Unsurprisingly, Bola Tinubu’s axe-swinging show in Abeokuta has left many of his critics fizzing with anger. He swung his axe at Dapo Abiodun, governor of Ogun State, and President Muhammadu Buhari.
His tone, despite him seething at the big possibility that the APC presidential ticket may not be his, was anything like Nyesom Wike’s demented rapid-fire growl. He came across as unflappable, with his customary slur a credible imitation of the sound from a cassette tape running irregularly carrying across his mood in slow-mo.
The weapon fashioned against the APC establishment and its franchisees was subjunctive history. In my view, it was not exactly fictional. Without him, he said, “that one sitting behind me” (a dismissive, if not wounding reference to Dapo Abiodun) would not have been governor.
I believe him just as I believe that Kayode Fayemi, Rauf Aregbesola, Adams Oshiomhole and Segun Mimiko would not have been governors without Tinubu’s logistical support that included the forensic expert, Adrian Forty.
President Buhari, he also said, would not have been president at the fourth attempt-and fifth-without his involvement and that of God. I do not for a minute believe that he was persuaded that God deserves any credit. He claimed that despite his huge investments in Buhari and the party, he has not asked for dividends in the shape of appointments for himself or his supporters, contracts, food and even fura from Buhari.
That speaks to selflessness, an attribute, I suspect, his wife will doubt that he possesses. For being such a noble-minded dude, he thinks he deserves to get the prize and probably as an afterthought, the Yoruba deserve it. By Yoruba, he means himself. That is my reading of him.
I think he was instrumental to swinging the Southwest in Buhari’s favour, giving the president the opportunity for that iconic photograph that shows him his teeth in Aso Rock. But I don’t believe he should be awarded the presidential ticket because his moral baggage the size of an aircraft hangar will struggle to hold.
Tinubu, on account of the show in Abeokuta, I believe, has become damaged goods. Signs of defect were always there, with the boldest his reputational wounds and his supporters’ relentless claim that he made Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and others who became big timers through him.
He sure had a hand in what many have become. I just do not think it was smart of him to have, full-on, gone public with what he did. Many of those things were known and didn’t require him saying them in Abeokuta where what he said has the ring of “I was here before the world existed”.
He was made by some people, who have not been going about with megaphones to announce what they did for him.
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