Remi Tinubu’s outburst
on the seeming side-line of her hubby, Bola Tinubu, by the Muhammadu Buhari
administration illustrates the existence of an acrimonious struggle for
dominance by actors in the political space. It connotes the very fact that the
poor masses of Nigeria are not the only
victims of the serial subterfuge by politicians who find their thumbs useful
before elections only to find their faces unworthy after.
But with the investiture of Ms Tinubu to the
wailers’ club, the masses at least found consolation in the reality of jungle
life as reflected in the present configuration of forces striving for political
dominance and influence. In a twist of fate, the flag of political cannibalism
was hoisted on Bourdillon, reducing an acclaimed think tank, with all its
boisterousness and efficacy to a mere thin tank!
To the naïve, Remi’s
disillusionment at the use-and-dump tactic of the president is a
national or perhaps regional insult. To these persons confusing a clash of
personal interest with an infraction against our collective sensibilities,
Tinubu is the voice of the Yoruba, embodying in totality, the mood and
aspirations of the people. With this puerile mindset, an affront on his person
is nothing but an affront on the millions of people in the south-western part
of the nation. This thinking takes one back to antiquity, for while the rest of
the world have since entered the race to surge toward post-modernity, local
dwellers continue to wander in the illusion that the fly has still not realised
the foolhardiness inherent in the pursuit of a carcass to the grave.
The less fortunate
citizens, who have been subjected to evil-living conditions which both
Bourdillon and Aso Rock are insulated from, must engage their reasoning
faculties to situate their place in this country. Such an intellectual task
would mirror to them the grim reality of their wretched conditions as a direct
fallout of the perfidious acts of members of the political class, for save the
very fact that the leadership space has been reduced to a safe house for
mediocrities—from the legislative clown who found it amusing cutting a ribbon
on an electric pole to the constituted authority who left his backyard to go
wander in a Danish ranch—the people would have had no difficulty reconciling the
class war amongst members of the political elite as a rare opportunity to
shatter the ethnic and religious conundrums they are entangled in to rally
fellow disenchanted citizens toward changing the present order.
Remi Tinubu’s
frustration at the government of President Buhari has very little to do with
the advancement of the nation’s political and economic hygiene but from the
restrictions placed on her husband's sphere of influence, one characterized by
political cronyism and debasing meddlesomeness. Tinubu pushed his luck too far
by thinking that his pervasion of Lagos’ and regional politics was beyond the
preying eyes of an insecure public—north down south, east through west, four
cardinal points, complete. As a regional leader, he authored an oxymoronic
script of reverse fidelity, reducing party loyalty to a devotion to his person.
For almost two
decades, the nation stood in utter disbelief as he blazed in the euphoric
contradictions of wearing a crown on a stool built on the firm principles of
republicanism, exaggerating the power of his thumb beyond singularity. He
wallowed in the presumption that his fellow politicians suffered from the
condition of acute forgetfulness and memory shot-termism which the mass of the
people are afflicted by without realising that each time he had his way against
men and women who queue to vote during his party primaries only to learn that
an aspirant who barely participated had been declared winner, the ambitious
hawks outside of his region oil their defence mechanisms that prepare them
against him replicating such on a national scale.
This is not to imply
that he had an easy ride within his region as his over domineering attitude
pitched a number of Young Turks against him. In a feel of political
opportunism, the PDP lingered to see the exit of Babatunde Fashola from the
Action Congress when the former Lagos governor was engulfed in a
battle to save his soul from Tinubu’s butt in. Kayode Fayemi, like
his Lagoscounterpart, found it bewildering to have his administration tied
to the apron strings of our subject. Olusegun Mimiko got Tinubu’s money to
reclaim his mandate but slyly avoided his chains.
While these were
ongoing, the hawks who realised how impossible their shot at the presidency
would be without an alliance with the Tinubu camp kept rapt attention. Even
before the merger was put into motion, they had already formulated strategies
to curtail Tinubu’s excesses. The aftermath is seen in Kogi
and Ondo States, the national assembly and presidency. The stalemate
in Kogi afforded both the hawks and Young Turks the first opportunity to
test-run their offensive, deploying both executive and judicial might to
install the misfit, Yahaya Bello, to the consternation of all. Rotimi Akeredolu
also rode on to power with his soul intact, effecting a master plan birthed
from a protesting breast.
At the national
assembly, the duo of Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara had very little to fear
having got the backing of a soulless opposition. The coup was swift and
penetrating. It had every inkling of painstaking preparedness. At the
presidency, the contrasting demeanour of Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu made
the whole thing look easy. With the ethnic card in the pocket of the former,
only the constitution could get in his way of wanting to extend his parochial
worldview to the nation’s governance architecture.
Remi mounted the dais
to foist her frustrations on us because she understood the psyche of Nigerians
and their penchant for entering the ring when the circumstance clearly requires
spectatorship. Nigerians would do well to jettison the belief that political
infighting could in any way trickle-in some goodness into the polity. They must
go back to history to learn that when the dust settles, the rabid misogynist,
Dino Melaye, would invite Yahaya Bello to bed; Buhari shall unclad his
chauvinistic apparel to announce Tinubu as his brother, and Shehu Sani in all
possibilities would call his constituents to a feast of reconciliation with his
miniscule adversary, Governor el-Rufai.
Just as it was
impossible in ancient days for the rampaging elite of command societies to
either agree or disagree strictly on the basis of the ordinary people,
Nigerians must isolate themselves from the fight Ms Tinubu indirectly asked
that they partake in.
They lost yesterday,
they are losing today, and they will lose tomorrow. The only chance the masses
have got at winning is to see both parties as inimical to their collective
aspirations. They've got to see Ms Tinubu's wail for what it really is: a
furious struggle going on for a secure place on the stairs.
By Modiu Olaguro
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