic Obafemi Awolowo. If you could denigrate Obafemi Awolowo before Obasanjo, you will be his best friend. Obasanjo has written many books and he’s still writing, all of them very poor attempt at self-glorification.
But despite all these efforts, including the efforts of his own ‘Reno Omokris,’ Obasanjo is still not a Nigerian. His junior in the military, the gap-toothed and self-styled military president who also dribbled Nigeria so much so that he could be a Nigerian. But he failed because Nigeria was not in his heart. He told many lies, he made friends with people from across Nigeria but he is not a Nigerian. At the proper time, the ethnic bigotry, the religious bigotry locked up in his heart came out when his life was threatened. He cannot lay down his life for Nigerians. He told late Prof Omo Omoruyi, his friend, adviser and confidant, that the north made him, the emirs were in control and he would do whatever they wanted. Nigeria stops where the north begins. He must not allow the Yoruba to think that they are the only ones that can shape Nigeria; the Yoruba will learn the lessons of Igbo. That was the Babangida that took his wife Mariam Babangida from Asaba in Delta state, an Igbo area. Blood is thicker than water, and the north takes better pride of place over his Igbo wife and her place of birth. IBB was simply not a Nigerian; he had seized power to see what he could make for himself and for his cronies and then leave. In his eight years inglorious reign he became one of the richest Nigerians that when he came out of years of seclusion to launch his equally inglorious book, Journey in Service, he collected the biggest donation so far in Nigeria, about 18 million naira, in just one day and from persons he had sold Nigeria to during his reign. He sold that book of lies for a cover price of N40,000 so that many Nigerians who have become so poor will not be able to afford it. Let it rot away forever on bookstands, but do not let Nigerians who must be permanently kept ignorant not get it to read.
Pardon my little rigmarole, I had to contextualize the subject. Now I get back to the man in the saddle, President Bola Tinubu. Is he a Nigerian? Capital No. But he is from Lagos or Iragbiji in Osun State. That does not matter. He is not a Nigerian. Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore is a Singaporean by any means. In fact, he gave the world Singapore. He established it, he defined it and made it what it is today, a modern, united and progressive first world nation. He sacrificed so much for that nation that he said just before his death that if any of his successors made any attempt to mess the nation up he would rise from his grave and begin to fight. Bola Tinubu didn’t come to power for you and I. He came for himself, his wife, his daughter who calls herself the first daughter, his son, Seyi Tinubu, who goes about with a retinue of security that renowned Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka said will be up to a battalion. Wole Soyinka said that when Tinubu wanted to send soldiers to quell a coup in neighbouring Republic of Benin, he would not have bothered the military, “he would have just dispatched his son Seyi Tinubu and his battalion.”
That is how self-centered Bola Tinubu is about governance. Seyi Tinubu takes preeminence over all Nigerians. All Nigerians can die at the hands of kidnappers, bandits or insurgents, it will not matter a hoot, once Seyi is alive and fine. When President Tinubu stopped oil subsidy his concern was not the economy as it affects the majority of Nigerians; his concern was the small group of elites running the country and making laws to preserve their interests. All those calling themselves Nigerians, indeed they are not, they are Igbo, Fulani, Hausa, Yoruba, Ibibio etc, can die of hunger, it doesn’t matter. Once the interest of the elites is fed, they can as usual give some crumbs at the election time and Tinubu will be back in power. He promised during the 2023 election campaign that he will by ‘anyhow’ give electricity to the people and they will stop collecting estimated bills from the Discos. I’m sure I’m also a Nigerian but I’m still receiving an estimated electricity bill two years into Tinubu’s administration. I got one a few days ago. The distribution company does not have to supply electricity, they just have to give me bills which if I don’t pay will be added to the next month’s bill. I must pay N10,000 monthly whether I receive electricity or not. Hardly do I receive that much electricity any month. They have me by my balls because Tinubu told me a lie when he promised me the death of estimated electricity bills. He didn’t mean to perform because he is not a Nigerian. He is just passing by to collect his own loot, give to his family and his cronies and leave for another non-Nigerian sucker to rape the people. You wonder why Nigeria had to go to Benin Republic to quell the coup there. It was at the bidding of Emmanuel Macron, the president of France and a friend of Tinubu. Some Nigerians thought Tinubu took a deserved tough response because Nigeria cannot afford to have another enemy on its border. But when the Foreign Affairs Minister, Yusuf Tuggar went crawling before the youthful but tough Ibrahim Traore, the military ruler of Burkina Faso, much more African than aging Tinubu, Nigerians knew that our visit to Burkina Faso airspace was for surveillance and not an emergency landing as Tinubu and his co-travellers had told the nation. Tinubu again did the bidding of his master, Macron of France. Let’s hope Macron will not create another Paul Biya of Cameroon in Nigeria? You know what that means: a permanent dictator, a president for life. Up Tinubu.
Tinubu still has two more years in his tenure. He can change to be a Nigerian if he wants but I doubt if he wants. Almost all governors in the south are in the kitty of his APC party. Almost daily, all senators continue to cross over to his APC. Grapevine has it that it costs N250 billion to get a senator to cross over and about N450 billion for a governor. As I write, only Seyi Makinde, Governor of Oyo State is the only southern and middle belt governor that has not crossed to APC. Every other governor and senator has crossed to the APC. What does that mean to you? Tinubu is changing the political geography of Nigeria. If he has the south and middlebelt in his purse, the northwest and northeast can go to blazes. Is that not what Gideon Okar planned to do to Nigeria when he and his fellow coupists attempted to remove Ibrahim Babangida from power? If Tinubu is achieving that, is he a Nigerian? What about Tinubu’s appointment that is skewed to the Yoruba people? If you believe he is from that part of Nigeria, do you still think he is a Nigerian by those skewed appointments. What about the latest noise in the House of Representatives that there is a difference between what is published in the gazette and what the lawmakers passed as the Tax Reforms Act? We hear that all the powers of the legislature to checkmate the executive in the law have been deleted and all powers transferred illegally to the president. What is that? Fraud, if it is true. And can a Nigerian do that? I don’t think so. What is emerging? Dictatorship is what political scientists would call it. Nigerians must watch it. When we next vote we must scrutinize the character of those we vote for. Anybody who has a tendency for fraud or lies must be rejected because he or she cannot be a Nigerian.
We must vote for people not on their religious or ethnic credentials. We must aim for a Nigeria that is big enough to contain all of us. That is what Obafemi Awolowo said. I like the definition given by Professor Olayinka Omigbodun, foremost psychiatrist at UCH, Ibadan, on the concept of nation. She said while she faced an interview with Edmund Obilo on YouTube that -a nation is not a geographically contiguous people speaking the same language as we think of in Nigeria. Rather, a nation is a disparate and diverse people brought and built together deliberately by nation-builders. She has studied how nations emerge, she said. That was very pleasing to my ears. Nigeria must emerge as a nation and those leaders who are not Nigerians must be rejected. Ahmed Bola Tinubu is one of them.
First Published in METRO
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Tunde Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Master's degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos.
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