The first real saga of the Tinubu political progression was his ability to outsmart the late Engineer Funsho Williams soon after his return from exile as a National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) activist in 1998. Williams, who served as Commissioner for Works under Lagos State Military Governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, had spent time to prepare the ground to take over when the military handed over. When Tinubu won the governorship election in 1999 on the platform of the defunct Advance for Democracy (AD), with the Chief Abraham Adesanya-led Afenifere (the Yoruba socio-cultural and political umbrella) as the group’s “guardian angel”, Williams decamped to the PDP and ran against Tinubu in 2003.Another event which has mystified people till date, but which most people prefer to discuss in low tones, was that the unofficial result of the Lagos State governorship election initially posted on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) website had indicated a Funsho Williams victory. But by the time the result was officially announced, it was Tinubu that was returned re-elected. On 27th July 2006, Williams was mysteriously strangled in his private library. Tinubu quickly named the former Western Avenue after him and erected a statue of him at the Iganmu junction.

One of Tinubu’s rare acts of political vision was his refusal to join the other five AD Governors of the South West under the directive of Afenifere, to support former President Olusegun Obasanjo for a second term in office. Incidentally, all thegovernors who took Obasanjo’s poisoned bait – Lam Adesina of Oyo, Bisi Akande of Osun, Niyi Adebayo of Ekiti, Adebayo Adefarati of Ondo State and Olusegun Osoba of Ogun State – lost their states to Obasanjo’s PDP, with Tinubu (who had formed his own political party, the Action Congress) the last man standing. Not only did the Afenifere-propelled AD governors lose, the Afenifere itself, which Tinubu had distanced himself from because of their hobnobs with Obasanjo – collapsed as a political force.An enraged Obasanjo launched an economic strangulation attack on Tinubu’s Lagos, and illegally froze the federal allocations to the Lagos State local governments, but Tinubu rode this storm through his ambitious internal revenue drive that has currently dimmed the impact of federal allocation to the state.

The bottom line of this analysis is to depict the fact that this man’s political achievements were not by trial and error or mere blind grabs. He is easily the most effective political builder since 1999.

I would have supported Tinubu if it were to be 2011. But he is too old now. That’s the thing.

Ok