By; Al Humphrey Onyanabo
We might all have our differences about his victory and how he got to power. It’s understandable, no three people even children from the same womb can hardly agree on one matter. A country of over 200 million people with over 300 ethnic nationalities and languages, we are diverse. And that makes us unique and outstanding.
Even the much loved President Umaru Yar’ Adua was bold enough to say the election that brought him to power was flawed and he went ahead to make reforms in that direction.
So i can understand if we disagree that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu did not win the 2023 presidential election convincingly. I am not a fan. Eight million plus votes some feel is not a fair representation, But the victor is in Aso Rock. Argue with yourself. I have a job to do. I can’t keep the President of The Federal Republic of Nigeria waiting. He is reading this.
The Presidential elections tribunal has declared him winner and he is waiting for the Supreme Court to stamp him Paid and delivered.
By whatever means anybody might say he got into Aso Rock, like him or hate him, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is determined to make every day count. A few mistakes were made with the hurried announcement of the removal of petroleum subsidy but he is trying to salvage the situation and make things work. And so far, it’s been tough. The dollar now sells beyond N1,000 and it does not seem in a hurry to come down from that dizzying height. But we are a praying nation, and we pray it comes crashing. At the same time some people are praying it continues to soar. Heaven must be confused with our matter.
The President seems like a man in a hurry to score; to prove that he is the best man for the job. The man Nigeria needs to turn things around. So far nobody has called him a messiah but he certainly sees himself in that fold.
No Nigerian President came better prepared for power than Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Since after he become Governor in 1999, he has retained a structure of loyal aides and acolytes that keep Lagos running smoothly and transiting from one Governor to the other. Lagos is largely what it is today because one administration after another has built on the legacy of the outgoing administration.
He has also been a harvester of talent. Picking them up from the grassrootS and building them into world beaters. He has been accused of running Lagos like his personal kingdom, but we all know that politics the world has never been bereft of godfathers. It is the godfathers who calm nerves down and finance elections and provide the wisdom that guides the party through stormy patches. When you invest, you reap.
States like Rivers have gone through political turmoil with each succeeding administration because of lack of unity and their ability to act with one voice even when they are members of one party, PDP.
Tinubu was able to ensure steady development of Lagos while calling the shots. There are people who also call him the ‘owner’ of Lagos with all its wider implications. Sort that out yourself. That’s talk for another day.
Moving forward, the appointment of ministers took a while, and whatever reservations and complaints we might have had about the choice and caliber of people he picked, three months after, we can only but admit that he has a bunch of solid men and women running the affairs of state with him. These people are all holding their own and trying to make a difference in their various assignments.
I see an incredible zeal in the President to make appointments and put people in authority to take decisions and run various arms of government. The appointments are rolling out faster than we can take stock. Before we digest one, he churns out a few more. This is indeed serious.
Daily he is injecting new blood across the strata. Nobody can accuse him of running a one man show though some have said he favours more people from Lagos than the rest of Nigeria. If they perform, we won’t really care.
What is important to me is that all those the President has appointed thus far are Nigerians. They all need to dig in and do the jobs for which they were appointed. They must realize that they are an extension of the mandate Nigerians gave the President.
His men have hit the ground running; Dele Alake, Minister for Solid Minerals is in the trenches trying to convince illegal miners to give up their trade and to bring in foreign investors for gold and other solid minerals.
Nyesom Wike, Minister of the F.C.T is on a mission to revive the master plan of the F.C.T and create a sense of belonging to every Nigerian. Sheik Gumi is calling for his head.
Engr. Dave Umahi is wadding through the Works Ministry battling to ensure Nigerians get value for money and federal roads are built to last. His benchmark is forty years.
Interior Affairs Minister Dr. Olubumi Tunji- Ojo has in so short a time turned around the time of International passport issuance to 2 weeks. I did my renewal online and it really works. His next stop is our foreign consular offices.
I can also feel the vibes of Uju Kennedy- Ohaneye, Minister for Woman Affairs and Betty Edu, Minister for Humanitarian Affairs.
All these and more shows the President, aided by others is working to give us value and build a greater and better Nigeria.
The President also knows how to play the game. Almost all his nominees passed the National Assembly screening. He knows how to negotiate. He is a master political horse trader, that’s why Senate President, Godswill Akpabio runs to the Villa to brief him anytime there is a crisis in the Senate, Jagaban Borju knows who to call to calm frayed nerves and hurt egos. Everybody is important. You just need to know their favourite ring tone.
The President like me is a Lagos boy. Survive in Lagos and you will be a champion anywhere.
No other Nigerian President came into office with his own truck load of technocrats and team ready to be deployed. If he chose he could have run the country with just the boys who helped him rule Lagos and he won’t be short of competent hands.
The ones he does not have at his beck and call, he can summon from any part of the world and they will respond.
He and his boys, have had over 23 years of training on running a state under his control using Lagos as a test case. Insiders say, all his People call him Oga, it’s a mark of great respect because they know he has always called the shots and none has questioned his authority and survived.
There is one thing I know for sure, we can’t have the kind of large scale looting and indiscipline we saw in the Buhari regime. Buhari had a bunch of strange bed fellows with no control. The people in this Government, particular those in the President’s close circle, have a rope, as the yoruba will say around their waste for reining them in when they go out of line. Control is key. That is that.
And when you come to think of it Mr President, Nigerians are not asking for too much. They want stable and affordable electricity, they require good roads, they want to be assured of security of lives and property, and they want an end to police harassment and brutality of their children. They also want food to be available cheaply, they want their children to have access to education that does not cost an arm. They need public hospitals to work and they also want to be paid wages that can make them live a meaningful life and take care of their responsibilities.
Nigerians will always find a way to survive, to help each other. We have an ingrained family support system that is like none in the world. Nigerians want to be treated like humans. They are tired of being treated like dumb, deaf and blind people like their leaders. They can see, they can hear, they know the kind of life their political leaders enjoy. They know how lavishly they spend on their loved ones and families, but they do not care as long as they are given the basics.
If they can go to work, have constant power to do some business and sell stuff, travel safely to their villages, have fertilizer to plant crops and small loans to turn their businesses around, trust me, they will not care so much about which party is in power or which tribe or religion has the majority in your cabinet. We like to mind our business.
Nigeria as a people are trusting of their leaders, I believe our religiousness makes us so. That is where we continue to pray for our leaders and tighten our belts more and more while the economy bites harder and harder against the promises of a better tomorrow by our leaders.
I think it’s time for our leaders, starting with the President to reciprocate this faith and goodwill and work in the best interest of the poor masses of our great country.
There is too much distrust and fear and disunity in our country and we need to turn it around. We need a total rebirth. A redefinition of our Nigerianess. We need to rake up the love and values and trust that bound us together, we need to overlook the rhetorics of our political leaders whose motive remains to divide us for self-gain.
So I ask myself, in all the afore- mentioned, How well, how fast and how far can President Bola Ahmed Tinubu go in turning things around. Only time can tell.
LAST WORDS; Much as he may try to do good, and i honestly wish that he succeeds for the sake of the country, something however continues to dangle over his head like the sword of Damocles, it is the prophecy by Primate Ayodele that his tenure will bring untold hardship upon Nigerians. Already with the hardship currently experienced by Nigerians since the subsidy on petrol was removed, people believe the prophecy is already happening. Can Tinubu placate God and stem the tide of doom? let us also not forget that Primate Ayodele also prophesied that Tinubu will lose the Presidential elections, but he won. Can he pull it through a second time and be a testimony to what great stunts a determined man can pull even in the face of prophecy?
Not to worry, I will revisit this matter again. i am looking forward to a one on one with the President soon. i want him to tell me his story. that’s why I am a Story Teller.
By Al Humphrey Onyanabo (The Story Teller)
Email; nigeria360online@gmail.com
Tel; +2347054674906
