The US state of Texas is about 6,600 miles away from Abuja. It’s one of the spots I call home. When Texans talk Texas, they think cowboys. I have immense admiration for cowboys because they possess impeccable work ethics. Cowboys are ready to die working. Although they are easy-going; don’t mistake their swing-easy swagger for rusty recumbency. In the bones of an average cowboy are tenacity and toughness. Cowboys aren’t usually big and boisterous talkers; their taciturnity is not for lack of what to say. They have got plenty held close to their chests. They are wired to tarry until the fullness of time to speak and are configured to wait for the promptness of the same to swing into action. And when they do, they aren’t afraid to step on toes especially if it is for the public good. Cowboys’ actions often make men marvel. I love this breed of beings.
I’ll pull back journeying down the path of dumping an effusive praise on President Bola Tinubu trying to brand him a cowboy. Not just yet. Ability to wait and watch events unfold and seasons unwind is a virtue that I have chosen to exercise. I want to watch more of his presidential ways and executive will as Nigeria’s ‘tear-rubber’ Commander-In-Chief. However, what I’ll express with definitiveness at this time is that with his actions in the last month, this President is not the Tinubu of Bourdillon, not the Jagaban of Borgu, and not the Asiwaju of Lagos that many Nigerians, especially his traducers and sworn adversaries, expect to see. This man is as bold as a lion. And in the manifesting boldness, he’s stepping on big toes to the applause of many, and to the shame of brutes in Nigeria.
Nigeria is a flummox and a distempered hectare of hydra-headed distemperature. The system is a surreal spread of disorder, malady, and off-kilter ailments. To lead the country and do so successfully requires a whiff of candid and concentrated courage. To champion her cause through sane and sensible governance and do so triumphantly needs a definite determination. If any man desires to captain the titanic and not wimp one minute, that being must be bigly bold, and be prepared to deal with bloody brutes.
The ubiquitous and poignantly piercing presence of Nigeria’s bastion of brutes spares no space and spots in our politics and polity. In the fissures of our civil service are many uncivil brutes who lace the heart-and-soul of our financial sector, and dwell in the vital organs of all arms of government. In the crevices of Nigeria’s parastatals, these brutes are innumerable. Their bold and bruising feet are crudely dipped in Nigeria’s crude oil where they aid bunkering and sponsor pipeline busting. They have endlessly leeched on the profitable lifelines in this sector of our economy where they become billionaires in varying currencies. That moola might make them immovable and unshakeable principalities that have troubled Nigeria for eons. While Nigeria continues to reel in a stranglehold of smothering economic kamikaze; they glee. Their god is their belly; and love of money their interceding priests. They don’t give a hoot that Nigerians daily pant for breath under the clubbing, drubbing and slogging of money miasma. They aren’t fazed or discomfited with the reality that the Giant of Africa remains an emaciating elephant in the forest of despair and pervasive malaise. These brutes pray for no conceivable or visible end to the grotesque and vile picture of the state of our nation. It looks like now; they have found a man who’s not their equal.
President Tinubu is singing an unwritten song that has suddenly become so mellifluous in the ears of many Nigerians. His moves have won him converts. I know a handful who couldn’t see eye-to-eye with him during the elections but have now become die-hard adherents in just three weeks.
If you are deft in the sign-language of politics you will agree with me that by now, every indication imaginable points to the fact that this president is on the right path. Praises of him because of these initial moves flow freely from overseas. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better. This was the submission of US President Harry Truman once upon a time.
Tinubu is not presiding over Nigeria as the old and routine politician. He is running the system fast and furious with wits, wisdom, and wealth of experience. They said he is stepping on toes. Oh yes! The toes that are our foes. Fuel subsidy was a siphoning big toe. Now gone! Powerful Central Bank of Nigeria governor was a torturous toe. Now gone! The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission chairman alleged a thieving toe. Now gone! On the 17th of this month, I wrote on social media that the President needed to change his service chiefs as a matter of urgency. He must have felt the way I did. Two days later, service chiefs retired. This President is stepping on cacodemonic toes that are Nigeria’s foes. He must not only step on them; he must stamp them out!
To lead anything in Nigeria is a daunting duty. The stench to clean up is deep and dingy. You may be the lone voice in the wilderness of wildness; and the sole antagonistic voice in the corn- field of corruption. You are fighting against very mean and menacing beings who will do anything to shield their pocketbooks. The fight is not just against flesh and blood; it is an endless bout with principalities, powers, and rulers of darkness in high places. Architects of Nigeria’s mammoth mess are sleeplessly praying and reporting you daily to their avenging and revenging gods. And they are sacrificing and pouring out libations on your effigy to get you to die or live for them alone. Forces of darkness are usually relentlessly louder than assuaging voices that intend to usher in societal comfort and peace. But a leader who stands strong and pushes back on intimidation will effectively confront and conquer the strongman.
This President knows that there are roads to build and lives to rebuild. There are hungry people to feed and the poor to lift up out of the ashes of despondency. There are hospitals to equip and doctors to retrain. There are schools to be made functional and teachers to be re-taught. There is infant mortality to halt and there is Boko-Haram to banish. Mr President must not buckle. Every day with a good government is one day away from thralldom and into freedom. No one government can rebuild a decaying nation like Nigeria even in 20 years. But a pathway into decency and orderliness can be entrenched.
Moves that retired army generals as civilian presidents couldn’t make in decades; Tinubu, with ease and oomph, pushed them through in less than a month without fuss or fight even from his haters. When you make moves that silence your enemies, they have got to be good moves. The summation of the bold moves the president has made thus far is that there is an unwavering will to do what it takes to cleanse the smug and rid the nation of our many bastardising bruising brutes. To lead the nation is to be ready to step on demonic toes. To lead right is to enter into a covenant with self and with the people that: “If I perish, I perish.” Mr President, no retreating from striking at wickedness, no surrendering to daring depravity. The coalition of kooky cohorts must not succeed in intimidating you. Who knows, maybe you are here for such a time as this.
