Opinion
By Steve Osuji
SOS, it’s an emergency: Nigeria under President Bola Tinubu is in an emergency situation. The next four year of Tinubu’s administration must be regarded in law as a FORCE MAJEURE; a season of extended social and economic crisis without end.
I averred from day one that Bola Tinubu who later got ensconced to the pinnacle of power in Nigeria has no capacity to lead Nigeria as president. Let’s put it straight: Tinubu lacks the intellectual, physical or leadership certitude to lead a country. Here’s a bit of evidence to back this assertion.
TINUBU’S 100 DAYS AS GOVERNOR: In September 1999, I had just left my position as Editor, THISDAY, the Saturday Newspaper to head the corporate affairs unit of a merchant bank. But the journalist and Editor in me never went cold.
My antennas hadn’t shutdown, my notes on the emerging Nigeria’s Republic of 1999 continued to be burnished by way of commentary and public opinion. A few days ago, while rummaging through my files, I stumbled upon an article I wrote in September 1999 analysing TINUBU’S 100 DAYS IN OFFICE AS GOVERNOR OF LAGOS STATE.
Published below in full, is the article written in long hand.
Here we go:
“Tinubu’s 100 days
In a certain neighbourhood in Idimu, outskirts of Lagos recently, inhabitants were kept awake all night by the sounds of gunfire. Each rat-tatting of the guns just down the street sent cold shivers. Which poor fellows are being hit? It must be our turn soon. Seems the entire area is being ransacked – one small room after another. But where are the police? A very long sleepless night it was.
The shooting went on till a little after 6.00 am. It was a Monday morning and many didn’t rise early for work until they had seen day light. So where was the battleground? Thankfully, there was none. There were no armed robbers. Indeed, it was the Rapid Response Squad that seemed to be carrying out a reconnaissance exercise; a mock show of force to ward off robbers who may be hatching a plan, we were told.
Such is the state of insecurity in Lagos State and the utter hopelessness of the police force, including the re-christened Rapid Response Squad (RSS).
The adage which says you cannot change a child’s behaviour by changing his name, has proven to be apt. One hundred days of civil rule and a name change of the anti-robbery squad has yielded no response – slow or rapid.
Like Marwa before him, men of the underworld have greeted Gov. Bola Tinubu with rapid fire as he took over affairs in Lagos State. His initial response was cosmetic; then bickering with the structure of the Nigeria Police Force and subsequently canvassing for state police. What became apparent is that he could not manage the anti-robbery apparatus he inherited from Marwa (Operation Sweep).
Second, he could not forge a harmonious relationship with the State Police Command. In fact, to call for a state police is a vote of no confidence on the Command.
Third, he did not recognise that a state police would put immense strain on the finances of a state which already has difficulty paying N3000 minimum wage to workers. Running a state police is certainly not a piece of cake.
Tinubu, the police and the chaotic security situation present a representative picture of Governor Tinubu’s 100 days in office. For a government which had about three months to get ready, the first three months in office seems to have caught it by surprise. No practical solution has been applied on any problem so far.
Refuse heaps, which unlike armed robbers, can neither talk nor think, have challenged the wits of the governor. Potholes are back on the roads, as if to test the will of the Tinubu government. Consider all the other areas like housing, education, health, rural development, etc. They are all still at blueprint level. Ample time was wasted tinkering with Marwa’s housing projects, or probing allocation of built houses, plus a showdown with his deputy governor.
Tinubu had enough time to prepare. He was even praised for drawing up fine action plan. His inauguration speech was excellent, showing a clarity of thought and evidence of insight, assuming he wrote it. What went wrong? Could it be the fish in water syndrome – and when out of water, it just bobs and bobs? The future, the very near future, will tell.
The pity is that Tinubu is coming after Marwa who seemed to have a magic wand in both hands. Never mind the dispensation. In khaki or babanriga, Marwa would probably get things done – by any means necessary! Executive governorship is not much different from military administratorship. The former may well have an edge since it can invoke a people’s mandate particularly when mass and populist projects are concerned.
Could it be that Marwa spoilt Lagosians? For instance, he declared upon resumption, that each armed robbery attack in Lagos was a personal attack on him. Marwa took over the running of Operation Sweep. He used landlord’s associations; he used vigilante, he encouraged anonymous phone calls. He took it personal.
Marwa took the people’s problems personal, thus in 100 days, while Tinubu still proposed, Marwa had completed a housing estate. Mr Governor, it could be done. If still in doubt, please consult Alhaji Lateef Jakande.” (By Steve Osuji, September 1999).
25 YEARS AFTER, IT’S NOW A DEBACLE: Twenty-five years after Tinubu was governor of Lagos State, he is now perched atop Nigeria as president. If he was a poor governor, he’s today a blundering president and a pathetic old man.
As governor, Tinubu was still able and agile. As president he can’t stand upright how much more think straight. But then, he was never a thinker nor a charismatic leader. He isn’t Awo or Zik or Ahmadu Bello. He’s not even MKO. Tinubu is a mere money grub who loves to buy political influence and share doles.
Tinubu would rather feed the wretched poor massed up at his gate everyday instead of creating a coop scheme to provide them dignified livelihood.
Tinubu is a mere talker, a propagandist and a vacuous persona. As record shows, he is of the street and has little formal education. He is therefore bereft of both native wisdom and philosophical depth. This president is utterly voided and without the capacity to form fresh intellectual constructs or interrogate basic precepts.
From the foregoing, we can see that the same way Governor Tinubu couldn’t kick-start governance as a governor 25 years ago, same way he can’t function as president today. Almost one year after he was sworn in, Nigeria is in a mess. He can neither pick up sticks or lay them straight.
Tinubu can’t get anything done by himself; absolutely NOTHING! And we are not talking about statecraft. He can’t manage his kinetics and personal space. This explains why his sons are about him every inch, every minute, everyday.
Let it be known that Tinubu can’t drive change and there’s no X-FACTOR in the cabinet to lead the change in spite of the president.
For eight years, Governor Tinubu played politics and doodled in Lagos until Fashola and Ambode came around to rescue Lagos from Tinubu’s mess.
NIGERIA IS NOT LAGOS: It’s a different game today. Nigeria is not Lagos. Tinubu ti wo gao (Tinubu has walked into gaol!) Those who warned him about this misadventure are saying under their breath.
BRACE FOR THE WORST: They know that insecurity will get worse. He doesn’t know the right actions to take, nor has he the strength to follow through. Non-state actors are emboldened, kidnapping, maiming and massacring Nigerians with no serious response from Tinubu.
Power supply is worse than Buhari’s era. Nigeria under Tinubu is as dark as the devil’s coven – a large, sprawling coven!
Hunger ravages the land. Nigerians now invades warehouses and waylays food trucks. Why would war ravaged Ukraine donate grains to Nigeria? The reason is simple. Tinubu doesn’t know how grains are grown. He thinks it’s rocket science. But last November, UAE turned 400 acres (500 football fields) of sandy desert into a mechanized wheat plantation. About 1700 tonnes of wheat is expected as harvesting starts from next week, March 15th. This is the same period Tinubu has been in office fooling around!
Under Tinubu, corruption will thrive like wild grass. This is why the budget of the Office of the Chief of Staff (OCoS) rose from about N500 million (under Prof. Gambari) to about N20 billion (chop for Gbaja). Seyi Tinubu will eventually become the de facto president of Nigeria. In a few months Tinubu’s kitchen cabinet would consist of Seyi, Remi, Yinka and Folasade Ojo. And soon there would be a vicious family feud as to who has the most access, most influence and the largest heap of loot! Then something would give eventually.
Finally, now that Tinubu has done so ‘well’ without these crucial leadership facilities, he is emboldened to think nothing is amiss. Petit Goebbels’ and Chemical Ali’s around him have dubbed him a strategist. His stupid blundering in the last 10 months they tell us is ECONOMIC REFORM. They are already blaming everything and everyone else but Tinubu.
But this Tinubu joke is on you and I. This joke is on all thinking Nigerians today and perhaps for the next four years – in the first instance. It’s a force majeure!
#voiceofreason
︎OSUJISTEVE/07.03.24
8th March, 2024.
C.E.
Tags: force majeure President Bola Tinubu
