By Foluso ADELAJA
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress presidential flagbearer in 2023 General Elections is an astute politician and a political strategist of repute. Friends and foes attest to his sagacity and accomplishments on the political turf.
Asiwaju's presidential ambition was an open book well perused and understood by pundits long before he made public his intention. This explained why camps began to spring up against him immediately after the General Elections of 2019.
Detractors which included even fourth columnists within his party deciphered his political ambition early and started to run campaigns of calumny against him. They tried all they could to trivialize his past achievements and made mockery of present deeds in a bid to make him odious to the public and thereby ridicule his political dream. These groups stopped at nothing to detract and distract the political mogul. They adopted myriads of charades, innumerable shades of propaganda, cast aspersions, even fabricated blatant lies to disparage him.
But as numerous as these detractors were, so also were men of good intentions and goodwill who also banded together to promote Tinubu.
This must be said of Tinubu though, like a tight rope walker, he fought doggedly on, unperturbed and undeterred. He ignored both cheers and boos, refusing to be distracted. Eventually, he won his party's ticket for the plum job. His many duels with fate in the course of obtaining his party's presidential ticket would make a voluminous book if Asiwaju decides to narrate it but that is a tale for the future. Asiwaju is still in the thick of the fray, It is no time for tale-telling.
But it is worthy of note to state at this juncture that if the task of getting APC presidential ticket had been hot, the task of obtaining the acceptance of the majority of voters in this ethnic and interest multi-diversified country is not only going to be hotter, it's heat will probably break the thermometer gauge.
Without being unduly pessimistic or scary, but of course, Asiwaju is not a liliputian in politics, he cannot be easily frightened, but it needed to be said, the journey ahead is uphill and very, very steep. To breast the rope ahead of other co-contestants, every jigsaw puzzle needed to be well arranged.
More so, Asiwaju and his man Fridays should decipher all the writings on the wall properly. He should not deceive himself, all indices concerning the forthcoming 2023 election are not too complimentary to him. Public opinion is not too friendly either as his image has taken bashes here and there from many unfriendly camps doing deliberate malicious damages, and these detractors still abound.
Asiwaju will also have to wade against the tide in this election because his party is the ruling party which many people believed has failed to give its best at the steering of this nation especially in the dual areas of security and economy. What actually exacerbate this notion is the fact that the average Nigerian is never fair or unbiased in judgement. He does not impartially distinguish the grain from the shaft. He condemns through and through, with emotional intensity even for the slightest misstep in governance, not giving allowance for mistake in decision making. Though that is not to say that the average Nigerian critic could be better when it comes to his turn.
What we are saying here is that Asiwaju has to buckle his sandal very well for the race. This is because If other presidential aspirants are getting prompts left, right and centre on how to run the race to Aso Rock, the same may not happen to Asiwaju. Many believed that he already possessed the wherewithal to navigate the uncharted and effervescent sea of politicking in Nigeria.
Another hard to swallow fact is that not all of Asiwaju's self appointed advisors meant well. Some are wolves in goat's skin. For the above stated reasons and many more, Asiwaju needs to put on his thinking cap.
It is on these notes that Asiwaju must reconsider his decision to use a co-muslim as his running mate in the forthcoming general elections.
This decision is not only ill advised, it is a shot in the leg, a dice with death, or to give it its unambiguous description, it is akin to self immolation. It is ill timed and suicidal.
A Muslim/Muslim presidential ticket now is not only imprudent, it is undiplomatic at this point in time to allow representation to be one sided by way of religion instead of representing the secular nature of our country.
Coming from Asiwaju Tinubu, a known advocate of constitutional restructuring in the country, it could be interpreted to mean that his agitation all along for balancing in the running of the country was a farce. A mere ruse to get attention and probably to allot him the garb of a liberator which he is not.
The conciliatory explanation to those disadvantaged by his Muslim-Muslim ticket that they should jettison religious bigotry or all forms of illiberalities as selfish and reactionary and take this initiative as good for the progress of the country may not be tenable now. Rather, it would be seen as the subtle precept of the conqueror to subjugate the conquered. After all, why did Asiwaju fought his party hierarchy tooth and nail to claim the presidential candidacy which he believed was his? He should have just accept whatever his party's authority says.
Is it not enough that by this time in our history, we are still grappling with how to fairly balance the representation of our various ethnic groupings in governance? Or that despite our over half a century post-independence experience, we are yet to fashion out a constitution that will put paid to ethnic or religious restiveness.
The beauty of democracy in comparison to other forms of government is its attempt to bring in majority of diverse interests and groups into government. This lofty end of democracy is not unachievable in this country too but the selfishness of our leaders have beclouded their reasoning as they thrive on using these divisive sentiments to divide and rule us and also continue to recycle themselves.
It is also important for Asiwaju to note that the time is not auspicious enough for Christians to ignore their non-participation in governance now as they presently see themselves as the whipping boy of present day Nigeria. The Christians have been made to see themselves as the most persecuted, the endangered species of our secular society. In fact, the persecution has reached a most gruesome crescendo as gunmen now brazenly go into churches to execute their heinous crime of exterminating Christians.
A Muslim-Muslim ticket will seemingly make the subtle threat that the nation is on the threshold of total islamization a fact. This latest political faux pas of a one faith ticket would be seen as one slap too many as several threats now occur daily to show that in matter of religion, one group treats the others with disdain in utterances and deeds. They raise storms in teacups and are quick to allege desacralisation where none exists. In such instances, immediate fatwas are pronounced and executed without any consequence to the perpetrators who made themselves the accusers and judges without any recourse to the law.
Asiwaju should also note that religion is an opium, its intoxication can be baleful. So, we should be careful, a particular section of the society should not be put on the edge by allowing them to observe the turning of the wheel of governance from outside the precinct of government. This may send a wrong signal to this group of people.
Moreover, it stands to good reasoning that if Asiwaju had exercised great wisdom in helping to birth the incumbent government of President Muhammadu Buhari and Pastor Yemi Osinbajo which earned the immediate acceptance of the generality of the people, why should his own now be different?
No, this gamble may not work. It may have worked in 1993 for Chief M.K.O Abiola and Alhaji Babagana Kingibe, but it will fail now because situations on ground are quite different. It is important that Asiwaju should quickly retrace his steps on the wrong decision of same faith ticket if he is serious about getting the acceptance of the generality of the people which will translate to enough votes to become the nation's next president.
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