Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday gave reasons why he has been avoiding debates and one-on-one interviews with journalists.

Responding to questions at the Royal Institute of International Affairs also known as Chatham House in London, Tinubu said those asking him for a one on one interviews wants to use him to make money having realised that he is a marketable individual.

He said he will continue to say no to those asking him to grant interviews and participate in debates.

“One to one conversation? Excuse me. I see myself as marketable individual. You want use me to make money and I’m saying no!”

Tinubu also spoke on the issue trailing his age affirming that he was born on March 29 1952

“At the time of birth, I was dated March 29, 1952 and it is in the family record”.

The worries and queries about Tinubu’s frequent habitation in London when he is needed in Nigeria are a direct consequence of our experience with Buhari who has elevated absenteeism, nonchalance, and “ungovernance” to an art.

Nigeria’s problems are too enormous to be additionally burdened with another absent, detached, inelegantly insouciant presidency, which Tinubu’s current attitudes suggest we will have should he become president.

Tinubu and his minders need to come clean about the state of his health. If they insist that he is as fit as a fiddle, they need to tell us why he has been uncommunicative in the last few months.

Communication with the public is a core feature of the American-style presidential democracy we practice in Nigeria. It is public communication that affords the president the opportunity to influence public opinion, to interface with citizens, and to frame and reframe the contours of national conversations.

That is why we now talk of the “rhetorical presidency,” where the goal of presidential communication is no longer to just persuade lawmakers (which is now unnecessary in Nigeria since National Assembly members are often pliant yes-men and yes-women) but to win the popular approval of the public. 

What sort of presidency does Tinubu want to have if he becomes president? A continuation of Buhari? Well, he may not be as lucky as Buhari as been.

After eight years of Buhari's vacant, dementia-plagued presidency, the last thing Nigeria needs is another presidency that will double down on it, that would be conducted through dishonest press releases by presidential spokespersons, paid social media troll farms, and TV appearances by deviously mercenary mind managers.

DSC7:
His dead brain simply cannot make any reasonable contribution ...

He Will end up speaking in tongues of balablu