Chief Tom Ikimi epistle was clearly bitter and written to damage Tinubu and APC to boot. The aborted bid of Chief Ikimi should not have been contemplated in the first instance. He should have remained a statesman to the end. The moment he attempted to run the race, he should have known anything could happen. Only one man can win in an election. I’m surprised that as a seasoned politician, he expected Senator Bola Tinubu to abandon his old allies and support him just like that. Politics is always about caucuses anywhere in the world. I don’t see what Tinubu has done wrong by supporting his own person for whatever reason. As a matter of fact, nothing precluded Tinubu himself from running. Tinubu as Chairman would have driven the fear of God into PDP. I’m finally tired of all the attacks against the person of Bola Tinubu. Tinubu is far from being a saint but he has definitely contributed immensely to the Democracy we all seem to enjoy today. The man has wisely invested whatever he is said to have acquired on building solid monuments in the media, business empires and philanthropy, which most politicians have never been able to achieve. Tinubu is often credited with the attributes of a King Kong and I’m sure the man himself enjoys the unsolicited appellation and coronation. I really don’t know how one man can wield so much power and none of the several Draculas in his party would be able to confront him. No one should blame Tinubu for the timidity of his co-travellers. I know Tinubu fairly well. I virtually lived and operated with him in our exile days. He’s a man who enjoys healthy debates. He’s a master thinker who’s brave enough to match his thinking with action. He and Lt. General Alani Akinrinade stood out in the fight against military tyranny in Nigeria. They spent themselves blind and did not shirk from selling off their properties in their pursuit of democracy and justice in Nigeria.Bola Tinubu gained the upper hand against most of his contemporaries because he was ready to gamble his entire life for the sustenance of civil rule in our country while others played safe. I’ve had cause to disagree with him in the past and he never took it personal against me. One of such occasions was when I challenged him for not supporting the candidacy of Tokunbo Afikuyomi and I blasted him in a newspaper interview. He invited me over to his house in Ikoyi. He wondered why I was kicking against his support for Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola and I replied that I was never against Fashola who was also our friend and saw me anytime he came to play soccer in Ghana; but I was opposed to the way he led Afikuyomi on when he could easily have told him of his choice. I realised one secret about Tinubu that night. Contrary to the allegation of being bullish, he finds it hard to hurt any of his close lieutenants. It is this coyness that gets him into constant trouble; the inability to boldly and openly say No to people. The second and most recent disagreement I had with him was when rumour came out that he was plotting to be a Vice Presidential candidate to General Muhammadu Buhari. Once I confirmed that it was a credible speculation, I wrote an article against a Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2015 for the following reasons. One, most of our mutual friends was opposed to it but none could tell Tinubu not to try. This is the problem with our people who are mostly waiting on Tinubu for a favour now or/and in the future. Those who can talk are those who expect nothing. Two, a Muslim-Muslim ticket is presently inconceivable with the current religious configuration and conflagration in our country. Even if the ticket has the chance of winning, we should be sensitive enough to balance the religious equation. Tinubu never complained. He took the public missive to heart like a true democrat, made wider consultations and decided to shelve his ambition for the sake of his party.Unlike his traducers Tinubu has a great empathy for Nigerians and Nigeria. He has always been willing to sacrifice his personal ambition for the sake of the development of democracy and the future of his country. That he wields tremendous power and influence in whatever party he has midwifed in this political era goes without saying. Yet, he has never sought to be Chairman of such a Party. In 2011 he saw the wisdom in eventually plumbing for the candidature of Nuhu Ribadu whom he thereby rescued from political oblivion rather than pursue his ambition to be Vice President or even President. Even if he dumped Ribadu for Jonathan, he’s said to have seen that Ribadu was not accepted by his people and thus opted for a minority candidate. It is amazing that it is to Tinubu that all those who demand justice and equity turn when they have been oppressed and abased by the PDP. However as soon as they obtain that which they seek they immediately turn against their benefactor and rush headlong back into the arms of their abuser. Tinubu’s has been a thankless job but it is the measure of this remarkable man that he continues to open his arms wide to embrace all those who seek justice and equity not only because of his love for democracy but also in true spirit of a man who adheres to the holy injunction to love his fellow man as himself. The list of those who have benefitted from Tinubu’s legendary largesse to retrieve their stolen mandate or seek retributive justice for perceived wrongs yet subsequently turn around to betray him is lengthy and is like a Who is Who of Nigeria. It is said against him that he imposes candidates on his Party and is despotic and nepotistic. However, it is only fitting that someone who has deployed such huge and significant personal resources to the cause when others have shied from doing so should at least be allowed to influence the selection of those who would guide and lead that cause. This is particularly more so as he has had the singular opportunity of observing most of the contenders firsthand because of his ability to sacrifice his time and person and travel far and near to meet with party members and interact with them. None of those who fault him have remotely done a fraction of what he has done in this regard and if truth be told his choices have always been quite successful. Governors Fashola, Adams Oshiomhole, Abiola Ajimobi, Rauf Aregbesola, Ibikunle Amosun, and Kayode Fayemi; Aminu Tambuwal and Abike Dabiri, to mention a few, have been particularly outstanding. Tinubu’s monumental work to further ensure the future of democracy in present day Nigeria is most laudable and he should indeed be dubbed ‘Defender of the Faith’ and encouraged to do more. - Dele Momodu
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 12:28:51 +0000
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