Tai Solarin, the famous educationist was in the habit of encouraging students of his school- May Flower School Ikenne, Ogun State to follow the most difficult path to achieve success. As he was wont to counsel them, the most difficult road is not only the safest but it toughens the traveller and compels him or her to appreciate the essence of the journey. So that in their life journeys, his prescription was: May your road be rough.
To prescribe a rough path for any Nigerian in these perilous times would be more like a curse. What could possibly be harder than the present crippling state of affairs in a country that held great promises for her people, Africa and the black race, now tottering on the edge of the precipice, with the widely acclaimed prospects haven been wasted on the altar of greed, avarice, poor governance, corruption of unimaginable proportion; and buffeted by other terminal ailments, like unrelenting violence, insurgency, banditry and all sorts of criminality.
After eight years of Buhari’s disastrous rule, significant for being his second major failure in that highly coveted seat both as a dictator and born again democrat, there was little attraction to lead the nation. But trust politicians. Power to them has the effect of an aphrodisiac.
Two years ago, I would have wished President Ahmed Bola Tinubu in the Solarian tradition, the roughest road possible. But I could not. He was thought then not to have the slightest chance of winning the Presidency of Nigeria. There were serious doubts about his health, and those who had been lifted through his famed benevolence, specifically, prominent leaders from the South West constituted themselves into a plotting cabal which unleashed a whispering campaign about his unfitness for the top job.
Some raised issues about his educational qualification, his state of birth and parentage.
Some said he was a drug baron and a don of the Chicago Mafia. Some became antagonistic, denying ever having anything to do with him or seeing any good in him. Some suddenly woke up to lay claim to the throne for themselves after publicly proclaiming their allegiance to President Tinubu, citing his impeccable record as Governor of Lagos State.
The so-called progressive governors focused, not on how to deliver their states to the party, but how to seize the party and its leadership from Adams Oshiomhole, the National Chairman. The governors knew that Oshiomhole was working for President Tinubu.
The envious old men in Afenifere that President Tinubu ousted from the apex of the Yoruba power hierarchy when he was governor of Lagos State, jumped into the fray to demand a head instead of a pound of flesh. They rallied behind Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) as they could not support a Northern candidate to run against President Tinubu.
Ex-President Buhari showed his true colours and endorsed then Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, who never showed interest in the race and whose performance as senate president was at best a rubber stamp leader, instead of President Tinubu, who made his election possible in 2015 after failing in three previous attempts.
Having not forgiven Vice President Yemi Osibanjo who acted as President for disrespecting the Aso Rock cabal when he was gravely ill in London and rejecting Rotimi Amaechi, who had ingratiated himself with the Daura aristocracy, and more interested in building rail lines to Daura and Maradi in Niger Republic, when he had not fixed the East –West Road in his native Niger Delta, President Tinubu was left with no choice, but to proclaim boldly that he who dares wins.
I am not sure if he was inspired by this motto of the legendary British Special Air Service (SAS). He had demonstrated over time in his political career in Lagos and across the country, his grit, gut and audacity to take tough decisions, throwing in everything that he can muster.
When he made that audacious speech in Abeokuta that it was the turn of the South West to produce the President, specifically, his turn to be President, reactions from the plotters and the murmuring crowds in Abuja, was to mock him. And the plotting continued.
Statutory delegates were removed from the Electoral Act by Lawan’s National Assembly, when it became obvious that the pendulum was swinging towards President Tinubu’s direction. Some Northern power brokers led by the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai with the complicity of the then First Lady, Aisha Buhari (who hated the cabal), were quick to read the hand writing on the wall; they promptly dumped Buhari and the plotters.
Lawan wanted to stop President Tinubu at all cost that he also disenfranchised the seating members of the National Assembly. A last minute effort to correct the self- inflicted error was ignored by Buhari. President Tinubu well versed in assailing political plotters knew that in politics, the best plots cannot defeat the best plans and the best strategies. It helped too if the money, a lot of it, was available to oil the wheel.
I was one of those who mobilised the former members of the National Assembly to engage the APC presidential aspirants before the primary election. When President Tinubu honoured our invitation at Ibeto Hotel in Abuja, about eight hundred former National Assembly members, some from the Second Republic, all statutory delegates, turned up. One former member from Kano came in a wheel chair, another, wore the MKO Abiola Hope ’93 campaign T-shirt. The message was clear. The people had not forgotten the promise of 12 June 1993 election annulled by the military junta. Neither had they forgotten the role played by President Tinubu to actualize the result of that election and the promise of hope, a peaceful democratic order, prosperity and good governance.
I knew then, that President Tinubu who had been out of power since 2007 could win the election when he tagged his campaign ‘Hope Renewed’ an embrace of 12 June and a rejection of the culture of militarism. Who dares, wins?
With victory in his pocket and almost two years in the saddle, it is appropriate to review how President Tinubu has fared as head of one of the most coveted leadership positions in Africa. My late friend and novelist the late Mohammed Sule once described the Presidency of Nigeria as the devil’s seat. It may well be that the devil has a great fascination for the seat or perhaps a special curse, more like an ancestral curse, was placed on it.
History now beckons on President Tinubu, to break the curse and deliver good governance to the people of Nigeria. After all, who dares, wins.
Those who coveted it bitterly before him, like Chief Obafemi Awolowo who was said to have wanted it so badly that it would have been just enough to sit on the seat for 24 hours. Awo is more remembered as the best President Nigeria never had.
In our 65 years of history, those who seriously coveted the throne, like Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and his friend and business partner, Moshood Abiola, died in prison as captives of an avaricious military cabal, who saw the presidency as their divine rights.
Those who craved it and got it by force-General Muhammadu Buhari who ousted President Shehu Shagari, who claimed he was beckoned to serve, and General Ibrahim Babangida, who ousted Buhari, lost out in the game of power with ignominy. Generals Murtala Mohammed and Sani Abacha both from Kano met what Nigerians usually referred to as untimely death in power, in their quest for power. Umar Musa Yar’ Adua who inherited his brother’s political goodwill, lasted barely two years on the seat. Those who never thought it was within his grab and had the less interest in it, ended up ruling longest in peace, having been aided by benevolent spirits:
Olusegun Obasanjo, who got the chair purportedly against ‘his will’ after the assassination of Murtala Mohammed and nine years later, when General Abacha died and the military needed to save face, got installed. GoodLuck Jonathan, who succeeded the late President Yar’Adua never worked to be there.
Buhari’s return in 2015 benefitted from the soothing balm of democracy, even with his near fatal and mysterious illness. Obasanjo, Jonathan and Buhari are the luckiest Nigerians alive.
President Tinubu has shown that he was prepared for the job, contrary to Obasanjo’s not so surprising comment about the ability of the President. With the nation’s problems which he inherited mounting instead of responding to his bold initiatives, it is difficult to measure how much progress has been made. Although, he has taken significant steps to reverse the economic decline and restore the nation on the path of recovery. The general picture in the country is gloomy. This can only be reversed if there is peace in the country and to achieve peace, we must win the war, because, It is a war of national survival.
The time for the president to review his programmes and refocus on the more critical areas that would restore hope and confidence of Nigerians in his administration and faith in the democratic consolidation is now.
If President Tinubu wants to win the support of the Nigerian people as we move gradually to the 2027 general elections, he must do whatever is possible to restore internal security and defeat the external aggression we have been confronting. He should take the boldest step and put the nation on a sound footing, because we are at war.
The Army, Navy, Air Force, the police and paramilitary agencies have been fighting this war for over ten years. We must win. What has been lacking is the political will to admit the fact that the nation is at war and declare that we must win the war. The time to do that is now.
Firstly, the national budget should be recalibrated to increase defence spending by fifty per cent. We must defeat our enemies, foreign and domestic. In this war we should be ready and determined to take the war to the Sahel. Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad need our help or they will become our adversaries.
Our industrial sector should be supported to aid the war effort by producing what we need to win and can be produced locally. The nation must be secured for Nigeria to feel the impact of the Renewed Hope Agenda of this Administration. Our fighting troops should be increased to at least a million men with all physically fit retired soldiers including the generals recalled to active service. Many of them can be deployed to various training camps to train the new recruits while some can join the fighting troops or operate at command and control centers.
They should be retained on contract for at least the next three years. All forms of retirement in the military should be put on hold for three years. The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) should be deployed specifically to be part of the war effort. All medical personnel, including doctors, nurses etc should be prevented from leaving the country, but they should be well paid as an incentive to join the war effort.
The security votes of all state governments should be pooled and devoted to internal security operations while fifty percent of profits made by banks, financial institutions, oil companies, telecommunication companies etc. should be devoted to the war effort. A special tax on all billionaires, both in Naira and in foreign currencies should be imposed to aid the war effort. Secondly, on the economic front, the Federal Government should scale down on new projects, while those already in progress should continue. There should be new restrictions on imports especially refined petroleum products, foreign hairs and wigs, alcoholic beverages, and high tariffs should be imposed on luxury items like automobiles, mobile phones, garments, shoes, jewelries, wrist watches and house hold items that can be produced locally. Savings from these measures should be channeled to the war effort.
As we fight this war, there will be serious political consequences and controversies, but in the interest of the nation, the President should resist the temptation to use extra- constitutional measures that would undermine the democratic process.
Stupid actions like the ban on music by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) from being broadcast in Nigeria for allegedly being in bad taste, should be reversed, as they are petty, distracting and of course, unconstitutional. Mr President, we are at war. He who dares, wins. We must win this war and there is no question you can lead us to victory before the 2027 elections.
