FASHOLA & TINUBU’S RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE:
ANOTHER AWOLOWO/AKINTOLA FIASCO THAT MUST BE NIPPED IN THE BUD

by Dr. Wumi Akintide
Wumione@AOL.com
New York, NY, USA


The simmering rumors of a possible break-up or parting of ways between Governor Fashola and his mentor and former boss, Ahmed Tinubu, even if it is highly exaggerated or blown out of proportion at this point, ought to be of serious concern not only to Lagosians but to all lovers of Yoruba solidarity everywhere in the world. I cannot think of any more auspicious time to be offering this advice than Christmas day when the birth of the Prince of Peace himself is being celebrated worldwide.



http://nigeriaworld.com/feature/publication/akintide/122509.html

That is my first point. My second point is the fragile nature of the Nigerian union itself which is currently going through some precarious time with the speculation that our Vice President who should have been acting as an acting President under our Constitution now has to depend on information on the state of the country’s President from the President’s wife and the President’s aide camp as widely reported by Nigerian Newspapers. If that is true, and the President is not allowed to directly communicate with his boss in a secured line, which is common practice, by officials of their caliber, Nigerians have more cause to worry about the state of the health of their sick President and how bad it really is. The PDP spokesman and his wife, Turai make it sound like the President is just having a prolonged bed rest in the Intensive Care Unit of a prestigious Hospital in far away Saudi Arabia.

The president’s condition has to be far more serious than reported if he cannot be transferred to one of the several Palaces of his host, the Saudi King, if flying him in a private jet back to his Taj Mahal Presidential Palace in Abuja may be too risky for him when his plane gains altitude and cabin pressurization kicks in. I fully understand all of that with a patient with severe heart condition and kidney problems. For those who may not know the Nigerian State House has a very well equipped and staffed presidential clinic nearby to attend to offer the President intensive post surgical care. I am not just speculating about a presidential clinic in Aso Rock. I knew that for a fact because my son served his national youth service corpse as a medical doctor in the clinic and I once visited him there.

Nigeria is going through some difficult times as Northerners try to figure out what to do about our President to maintain the balance of power in Nigeria The possible selection of a Vice President from the North at this time is not altogether reassuring to the North. They have seen the total helplessness and powerlessness of Jonathan Goodluck as Vice President now, and they could not see how a Vice President from the North at this moment could maintain the balance of power they would like to keep in the next 6 years at least, if not more. If our past history is anything to go back the North really has nothing to gear but fear itself. Wasn’t the late Yar Adua given double or triple promotion in the Army for him to take the position of number 2 to Obasanjo at Dodan Barracks? I was in Government at the time and I knew for a fact that Obasanjo as number one could do nothing without first of all running it by his number 2 who held the real power and leverage even in a military regime. The same scenario can be repeated again if a Yaya Gusau, a former Security Adviser or a Lamido or a Yeguda is selected VP under a Goodluck Presidency. Either way Nigeria is on to another shaky start from all we know.

This is no time for the Yorubas to just “sit down dey look” to borrow a cliché from late uncle Bola Ige of blessed memory. It is no time at all for two of our best leaders in the most important state in Nigeria and the commercial center of our nation to, once again start to blackmail, betray and sabotage themselves, like happened with Awolowo and Akintola the last time I checked. Our rivals in Nigeria, I won’t call them enemies, would see that as an opening and they could take full advantage of it much to our own peril. Awolowo and Akintola as Yoruba leaders were two of our best. Both of them working together could easily have taken the Yoruba nation to greater heights just like the duo of Fashola and Tinubu have so far done in Lagos.

Our rivals in the Awolowo era were not interested in putting out the fire of envy between Awo and SLA. They added more petrol to the fire labeling the Yoruba enclave as the Wild Wild West with some justification. I can see some elements of the same forces at work again as they try to pull down Governor Fashola who is doing a marvelous job in Lagos as the best Governor in the Nigerian Commonwealth till now. Who ever thought that a little Muslim boy from Birch Freeman Methodist Secondary School in Lagos could turn out to be this good for our country? I would have thought that Ahmed Tinubu should be proud to have found such a very capable successor in Lagos. Tinubu must stop listening to those trying to come between him and Fashola. He must be aware of creating an opening for the PDP demolition Derby to finally complete what they have always wanted to do to the imperishable legacies of Awolowo as a pace setter for dynamic and progressive Government in Nigeria.

Awolowo, like Jesus Christ before him, did not come to save the world as documented in the Holy Scriptures, but he surely came to give all of us the Yorubas in Nigeria the little edge that has pushed us over the top in our endless competition with the other units of the tripod on which the Nigerian nation is delicately balanced. His freedom for all and life more abundant programs in the old West is what I think the duo of Tinubu and Fashola have been pursuing in Lagos and they must be encouraged to continue. I remain eternally grateful to Awolowo for starting free education for all in the old West. I was among the first batch of school children in Akure to enjoy the program and I know, for a fact, that the program has made a difference in my life and the life of my own children.

“Ka to r’erin, o digbo, ka to r’efon a dodan. Ka to ri eiye bi okin, o d’run Alakeji Kiniun Onibudo. Awolowo pegede” meaning Awo was a breed apart. We would have to travel a very long distance to find another leader like him is a short translation of the Yoruba proverb I have quoted in Yoruba. Those who want to set Fashola and Tinubu at each other throat must not be allowed to succeed. If the fault lies with either of them our Yoruba elders must quickly get together to sue for peace between them with immediate effect.

That is my mission in this write-up. All our first class Obas in Yoruba land led by the Ooni Risa and Iku baba yeye the Alafin of Oyo and Kabiyesi Rilwanu Akiolu the powerful Oba of Lagos must put sentiments aside to ensure that these two icons are nut not, all of a sudden turned into gladiators to entertain Yoruba detractors in Nigeria. The Yorubas have everything to lose if we allow the feud to fester or gain momentum. Oba Akiolu who is respected by both camps must step in to bring Tinubu and Fashola together to settle their differences like matured adults. I know Oba Akiolu can do it because without his cooperation, Tinubu would never have succeeded as much as he did in Lagos. Any time Lagos sneezes, Nigeria catch cold. If you add that prognosis to the peace of the graveyard that now surrounds the predictable change of baton at the federal level, you will understand what I am talking about.

Not too long ago I wrote an article extolling the virtues of Ahmed Tinubu as one of the worthy candidates for the vacant position of leader of the Yorubas in recognition of his leadership role in Lagos among other factors. I don’t know about you. I can only talk about myself, and what I know got a fact. Ahmed Tinubu has something going for him that cannot be dismissed with the wave of the hand in the history of Nigerian politics. I respect his track record as a fighter and a purposeful leader both as a Senator and later on as Governor of Lagos State. He is one Yoruba leader who knows what he wants and how to get it.

He was the only Governor in the South West to call the bluff of the PDP and Obasanjo, and he beat them to the tape on every count to retain Lagos State for the progressives in Nigerian Politics. While all of his colleagues in the South West were deceived, cajoled and ambushed by Obasanjo, he was the only one to survive the Obasanjo steamroller with all its federal might and Naira and Dollar power. I gave him high marks for his leadership on that score and U believed he has earned his wings to be the leader of the Yorubas and one of the successors of Awolowo. He may have stepped on some powerful toes for even nursing the ambition, to begin with. Some may even have frowned at his methodology or strategy for so doing. Those strategies and bulldozers may not have been the best he could have used, given the environment in which he was operating. I will be the first to admit that, But Tinubu is a dependable GOC I would gladly defer to because understood one thing that many of his peers did not quite understand. He is a good student of the Harold Wilson School of Politics which defines “Survival is the art of Politics” You could be a Napoleon or a Charles de Gaulle what defines a leaders above any other attributes, for me, is whether or not they find a way to win under a life and death situation either by luck or by a superior strength or strategy. Abiola was one such leader but they got him. So was Bola Ige. Tinubu to me was that kind of leader. He knows how to fight and how to win most of the time. That is one more reason I don’t want him at loggerhead with Governor Fashola, if I can help it.

If Lagos had been lost under Tinubu’s watch, the Obasanjo steamroller of the Awolowo country would have been total and complete. Because Obasanjo had scored a home run against AD rendering it totally impotent while the AD leaders took a life changing slumber from which they have never recovered till tomorrow There is no way on Earth the AC would have taken back Ondo State and Edo without the intervention and political wisdom and calculation of Ahmed Tinubu. With Tinubu as the "fons et origo” of the AC strategy and breakthrough in most of the South West, the PDP with its federal might was given a fight of its life. I give much of the credit for that achievement to Ahmed Tinubu and Governor Fashola.

If Lagos had been lost to the PDP forget it, Obasanjo would have been unstoppable in his bid for third term in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, Obasanjo would have claimed to be the greatest leader of the Yorubas whether formally confirmed or not. Obasanjo would have gotten everything he had wanted in Nigeria and the North power brokers would never have been able to clip his wings like they did. They always cited his unpopularity in his home base as one of the reasons he should be forever be grateful to the North for being the wind beneath his wings in all of his political life. Because Lagos has remained what New York or California or Florida and Illinois have always been to America, a win in Lagos for any party is considered a major victory. The North knows it and we all know it. Tinubu deserves all the recognition he got for being our savior on that score alone. He understood better than any of his peers and colleagues in the former AD that power determines relevance in Nigeria. If the DPA led by Chief Oluyemi Falae had made similar inroad in Ondo State or any of the South West States, Falae, a technocrat, with his well known expertise as an administrator/economist and a former Secretary to the Federal Government and Minister of Finance, would have attained pretty much the same visibility and relevance that Tinubu enjoys today in the rank and file of the progressives in Nigeria.

There is no way to wrestle power from the PDP in any part of Nigeria, if you don’t have the financial means to do it. Sheer brute power and physical combat will not do it. Tinubu understood that the fight for the soul of Nigeria is not going to be won on the platter of sheer diplomacy alone and not by how many night vigils a leader is willing and able to keep at the Holy Ghost Redemption Camp on Ibadan /Lagos Express, the leader must have “Ekurube” “Owo apekanuko” or “Kudi” in Hausa and “Ego” as they say in Igbo language, If you don’t have money in your hands, you don’t have any chance of winning in Nigeria because the poverty rate is so deep and pervasive that nobody would listen to you and all your sermons if it is not backed up with money.

Awolowo himself understood that reality when he fashioned a revenue source for the old Action Group by creating private investment companies like Shonibare Estate in Lagos and some of the money making ventures to directly or indirectly finance the old Action Group. Ahmed Tinubu is a good student of the Awolowo school of thought and political engineering. Tinubu does not thrive only on his image and clout as “Omo Iya Aje” of Lagos, he is an accountant by profession and he knew that money and plenty of it backed with brainpower open all doors of political opportunities in Nigeria. He found some ways to finance the election of Fashola as his successor, and he beat the PDP to secure two consecutive terms for himself and he wants to see Fashola’s election, as his third term, which I think, is a big mistake. He must let go and not push the young and dynamic to the wall by becoming an Oliver twist grand father who wants to control everything by remote control from outside.

Tinubu has a right to want to remain financially buoyant like Abiola and IBB, in Nigeria in view of his greater goals and mission as a politician, but he must not do at the expense of the State or Governor Fashola. . It was easy for him as Governor of Lagos State to cut corners to achieve what I am talking about here. But that must not be a reason for him to impose the same standards or values on his successor who came to office with similar goals but different methodology. I have a strong feeling that the simmering feud between the two is very much linked to this analysis.

Tinubu may have carried the concept of “God-fathers” in Politics too far for Fashola’s comfort. Tinubu must see Fashola’s success as a continuation of his own as Governor and let wiser counsel prevail. Fashola has a right to want to put his own stamp on his on term as Governor. The role has now been reversed and Tinubu must give the young Governor a wiggle room to do his work. By the same token, Governor Fashola as a Yoruba original must find a way to accommodate Tinubu without Tinubu becoming another Adedibu, the Garrison commander at Ibadan. Tinubu must be wary of aggrieved supporters who want Tinubu and Fashola to knock heads for their own benefit.

The last point I want to make before I end this piece is the idle talk of only one term for Fashola by anyone in Tinubu’s camp. Tinubu would lose the respect many Nigerians have for him, if he thinks a Governor as dynamic and effective as Fashola should be allowed to serve only one term for not dancing to his tune. The Nigeria of our dream is where performance and track record are going to be the only yardstick for victory or defeat. Governor Fashola has so far done an excellent job and we want him as Governor for the maximum allowed by the Constitution.

We are all hoping he can run for national office someday and win a free and fair election. He is a great Governor and asset to the Yorubas, and we love him to continue to make Lagos the envy of other states in Nigeria. I urge Tinubu to play the constructive leader and elder statesman he has always been, and make sure that Fashola does not become his” persona non grata” or enemy to boot.