Tinubu and the lynch mob
By Femi Adesina (kulikulii@yahoo.com, 08055001928)
Friday September 16, 2011

Love him or hate him, one fact is incontrovertible: Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the most potent political force from the South-west of the country today.
In 2003, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) swept through the region like a typhoon, uprooting the Alliance for Democracy (AD), which hitherto controlled Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti states. The only man left standing was Tinubu, who retained his seat as governor of Lagos State on the platform of the AD. Later, he was to form and join the Action Congress (AC), which has metamorphosed today into the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

Tinubu became the National Leader of ACN after leaving office as governor in 2007 and at the general elections last April, he led his party to do exploits that shook the PDP to its very foundation. The ACN, in a blitzkrieg, recovered Ogun, Oyo and equally kept Lagos, which the PDP would have given an arm and a leg to win. Late last year, ACN had got Osun and Ekiti States into its kitty through pronouncements of the judiciary on the highly disputed polls of April 2007. The same feat had been accomplished in Edo State two years earlier. Today, save for Ondo State ruled by the Labour Party, the ACN controls the entire South-west, plus Edo in the South-south region. Which ruling party at the centre will not fear, nay plot against such party?

I don’t like the PDP, I’ve always said so. This is because since 1999 when it got to power at the centre and in many states, the party has not made much impact on the lives of the people. The ACN, mind you, is not also a paragon political party (there may never be any, really) but then, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Because the ACN can give the PDP a bloody nose, it has some measure of support from me.

True, I was disappointed when an alliance of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the ACN did not work before the last general elections. I had always maintained that we needed a rainbow coalition to get rid of the army of occupation called the PDP but it didn’t happen. We’ve heard stories of what Tinubu as ACN leader did and didn’t do to torpedo the proposed alliance. But that is a story for another day. Today, we want to talk about why a PDP-led Federal Government would do anything to stop a ‘chief rascal’ called Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Last week, the news came that summons had been served on the former Lagos State governor to appear before the Code of Conduct Tribunal. The accusation? He operated at least 10 foreign accounts in the U.S and the U.K while he was governor between 1999 and 2007. What does the law say? “The President, Vice-President, Governors, Deputy Governors, Ministers of the Government of the Federation and Commissioners of the Governments of the States, members of the National Assembly and the House of Assembly of the States, and such other public officers or persons as the National Assembly may by law prescribe, shall not maintain or operate a bank account in any country outside Nigeria.”

This was the law Tinubu allegedly breached and trial before the Code of Conduct Tribunal starts next Wednesday, September 21. Nobody is, and should be above the law. There should be no sacred cow (though I heard that the animal is worshipped as god in some parts of India, thus making it sacred). If Tinubu flouted the law, he should answer for it.

But I have this overpowering feeling that there may be more to the trial than meets the eye. Is this some sort of political lynching? Is it an opportunity to cut Tinubu down to size? Is this a gambit to stop the rampaging ACN dead in its tracks? In the last elections, apart from sweeping the South-west, the party almost got Akwa Ibom and Benue States. Before then, it had almost gotten Anambra. Cases are before the courts in respect of those states. What to do? Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter.

If the tribunal finds Tinubu guilty, he will be banned from all political activities for a minimum of 10 years. Surely, that is a decapitation, a guillotine of the ACN. And if the Federal Government wants, it can also begin criminal prosecution, which can see the ACN leader behind the bars for some time. If Bode George of the PDP went to prison, why can’t Bola Tinubu also serve time there? What is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander. The PDP-led Federal Government has every reason to take Tinubu out. From facts available in the public domain now, the man did not declare the 10 foreign accounts in the Form CCB -1 assets declaration form he submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau on January 6, 2004. So, there is every reason to try him. And when the summons was served last week, Tinubu told his staff to accept it, saying, “after years of threats, political mudslinging and media trial…it’s an opportunity to put an end to unproven allegations and politically orchestrated persecution.” Brave words.

But I have some posers: Granted that not closing those ten accounts he operated before becoming governor was against the law, what is the balance in the accounts? Were they ever operated between 1999 and 2007 when Tinubu was governor? The law banning operation of foreign accounts by public officers is meant to checkmate looting and money laundering. Was there any inflow into those accounts between 1999 and 2009? When Joshua Dariye of Plateau State and Diepreye Alamieyeseigha ran into problem with the law during their tenures as governor, the amounts involved were made public. So why is nobody telling us the total amount in those ten accounts? I have a copy of the exhibit filed before the Code of Conduct Tribunal. The total value of the ten accounts I can see is 20,995 pounds. Is that money laundering or what? And there was no deposit between 1999 and 2007, as far as I can see. So, is there money laundering? We need answers, if the trial would be worth the time and resources it would consume.

While it does not exculpate the accused in that the very act of still having those accounts in his name while he was a public officer amounts to an offence, I think it considerately weakens the case, if indeed no transactions were made within the period. And it also strengthens the suspicion that the case has political motivation. What is the total balance in those accounts? We need to know. If I were the PDP-led Federal Government, why would I not want to castrate Tinubu? (And I’m talking of political and not physical castration, lest Senator Oluremi Tinubu begins to panic). Elections are ahead in some states few months hence. Decapitate the ACN before then by hacking down the leader of the party.

The Justice Ayo Salami fire is still blazing, stoked by the ACN and its sympathetic media. House of Representatives Speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal emerged in defiance of his party’s zoning formula, aided by Tinubu and the ACN lawmakers. Deal with the man before he wreaks more havoc. Of course, in 2015, PDP would want to recover all the South-west states, and also capture Lagos. Not while Tinubu is free and kicking. So, what to do? Get him out of the way or weaken him substantially. It was part of the agenda in the South-west meeting of the PDP held in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, recently. How about all those vexatious press statements of Lai Mohammed of the ACN? Surely, a pain in the neck and Tinubu, the brain box of the party, must pay for it. Take off the head and the mouth becomes permanently quiet.

A final poser. In 2006, a good number of governors were accused of running foreign accounts by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Why is it that only Tinubu is now being brought forward for trial? What of the others? Curious. Very curious. Tinubu has called on everyone to keep calm and be vigilant, “while the judiciary does justice to this matter.” Good. But as much as I try to keep calm and be vigilant, I can’t shake off the nagging feeling that this is all about political lynching, with the PDP mob baying for blood. Am I right? As they say, time will surely tell.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/columnists/femi/2011/femi-sept-16-2011.html

This femi "ofosina" guy is a dumbass

^^Stranger?!

http://www.republicreport.com/it-is-not-about-governor-tinubu-it-is-about-imminent-gub-election-in-ondo-state-folake-lebi/


@ OP, its in the character of the PDP govt to muzzle the opposition just for them to continue their scorched earth policy.

The above piece may not be the totality of the reasons but it adds to them.

The writer should shut up and wait for the verdict of the tribunal, rather than open his own court.

for now what i want to is d damage d man has done 2 lagos especially dis LG polls

leleri:

for now what i want to is d damage d man has done 2 lagos especially dis LG polls

Please be kind enough to educate us about the damage this man has done.

I laugh at how people make their silly remarks and run away when asked to defend their rubbish,

RoadStar:

The writer should shut up and wait for the verdict of the tribunal, rather than open his own court.

I agree. The sun newspaper seems to have a lot of these paid for writers.