Many don’t know that Senator Ibikunle Amosun & Asiwaju Bola Tinubu have been age-long friends and they have been political associates of many years standing.
When Tinubu turned 60, in 2012, Amosun was one of the associates of Tinubu that was asked to write a Tribute about the APC National Leader who will be turning 70 next month. It was really so revealing. Below are excerpts of his tribute in the book Asiwaju: Leadership in Troubled Times.
“Since the demise of the Second Republic in 1983, 3 people, have more than others, affected the politics of Nigeria and become the main issues in our polity. Two of them are dead and the remaining one is alive and still leading the fastest growing and most influential political party in the country today.
The first person was Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua whose People’s Front (PF), later known as Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), dominated the aborted Third Republic. The late Yar’Adua who died in incarceration in Abakaliki Prison was the elder brother of the man who later became the first elected Nigerian president to die in office, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
The second person was Chief Moshood Kasimawo Olawale Abiola who was elected President of Nigeria but was not allowed to rule. His decision to fight and confront the military cabal by sacrificing everything he had, including his life, to ensure that democracy returned to our country gave us the present civilian rule which we all now enjoy.
The third person I regard as one of the most influential politicians of the post-Second Republic era is alive, well and kicking. He is the subject of this book, which I believe will turn out to be the most relevant of the literature on our present Fourth Republic. He is Bolatito Ahmed Akanbi Adekunle Tinubu who turned 60 years on March 29th, 2012. Incidentally, Tinubu, popularly called Asiwaju (The Leader) based on his traditional title as the Asiwaju of Lagos, or as Jagaban, another derivative from his title as Jagaban Borgu in Niger State, started his politics as a member of the Shehu Yar’ Adua group in 1991. He is today, the leader of our party, the Action Congress of Nigeria. (ACN).
Asiwaju Tinubu is one of the most potent strategists in the political power game in today’s Nigeria. He is a man who is ever ready to confront the surprises and challenges which his opponents may spring on his route. A long-distance runner who engages in long time planning, a consummate politician, ever thinking of how to factor in the larger interest of the people, always ensuring that there is a meeting point between his politics and the fulfilment of the objectives, goals and aspirations of his people in particular and the Nigerian masses in general.
That Tinubu is an insightful politician who is always strategizing for tomorrow became manifest when in the third year of his political career, the military annulled the June 12, 1993 election won by late Abiola and ordered for a fresh election. The Yar’Adua group to which he belonged was not averse to the development. Tinubu disagreed with any plan which would deny the winner of the annulled election, Chief Abiola the chance to fulfil the terms of the mandate freely given by the electorate.
Asiwaju believes in the democratic principle that once the people have spoken, their voice must prevail. He chose to side with the people against the wish of the close-knit group which had provided a veritable platform for the advancement of his political career. In. this single act of siding with the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) instead of taking the convenient and comfortable position of doing the bidding of the military government, he demonstrated character, consistency of thought, dedication to politics based on principle, devotion to the cause of the masses and reliability. He jettisoned the politics of bread and butter and self-serving posturing which could have helped him to get juicy positions from a desperate military junta, ready to dole out dough and offices to buy out the political elite, particularly those from the western part of the country.
With that singular decision early in his political career, Tinubu built a strong ladder that his people would preserve for his ascendancy to the zenith of national politics. That is the stuff a strategic political thinker, a visionary leader and the grassroots politician is made of. The ladder built with that 1993 decision has taken Asiwaju to the top. He is today for the progressives in Nigerian politics the equivalent of the biblical ark which the Israelites were taking to war against the Philistines.
As a selfless leader, always ready to commit his resources to the causes he believes in and a natural leader of men, Tinubu supported the fight against military rule committing his fortune abroad to the campaign and putting at risk his properties and funds in Nigeria to be plundered by the hostile military regime which believed in using poverty to whip the opposition into line.
Thank God, the leaders and the people recognized the leadership potentials, commitment, devotion and vision of this man.
Tinubu became the gubernatorial flag-bearer of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the 1999 elections in the commercial nerve centre of the country, Lagos.
God bless those leaders and the good people of Lagos State.
Their decision has paid off. Tinubu has not only sustained that AD legacy by leading its different transformations up to this point where it is now known as ACN, but he has also made it the fastest-growing party in Nigeria today and the leading opposition party.
Look at what Asiwaju, the politician’s politician has made of Lagos and South-West politics while working alongside our other leaders in the ACN and you will understand and appreciate the foresightedness of the good people of Lagos State. He reorganized the economy of the state, built enduring machinery and created a beautiful and social environment that serves as launchpad for the progressives. Tinubu has achieved all of these tasks and more. The Lagos State Government and its politics are the envy of many across the federation.
A strong fighter who one should wish to have as a friend and ally than as a political opponent, Tinubu, the last man standing, survived the PDP onslaught in the 2003 elections. He moved on to ensure that subsequently, Lagos not only remained solid for the progressives in ACN but that the party extended its tentacles to Edo, Ekiti and Osun States. Today, with me in the saddle in Ogun State and my brother, Senator Abiola Ajimobi at the helm of affairs in Oyo State, we are still counting…
Asiwaju Tinubu is an elite who enjoys the company of the common folks and draws inspiration from them as they are the tonic that enriches his political life. An enigma on the podium, I have observed the man on campaign train from Abeokuta to Abuja, Lagos to Lokoja, Uyo to Yola, Awka to Katsina, he could go on and on for days, drawing parallels among situations, emphasizing the differences in scenarios and explaining the commonality among the different challenges facing mankind. Just recently, I watched him addressing our people at the Ojude Oba Festival in Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, and I was excited at how electrifying his presence was to the crowd. It was amazing! He has perfected the act of speaking extempore so as to enable him connect with the people, without any air of officialdom around him.
On most occasions, you see Asiwaju’s house in Ikoyi besieged by numerous admirers on a 24-hour basis and you wonder when he has time to sleep. He strives to attend to the needs of the ordinary folks as well as that of the well-to-do who also troop to his house to seek one favour or the other. He invests in people. He offers himself to them in a manner of ‘I am always here for you’.
That is why I see him as a grassroots mobilizer, a genius of politics and a natural leader of men.
Perhaps, he is one of the few politicians today who have a solid constituency presence in the various circles which a power player should not ignore – political parties, governments at the federal, states and local government areas, the media the professions, labour unions, transport unions, the bureaucracy and religious groups, among others. He seeks to earn their trust because of his honesty of purpose, sense of empathy and ability to blend with all types of reasonable individuals.
Tinubu can often identify talent from a thousand miles.
And that attribute has helped in making him a successful politician.
He supports himself with talents, experienced and budding ones. One can identify this in the calibre of men and women who are today sponsored into office by our political party, ACN, where he is a national leader. Look at the pedigree of those of us who are Governors, Senators and Representatives et cetera. This attribute is also discernible from the kind and quality of men and women who served under him in various capacities when he was governor.
This is a good example we have adopted in Ogun State. Asiwaju allows his politics to be driven by brilliant ideas. He respects men of ideas, knowing that in politics, every player is important. He seeks to build consensus.
I am sure it will be a tall ambition for one to fully and successfully distils Asiwaju’s politics in one short chapter of a book.
A whole book cannot even effectively capture the politics of this enigma. We can only scratch the surface and provoke a debate on Asiwaju and his politics. Generations yet unborn will still have a duty to study the man and better appreciate his politics as a guide to evolving the best approach to govern our people.
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