What Really Is Tinubu’s Sin? Asks Ayoola Kayode

This piece titled “KEEPING THEM HONEST: What Really Is Tinubu’s Sin?” is worth reading. A concerned citizen, Ayoola Kayode, has penned his opinions, and I was hoping you could share your views on them. Continue reading…

Kayode says, “I want to address an issue today seriously. I am mainly directing this write-up to Yorubas and Nigerian citizens from the southern part of Nigeria.

I have never had any problem with people making a choice of who they want to support for an elective position. I believe as human beings, it is our inalienable right as homo sapiens to have free will to make informed choices over anything in life, including political choices. Even God gave us, His creation, a free will to make choices. As almighty as He is, God would never force His will on any human being; how much more does another human being force another to take a position he does not like or want.

Life will lose its colour if we all follow the same route over everything that pertains to life. The English folks say variety is the spice of life. In their wisdom, our forefathers in Yorubaland say, “gbogbo wa a le sun ka kori si ibi kanna.” Therefore, I don’t ever have any problem with friends/people who share a different opinion from mine. In fact, I respect people who are confident to have an alternate view over issues, own it and can brilliantly articulate those views, even if I disagree with them. Some closest persons on Facebook don’t usually agree with me on political choices. It is very okay. That is how life should be.

Given this background, I need to ask what sin Tinubu has committed that warranted the level of hatred unleashed on him by people, especially of the same ethnic group and folks from southern Nigeria. It is okay not to want a man to be president. My closest friends on this platform support Osinbajo, which has not changed anything between us. It is their political choice and preference. Your choice does not change who you are as a person. I find distasteful is the people who have vowed to stop Tinubu and malign his character. Cook up different stories to make him look like the devil. It is very hard for you to see other ethnic groups do these to their leaders.

Since Atiku emerged as a PDP candidate and even before the primary, you would hardly find a Northerner disparaging him, assassinating his character, and saying unprintable stuff about him. Don’t get it twisted; many northerners do not support his candidacy, but they would never blatantly disrespect him. Of course, there would always be an exception to the rule, but this is a valid general observation. I asked myself, why are we like this down south?

Tinubu’s detractors are quick to echo about how corrupt he is, yet they have no single evidence to corroborate their claim. Am I saying Tinubu is a saint? Never! Then, the question is, which politician is a saint in Nigeria? Okay, if you say Tinubu is corrupt, what of Atiku? Guess what, how many northerners are daily shouting how corrupt Atiku is? In his book, My Watch, the scathing testament about Atiku written by a man who knows him best, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, is enough to disqualify someone from ever holding a public office. But did you hear northerners shout themselves hoarse about it?

The next thing is to say Tinubu is too old. At 70, too old? Some wrote a PhD dissertation on Tinubu’s likely age to be 90. I got so angry one day I told one of those folks I know a 90-year-old man when I see one because my Dad is 89 years old and would be 90 by October. For you to say, Tinubu is 90 only shows you don’t have elders and old people in your family. That is the only reason you can tell a 70-year-old man is 90 and too old. At 70, Tinubu is too old to run for President, but nobody says a word about Atiku, who is 75 and just won the PDP primary election. Have you heard a northerner talk about Atiku’s age? Yet, my people go about with the chorus of Tinubu is too old. Se afise ni?

When Tinubu said it was his lifetime ambition to run for President, guess who the people were who started saying…” ohhh, so it is about himself and not Nigeria….” Sometimes, you feel like, oh my gosh, when you read what they write. Bill Clinton visited the White House at age 16 as part of a school trip on July 24, 1963, and met former and late US President John F. Kennedy. Clinton said that chance meeting and a few seconds’ handshakes fired his imagination and made it a lifetime ambition for him to be the President of the USA in the future.

The question is, those that have not had the ambition to become president in Nigeria and found themselves in office by accident, tell me, what has been their achievement. I hate criminal modesty and humility! How can having an ambition, which is a good thing, suddenly become a burden to be used to disqualify a man from becoming President. Is ambition not supposed to be a propelling force to prepare a man for a task ahead in the future? Give me a man who has ambition and is ready anytime, and I would give him my vote. You all can go and beg people to be president.

The question is, Atiku, who has been contesting for president for 30 years, what does he have? I guess it is not a lifelong ambition then.

Some went as far as writing to Chicago State University to ask if indeed Tinubu went to school. I like Oyinbo people; they don’t suffer fools gladly. They told them that Tinubu did not only attend our university, but he also graduated cuman cum laude, that is, he graduated first class and top of his class. A friend’s uncle who attended the same university as Tinubu regaled us with stories when we visited him in Ibadan a few years ago when Tinubu was Governor. He said Tinubu was so brilliant that the University hired him to teach his classmates and paid him a salary. He even told us his nickname, which was coined from Tinubu’s favourite meal at school. Guess what? Who is asking about Atiku’s academic credentials? Who is writing to ABU to find out if Atiku has a Diploma in Law?

But my southern Nigerian people would not let us rest about Tinubu’s academic credentials, as if an Oyinbo man would employ anyone without prerequisite qualification to work with a foremost accounting/Management firm in the world or one of the world major oil firms where he rose to become a Treasurer at Mobil. Atiku is not even as educated as Tinubu, yet you would never hear a northerner raise issues with Atiku about his education. Our, too know kill us one day!

How many men have Atiku raised as a leader? I know for sure he has raised men, but can you compare him to Tinubu in that regard? If you doubt me, scrutinise and list those who have gone through Tinubu’s political and leadership ‘academy’ and tell me raising leaders is not the hallmark of a great leader. Both PDP in the past and APC up till now are enjoying the services of those Tinubu raised politically.

The same people would talk down on the economic achievement of Tinubu as Lagos Governor and make sure that his successors stick to the development plan for Lagos. If you think it is a child’s play to turn the economy of a state into the 5th largest in Africa, try and run a business and let’s see. Read me well; Atiku does not have clarity of thought when it comes to the management of the economy of this country. Tinubu’s thoughts on the economy and his plan are out there to read. The books he has written or co-authored are there to read. Could you show me that of Atiku? Let’s make this an issue-based matter. Enough emotional vituperations add no value to our collective development as a people and as a nation.

Anytime the issue of democracy is raised, many people suddenly develop memory loss. Who are the champions of the democracy we now enjoy today? Who are the people locked up for standing to the military junta? Was Atiku one of them?

Thank God, during his visit to Kwara State, Tinubu thanked the Emir of Ilorin. As a sitting Judge, he released Tinubu from Abacha’s detention and escaped into exile through the popular Cotonou route, and from there went abroad and was heavily financed by NADECO. Prof. Wole Soyinka corroborated all of these. That is why I find it funny when they come up with where he got his money? Why did you not ask him that in the 90s when he was dolling out his funds to help pro-democracy groups against the military junta. Hardly would you see a northerner ask those questions of Atiku. Meanwhile, Tinubu’s wealth is well documented even before becoming a governor. Okay, Atiku retired from Custom…what next? And he became a billionaire—end of the story.

Apart from his guber election before Obasanjo picked him to be VP, has Atiku ever won any other election? But folks won’t let us hear about how Tinubu is unelectable. It is such an insult for a man who has dealt a big electoral blow against PDP back-to-back since 1999 and a final blow to their 16-year reign in 2015.

E je ke farabale now…

By Ayoola Kayode