Femi Aribisala sounds like Nigeria’s Salman
Rushdie. It seems Mr Aribisala is having endless
sleepless nights over the person of Bola Tinubu
and indeed the emergence of APC as another big
political party in Nigeria. I believe that by standing
on the side of the voiceless since 1999 till date,
the duo of Buhari, Tinubu and other leaders of APC
deserve the accolade of well-meaning Nigerians —
George Kalu
ONE of the beauties of democracy is the latitude it
provides the citizens to freely express their views
on any subject under the sun. Such opinions are,
however, expected to be factual, informative, rich
and robust to raise the stake on political re-
engineering.
They should be thought-provoking; to ask the right
questions and make valuable suggestions in order
to proffer likely solutions to current social and
economic challenges. That, combined with the
active participation of the citizenry as the main
stakeholder in governance would serve to deepen
the democratic culture. But when opinions are
taken to ridiculous heights of over fixation on pull-
them-down syndrome, especially those whose
patriotic efforts have brought to bear the fruits of
such democracy, it calls for urgent concern.
In the light of this, therefore, one cannot but
question both the motive and morale of one Mr.
Femi Aribsala who has chosen to cast aspersions
and castigate every patriotic move Asiwaju Bola
Ahmed Tinubu has made to salvage the hole-
riddled ship of state from sinking under. The other
day, it was Aribisala and his tactless tirade over:
What does Bola Tinubu really want? Now, it is
another
self-serving vituperation over the unduly
orchestrated Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket for
the All Progressives Congress, APC. So sad,
Aribisala and those behind beating the drums for
him, think as if the people’s wishes and electoral
value count for nothing.
Let us consider this, from Aribisala’s jaundiced
viewpoint. “The prospect of a ticket with Tinubu as
vice-president is already ensuring that the APC is
badly in need of aspirin. An APC vice-president
that is not Tinubu poses grave political danger to
Tinubu. It means Tinubu has been sowing for
somebody else to reap. If that person happens to
be Yoruba, he or she could quickly become a
contender for Tinubu’s much-vaunted position as
the Asiwaju of South-West politics in Nigeria.”
If for anything else, by this statement alone
Aribisala has exposed his vain and vacuous
understanding of the political ideology, motivation
and persona of the famed tactician and political
strategist called Ahmed Tinubu. For the records,
he was the last progressive politician standing,
when the rigging machinery of the PDP bulldozed
its way through the South-West geo-political zone,
claiming in its dusty wake the states of Ogun, Oyo,
Osun, Ondo and Ekiti during the heady days of the
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo-led PDP.
Back then, when Tinubu and his allies met at the
residence of late Pa Adesanya in Apapa, Lagos to
review the rather crude onslaught of the anti-
democratic PDP, only Tinubu stood his ground;
maintaining that it was not in the best interest of
the Alliance for Democracy, AD or Nigeria not to
contest the outcome of the fraudulent elections.
Fraudulent elections
The PDP-led government had ensured that the
governorship elections were the first to be
conducted, with the obnoxious aim to use it
ostensibly to influence the outcome of subsequent
elections. And of course, to whip the so called
‘dissidents’ into line. Asiwaju it was who saw
through the smokescreen and stood his ground,
against the formidable reactionary forces.
With his unwavering moral support, candidates on
the platform of AD who contested for the posts in
the Senate, House of Representatives and various
state House of Assembly in the South-West were
able to clinch the desired victory and return to the
hallowed chambers to discharge their duty to their
people. Furthermore, Tinubu served again as the
catalyst who galvanized the progressives to
reclaim the lost states, such as Osun and Ekiti,
even including Ondo that was saved from the
clutches of the PDP and went to the Labour Party.
If Tinubu was a selfish politician, as Aribisala
imputes in his highly opinionated essay, he would
not have embarked on that messianic mission. All
he wanted, and still pursues with unrelenting
vigour is to ensure that indeed, the people’s votes
count. That their wishes hold sway. That their
choices are validated on the veritable platform of
credible elections, as against foisting the wishes of
a few greedy and self-serving politicians on the
majority.
It, therefore, amounts to a grave insult to insinuate
that Tinubu does not want another person to reap
from where he has sowed. He knows he is not
God, who has the power to determine who benefits
from what. That is pettiness from a warped
mindset. Perhaps, if Aribisala has an inkling of
those whose lives God has used theAsiwaju to
touch outside of politics he would not descend to
the low level of thinking that all there is to life is
money; or sowing and reaping. Until Nigerians
stop thinking of politics as an avenue for self-
aggrandizement instead of selfless service to the
state we would not make meaningful progress.
And that also underscores the penchant of
progressive parties for identifying the best of
candidates not just from the South-West geo-
political zone but across the Nigerian political
spectrum for public service. Unknown to the likes
of Aribisala, that clearly explains why Tinubu threw
his weight behind the candidature of Aminu
Tambuwal for the exalted position of Speaker,
House of Representatives as against Mulikat
Akande.
Tinubu saw in Tambuwal what was missing in
Akande, who would be a quisling in the hand of
PDP. That they share the same geo-political
heritage was immaterial and mere base sentiment.
The Yoruba race, well-known for political
sophistication would always project their best of
brains to the limelight.
Democratic norms
Now, Aribisala should ask himself in good
conscience what he would have done if he was in
Asiwaju’s shoes and there is an open threat to
democratic norms and values. Especially with
Dimeji Bankole, then the Speaker House of
Assembly promising Ekiti people that the military
would be used to win election in that state during
the controversial re-run governorship election in
2009. Would he have stood aloof, arms folded to
allow the monster of impunity to plunder the land?
The answer is his .
And that brings us to Aribisala’s gross
misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the
well-acclaimed victory of John Oyegun as against
his man, Tom Ikimi. Said he: “ Tinubu needed to
ensure that the APC chairman is not his new arch-
enemy, Tom Ikimi, a known Atiku Abubakar man.
So he shopped for a more malleable alternative.
He finally settled on John Odigie-Oyegun, former
governor of Edo State. But when the permutations
were done, Odigie-Oyegun could not be assured of
victory in a democratic poll. The answer, therefore,
in typical Asiwaju fashion, was to truncate
democracy in APC.”
Perception of political issues
Reading through this cheap assessment of a
credible election that had even the PDP
congratulating the APC makes mockery of
Aribisala’s perception of political issues. Firstly, he
has insulted the collective intelligence of other APC
stalwarts by claiming they are dummies who could
not choose between two candidates with clearly
well-defined antecedents and opposite character
traits. Secondly, and this is instructive, he has
inadvertently given Tinubu the power of a demi-
god before who others could never say “no”. That
scenario cannot play itself out under a democratic
dispensation, more so that of Nigeria’s vibrant
polity in the 21st Century.
May we remind Aribisala that Tom Ikimi was never
a democrat and even as an adept political
chameleon cannot metamorphose into one
overnight. What role did he play during the dark
days of the NADECO struggle to emancipate the
Nigerian nation and its good people from the iron
grip of military despotism? That of an ignoble anti-
democrat who chose to turn his back on the
people and became deaf to their cries of anguish
by dining with Abacha.
He, Ikimi it was again who practiced bolekaja
diplomacy in the face of a clear injustice that
triggered global outrage, when he openly
supported Abacha’s death sentence on Ken Saro-
Wiwa, acclaimed human rights activist and
internationally recognized environmentalist, and the
Ogoni-Four. No democrat would have justified and
defended that type of brutal, barbaric and bestial
murder of his people’s conscience and voice. For
Ikimi to have assumed that Nigerians have so
short a memory and would embrace his foray into
party politics without questions betrays his
understanding of the word, ‘democracy. And even
Aribisala has the moral burden of acting as a
megaphone to such a person.
‘Show me your friend and I would tell you who you
are.’Perhaps, Ikimi’s people understand him far
more than Aribisala does. For that reason they
elected Chief John Oyegun, as against Ikimi’s
candidate, Lucky Igbinedion, as their first-ever
democratically chosen state governor. And why
not? Oyegun has over the years remained a
consistent and committed democrat unlike Ikimi
who, more like an unprincipled politician pitches
his tent wherever he feels the grass is greener and
romances any government in power? Such a
person does not have any moral authority to put
himself forward for any elective post in the first
instance. Leadership goes far beyond that.
It is mixed milieu of one who has vision in
quantum; one with the capacity to feel the pulse
and the pains of his people; one who has the
courage to do right and the boldness to say ‘no’
to evil in all its shade; one with the compassion to
right the wrongs bedeviling his people. Fortunately,
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is blessed with all
these character traits.
Qualitative leadership
And as amply demonstrated during his struggles
for democracy, his eight years qualitative
leadership as the Lagos State governor, against all
odds he is eminently qualified to lead this nation
to greater heights. That he is from the South-West
or a Muslim should not matter, should it? Of
course not. What the citizens need at this critical
moment of our troubled history are men and
women who would frontally tackle the monsters of
corruption, mass youth unemployment, insecurity,
and the insidious culture of impunity to deliver the
dividends of democracy at their doorstep.
As George Kalu rightly admonished: “Let Aribisala
stop wasting his precious wisdom in producing
such acidic and derogatory articles. We already
know why he hates Tinubu with such passion and
why he derides APC”.What should matter most to
Nigerians now is quality leadership that
understands their pains; that has a sense of
direction and would salvage them from the clouds
of cluelessness and storms of selfishness to the
habour of our collective hope, for a better Nigeria.
•Sunday Dare is the Special Adviser on Media to
Tinubu

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/07/re-muslimmuslim-presidential-disaster-apc-femi-aribisala/