Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu: Nigeria's Most powerful politician.

By Dr Tom Ohikere

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is one unique Nigerian personality with imposing features, strides and achievements. A politician, businessman and leader of thought, who has in the last 16 years risen to become the El Generalissimo of Nigerian Politics and his self-belief, sagacity, decorum, vision and dexterity in the coordination of human resources in leading the party to the height it has attained today is uncommon.

Apart from President Muhammadu Buhari, he is another politician that vehemently refused to collapse his political structure, to join the ruling party, then the Peoples Democratic Party.
Even when his government was at loggerheads with the Federal over allocations, due to the creation of Local Council Development Areas. He was firmed and unwavering to the antics of the then Obasanjo administration.

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu rather through his economic team devised ways of surviving, by deploying new strategies for internally generated revenue, that used to fund several State projects. He is the father of modern Lagos, the largest city in Africa and he has also been a powerful voice tackling the PDP led government for 16 years, on its policies and programs for the nation which brought to limelight, the ruling All Progressive Congress APC, which came into power with anger to fight corruption bedevilled by the 16years of PDP led administration.

However recent events unfolding in the All Progressive Congress (APC) has triggered political observers to gush out unholy insinuations against the duo, saying President Muhammadu Buhari has betrayed the former Lagos State governor and national leader of the party Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for using his disposition as the father of the party and the President of the country to manage the crisis that was about pulling down the ruling party by dissolving the national working committee of the APC and subsequently inaugurated the care-taker committee.

It is erroneous to say that this decision by the President has in anyway jeopardize their relationship, Tinubu and President Muhammadu Buhari are still in good terms.

As a crusader of change, Tinubu has accepted the decision of Mr. President regarding the party's dissolution and still work together to ensure that the party deliver devidens of democracy to the Nigerian state as promised during their campaign. Remember the pro-Buhari alliance that Tinubu headed, the All Progressives Congress (APC), rallied elites around Buhari in the southwest, Nigeria's wealthiest region. That enabled Buhari to tackle a perception that his support lies only in the dust-blown, largely Muslim north. The religiously mixed southwest had voted overwhelmingly for Buhari.

Tinubu has become so many things to so many people in the Nigerian communities and Africa as a whole, to the supporters, Tinubu is a Yoruba Muslim, a wily political operator with a passion for getting the job done and a knack for picking bright, committed technocrats to do it. To critics he is a ruthless godfather who doles out lucrative contracts to his friends' firms, insists on installing his man in office and is capable of sending in street thugs if he fails to get his way.

He is a talent hunter, he put talents in his office, groom them and the best out of them, he is the tallest person politically today in the Nigerian politics who has groomed so many politicians today, like the Osinbajo, Fashola, Fayemi, Oyetola, Gbajabiamila, Faleke, Ambode, Fowler, Aregbesola, Sanwo-Olu, the seating governor of Lagos state and many others, this has substantiated his role as one of Nigeria's most powerful political godfathers.

As a tactical politician, and an indomitable opposition leader who is endowed with sheer organisational ability, mobilisation prowess, uncommon acumen and foresight, dogged in his politics, he is firm and resolute about what he wants and believes in. In 1998 he was among the die hard political class in the group ‘Afenifere’, insisting that Nigeria needs a true and participatory democracy.
He damned the consequences of putting up a resistance to the Military Junta of Late Gen. Sani Abacha, risking his life which paid off with the untimely demise of the dictator.
This gave him the capacity to re-launch into the new political frontier of the 4th republic, where he joined the Alliance for Democracy and emerged the Civilian Governor.

The APC, which came to power on anger over corruption and growing insecurity, was orchestrated by the Jagaban Ahmed Bola Tinubu through the pro-Buhari alliance which he headed, the All Progressives Congress (APC), rallied elites around Buhari in the southwest, Nigeria's wealthiest region. That enabled Buhari to tackle a perception that his support lies only in the dust-blown, largely Muslim north. The religiously mixed southwest had voted overwhelmingly for Buhari.

Jagaban's curve has not yet peaked the political plateau, he remains dogged in the Nigerian politics and his indelible footprints in the affairs of Nigerian development will continue to speak for him, he is too busy for the luxury of hasty, ill-conceived utterances and will not be cow to the demands of those who press for him to make a fractionating statement on the President decision as the opposition party expect, he is a crisis manager, the builder of modern Lagos state and seemingly the power behind the intellectual content of the APC.

Let me ask Victor Giodam first I'm coming