By Iliyasu Gadu, Ilgad2009@gmail.com
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Last week a reader by name Olajide called from Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital called and engaged me in a very interesting discussion on the state of the nation especially in the light of the bombshell of a letter written by Iba Gani Adams to President Tinubu. He said he had noticed that I seem to have taken it upon myself to constantly target President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in my articles. He said he was neither here nor there on the matter. But he told me that Nigerians were just now getting to know the personality that those in the South West of Nigeria had long known by his antecedents.
He said during the presidential election at the risk of their lives, some of them had tried to caution other Nigerians about the Tinubu candidacy. ‘’We knew him to be someone with a winner-takes-all disposition who will like to use you when he thinks you are useful. And when you are no longer useful he dumps you without looking back’’ Olajide said. He made out a long list of prominent personalities and groups in the South West including the Yoruba socio-political group the Afenifere, which he said had been used and jettisoned in like manner. ‘’Can’t you see what he did to El-Rufai (former Kaduna Governor) who he practically begged to come and join him in the new Government he was to form and Ambode the former Governor of Lagos?’’ Jide went on; ‘’Look at what he is doing to Nigeria. If Nigerians believe President Tinubu will somehow take measures to reverse some of his harsh economic policies due to the outcry of the people then they will wait till kingdom come’’ he concluded.
My answer to Jide was to refer him to the Chinua Achebe’s ‘’Things Fall Apart’’ in which a certain bird was asked why it kept flying without stopping. And the bird’s cryptic answer was that since men have learnt to shoot without missing their mark, it (the bird that is) will also learn to fly without perching on trees. I also added the popular Nigerian saying for good measure; ‘’pikin wey say im mama no go sleep, im sef no go sleep’’.
By import, this is referencing President Tinubu’s declared intent to subject Nigerians to the severest of hardships ever in a manner that speaks of Pharoahian wickedness. The unremitting hardship that President Tinubu has unfurled through his brutal economic policies knows no tribe, religion or region. Increasingly it is becoming clear that President Tinubu means no good to any region, tribe or religion in particular per his economic policies, but himself, family and circle of close associates. And in the process of advancing his personal interest, President Tinubu is willing to throw Nigerians and Nigeria under the bus as we are now experiencing under his government.
It is now no question that President Tinubu did not come to lead Nigeria out of its existential challenges. He came with intention to rule and through that, run his government as a holding concern to opportunistically acquire national assets adding to those he acquired as former Governor of Lagos State. In the process, he also hoped to entrench himself as the single most powerful Nigerian personality to which every other personality is beholden economically and politically.
Tracing back to how he started on this journey since he ascended to power, we can see that President Tinubu intended to run his government not on the basis of consultation, collaboration and inclusiveness. Nigeria must succumb to his whims and desires and not the other way round as in democracies. His economic as well as political policies are tailored towards State economic and political capture with him ruling the roost. On the economic side of things, the President runs a massive hoover machine sucking up revenues where they could be found in the vast Nigerian economic firmament. Politically, President Tinubu is deploying his network of enablers and enforcers to take over political institutions including political parties so as to ultimately liquidate any potential individual or group opposition to his political road map.
This economic and political road map will reach its decisive point by 2027 when President Tinubu hopes to win the next Presidential election of that year and consolidate his political and economic status in Nigeria going forward. Among the projected action items of President Tinubu’s post 2027 agenda is a political restructuring not necessarily as demanded by Nigerians but to further entrench himself and rule Nigeria like a despot. That is what the current economic and political road map of President Tinubu is all about.
In this regard I call on Nigerians to notice that the entire Tinubu economic and political road map is all about him alone; it is his script, his production, and under his direction exclusively. President Tinubu does not expect anyone and any other institution to share in the credit and glory that comes with this production; other Nigerians are merely either part of the supporting cast or as extras.
That is why unlike previous economic policies we have had in this country, Tinubu’s has no comprehensive plan that should necessarily include other independent actors either as planners or implementers. The planning and execution is on the whims of Tinubu alone and Nigerians must subject themselves to the all-knowing wisdom of Tinubu of which by his own reckoning makes him the best gift to Nigeria from God.
For this overarching reason, Nigerians should not expect any let up in the repertoire of economic policies President Tinubu is presently dishing out. There is simply no alternative either to Tinubu or the policies he is embarking on. Nigerians should indeed be thankful to the President for trying to pull the economic chestnuts out of the fire and bear the pains. This comes with as necessary sacrifice for better times ahead.
But what about President Tinubu himself? Is he exempt from the sacrifice that he is asking Nigerians to bear? Is he not expected to be selfless, empathetic and showing good example by walking the talk? Can he not cut his unnecessary expenditure and extra budgetary spending on frivolities? Can he not also ask some of his aides to stop splurging scarce funds on luxuries and living like drunken sailors?
Unfortunately President Tinubu does not and has not seen the need to do that. His admonition for Nigerians to bear the pains delivered in unmistakeably contemptuous tones is nauseating, to say the least. And this has alienated and set Nigerians against him. One would never have thought that a personality like Iba Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland Gani Adams would write a most scathing letter to the President as he did last week. Significantly the Aare’s letter was not just a tomahawk of a put down to the President on the state of the nation under his watch, it amounts to telling the President that there is a vote of no confidence on him from his Southwest natal origin.
Realistically as it is, driven by a ‘’Me, Myself and I’’ disposition, President Tinubu may have gone beyond redemption and to expect him to avoid the manifest destiny that awaits him is a forlorn hope.
Iliyasu Gadu, a former Foreign Service Officer who served at the Nigerian Missions in Germany and the United Kingdom (UK), is a columnist with Daily Trust