Like a colossus with nine lives, the man Bola Tinubu has had a tortuous ride to power, wrestling with lions and hyenas. Learning to heart the memorable lines of the renowned reggae legend, Bob Marley, he knew when to fight, sheathe his sword, duck, and even run away. His victory at the 2023 presidential elections, therefore, did not come as a fluke. As governor of Lagos State from 1999-2007, he was locked in historic and titanic legal and political battles to assert his hold on a sub-national government against the rampaging designs of the President Olusegun Obasanjo-led People’s Democratic Party administration at the centre.
His effrontery, manoeuvres, and deft strategy coupled with his government’s organic link with civil society, saw him triumphant in several legal battles that ended at the Supreme Court. By extension, these victories also widened the resource base of Lagos State, reinforcing its position as the 5th largest economy in Africa. Also in putting up a cabinet comprising some of the brightest minds from different parts of the country, he goaded the state to deliver first-class services in many areas. Many states have replicated its judicial reform which has fast-tracked justice delivery. Its internal revenue gains which made it independent of revenue from Abuja have also been copied by many. While other states are begging for crumbs from the centre even to pay salaries, Lagos is embarking on massive projects. Tinubu is a man of gigantic vision. This led to the creation of the Lekki Industrial Zone which now hosts the Dangote Refinery, the second largest in the world with a capacity to refine 650,000 barrels of oil per day, and the Lekki Deep Sea Port for the berthing of big ocean lines.
Surviving the Machiavellian machinations of the Obasanjo-led PDP administration, desperate for primacy in the political affairs of the South-West in the wake of the 2003 general elections, he became the “last man standing” after the five other Alliance of Democracy governors of Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, and Ekiti were edged out of the political game. He saw it coming, and warned his fellow governors who felt too cozy with Obasanjo’s false rapprochement but it fell on deaf ears. Tinubu had a last laugh as these governors were swept off their seats by the hurricane.
But rather than give in to the raw deal of being a loaner, Tinubu fought back ferociously to retrieve the South-West states and Edo from the firm grip of the PDP. After the Alliance for Democracy, he formed the Action Congress which later metamorphosed into the Action Congress of Nigeria. With a new platform, Tinubu galvanised resources to take back the states. After leading former President of Nigerian Labour Congress, Adams Oshiomhole to retrieve his stolen mandate at the Appeal Court in 2008, he also supported Olusegun Mimiko, who contested on the platform of the Labour Party, to victory a few weeks after.
These victories were followed in 2010 with the triumph of Kayode Fayemi and Rauf Aregbesola who became governors in Ekiti and Osun states. The icing on the cake was in 2011 when Ibikunle Amosun and Abiola Ajimobi won governorship elections in Ogun and Oyo states respectively. In addition to these, were hordes of senators, members of the House of Representatives, state Houses of Assembly members, chairmen of Local Government and councillors who were galvanised and heavily resourced for victory. This transformed Tinubu into the godfather of South-West politics.
That’s why in cobbling what became the All Progressive Congress, an amalgam of the ACN, Congress of Progressive Change, a faction of All Progressive Grand Alliance and the new Peoples Democratic Party, on which the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) won the presidential election after three failed attempts, Tinubu played a significant role. At a time when Buhari thought he was through with political contests after three unsuccessful plunges in 2003, 2007, and 2011, it was Tinubu, also known as Asiwaju that offered him respite, conceiving of a North-West/ South-West alliance that made it possible for his victory in the historic 2015 presidential election against the then President Goodluck Jonathan who ran on the PDP platform.
Tinubu is highly reputed for not only contributing to birthing viable political platforms but sustaining their growth. In doing that, he had reached out to different political leaders across the country, wielding them together.
His victory at the presidential election where he was declared president-elect on March 1 by the Independent National Electoral Commission is a product of years of toil and handshakes across several divides. So how could the PDP’s presidential candidate and ex-Vice President, Atiku Abubakar and the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, who are contesting Tinubu’s victory in court, expect to benefit from a political process they never brought about?
It’s intriguing that they wish to benefit from where they never sowed. Atiku was vilified even by his party apparatchiks for always abandoning the party to its fate after securing its ticket every election year. Obi neither helped to build APGA which he exited after his eight-year tenure as Anambra State governor and PDP on which platform he ran as the vice-presidential candidate to Atiku in 2019.
Operating therefore from a high political pedestal, it was understandable when Tinubu felt it was time that the APC, which he considerably contributed to its birth, offered him the presidential ticket as he declared “emilokan” (it’s my turn) in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital days before the party’s presidential primary. Even when forces within the APC plotted and railed against his getting the party’s ticket, his superior tactics, sagacity and overwhelming resources got him the ticket to the chagrin of some leaders.
Unlike other leading candidates in the presidential election, Tinubu’s contributions in and out of government to the country’s political development are monumental. When the country reeled under the weight of military dictator, Gen Sani Abacha, Tinubu was among those who galvanised the progressive segment of the ruling class to float the National Democratic Coalition in 1994.
The increasing hounding by the Abacha junta saw many activists including Tinubu fleeing the nation. Oiling the movement which struck a partnership with other civil society groups, NADECO then led by frontline First Republic politician and elder statesman, Chief Anthony Enahoro, and peopled by many activists who took refuge abroad, became the arrowhead of the anti-military struggle in Nigeria.
- Ebhohimhen is an Abuja-based social commentator.
