One Year After: President Tinubu – The Unstoppable ‘Bat’ Cruising the Altitude
By: OMOGBOLAHAN L.A. BABAWALE
“Tinubu does not take up an impossible assignment. He does not romance failure. He will shock opportunists and pessimists.” – Pa Chief Adebisi Akande
I read this quote from the octogenarian Pa Adebisi Akande, the pioneer National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the thick of the electioneering. When I read it, what came to my mind was the political jiggery-pokery that characterized the 2023 electioneering. And rightly so, political players played the game the way it had always been played across the globe – saner climes inclusive too. It was therefore no surprise the concomitant legerdemain that surrounded the 2023 presidential poll by different individuals – either overtly or surreptitiously. However, in all of the razzmatazz that went on with the poll, one man who remained consistent in his undaunted move to play the game was the then Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT), now President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR. He, by his deft moves and dexterity, proved that he meant business and he was taking no stone unturned with his precise application of the rules in Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power.
In what appeared like a pre-emptive preparation, the then Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for the first time in the entire history of Nigeria, first emerged, typical of what was obtained even in ‘saner climes’ (as the popular cliché on social media these days goes), as the National Leader of a ruling party. It is not the first time in world politics that somebody garbed as the national leader of a ruling party would transmute to become the numero uno – the executive president. To put this in proper context, in not too far African country of South Africa, it appears a norm or peculiarity, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) is structured such that to become the country’s presidential candidate, such persons ‘must’ come first as the ruling party’s country-wide leader. Records have shown this in late Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma and more recently, the incumbent president, Cyril Ramaphosa were all at one time or the other, national leaders of their party – the African National Congress.
The story is not too different from the Queen’s Country of England. In major elections and to run on the ticket of a party – Liberal, Conservative, Labour or even the Scottish National Party, it is important that the individual first emerges as the leader of the party regardless. Today in Nigeria, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was the only party that introduced same even though it was copied by the main opposition party – the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Judging from this analogy, and going by William Shakespeare’s popular quote, “Some are born great. Some achieve greatness while some have greatness thrust upon them”, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR today may have greatness thrust upon him as a sitting president of the most populous black nation in the world.
And now that this BAT eventually flew from May 29, 2023, he did actually symbolize the 4th decade of the second attempt of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo in 1983, a 30-year usurious usurpation of late Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola’s mandate, as of today, he broke 30-year circle of what many have come to describe as some sort of imprecation for the Yorùbá race. It definitely did not come easy. He made the widest consultation even when his party was the incumbent. He did not leave anything to chances, having learned Awolowo’s progressive politics through the tutelage of his late mother – Alhaji Habibatu Mogaji; learned talakawas politics through the guardianship of his late mentor – late Musa Yar’Adua, and equally learned populist politics through late M.K.O Abiola. It is no surprising, therefore, that for the first time in Nigeria’s political history, different groups and individuals from the Northern extraction call on Southern aspirant to fly a presidential ticket. It was what is called ‘KÒ SE LÈ RÍ’ (unprecedented) in Yorùbá parlance. Nigerians of Northern extraction came out in their numbers to identify with a Tinubu presidency.
Bat, a typical bird, in the analogy of a friend, Hon. Dairo who likened President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) to the bird, like many species in its nature adapts to any environment or habitat it finds itself. Only the Arctic is inhabitable for bats just like President Tinubu in his several decades of politics would not fraternize with un-progressive minds. Bat as a bird symbolizes many things to a varied number of groups or people. In North America, bats come in 39 different species – all of which are nocturnal. Some are insectivores, others not. And like I did say, it means different things to different people. The Mayans worship a bat god called Camazotz. The Mayans’ bat is negative as it is associated with violence. Scripturally, the Biblical traditions projected the bats as messengers of the underworld. It is the belief of the Puritans that when a bat flies close to anyone, the terrestrial powers may be at work.
For people of the South Western Mexico, they believe the bat is a representative of death and rebirth. Bats go underground in the wee hours of the day only to resurface at night from their nests in droves. So, they believe they are rebirthed every night. To the Indian tribes of the North Western United States, bats are seen as symbols of diligence while in the Great Plains, their credo is that bat imparts wisdom on their people. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT), like the typical bat bird, is rebirthed at every political era showing his political dexterity and ensorcellment like he did show during the last February 25, 2023, poll. His political ‘demise’ in the context of South Western Mexicans is analogous to another Yorùbá proverbial cliché – ‘àgbò tó fèyìn rìn, agbára ló lo mún wá’ which literally translates to his silence or withdrawal from the political scene from 2007 through 2022 was to bring a rejuvenated political gamesmanship as evident in the results of the poll.
The denouement of this piece will be unraveled with the analogy of the Chinese view of the bat as a symbol of happiness and joy. The ‘bat’ that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, represents today is that of the philosophers who say bat symbolizes “transition”. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is oscillating on the altitude of a ‘new’ Nigeria premised on economic reorganization, financial re-engineering, developmental politics, governance El Dorado, and human capital development in the best interest of all and sundry. Nigeria has one last opportunity, and it is a thing of joy that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s
OMOGBOLAHAN L.A. BABAWALE
Public Affairs Analyst
Convener/Lead Resource Person
The Think-Tinubu Initiative (3TI)
[email protected]/[email protected]
OMOGBOLAHAN L.A. BABAWALE ([email protected])