LIKE TINUBU UNLIKE AWOLOWO, A RESPONSE TO JAIYEOLA AJASA’S “APC UNPLUGGED …………..THE FALL AND FALL OF ASIWAJU BOLA TINUBU.”
Oluwaseyi Oduyela
In one of my previous article, I maintained that Chief Obafemi Awolowo though was a leader who sought office through democratic means, was more of a social welfarist than a democrat. Why did I say this? We grew up to know Awolowo as the leader of Yoruba, I grew up to hear from my parents (who are Ijebu) and most adults in Yoruba land that we owe so much to Awolowo. Yoruba belief in Awolowo was so strong that a myth was created between 1978 and 1983 that they see him in the moon.
Why do Yoruba people think or believe in Awolowo that much? Why did they brand anyone not in Awo circle as Anti-Yoruba? I grew up believing that Chief Richard Akinjide, AMA Akinloye, Victor Olunloyo, Samuel Akintola because they are not on Awo side, until I met Chief Richard Akinjide in 2000. After all, Awolowo provided free education and I am a beneficiary of free education. Awolowo brought the first Television to Africa, built the Liberty Stadium; what about the Cocoa House building? For all these, our parents (in Yoruba land) believe they owe him a lot. They pledged their allegiance to him and even fought and died for him.
As a result of what he has done, being a visionary leader, focused and purposeful, it was easy for Awolowo to hand-pick people to run for office rather than allow primary elections. We can argue that a true democrat will want the wishes of the people regardless of whatever you think of feel, but Pa Awolowo got away with it many times if not all the time except for Oyo State where in 1978 Chief Bola Ige insisted on primary when he refused to step down for Pa Alayande. Chief Bola Ige won and he became the Governor in 1979.
The Awo political script was used during the Abacha era and it worked against Chief Lateef Jakande when he allowed Yomi Edu to beat Tokunbo Dosumu, Pa Awolowo’s daughter in the primaries for Lagos Governor seat. The Pro-Awo group branded LKJ as a traitor and he remained so. In 1998/99 the same script was used. In Lagos State, while Baba Dawodu preferred Funsho Williams, Pa Adesanya amd Ayo Adebanjo wanted Tinubu who contributed to NADECO while Funsho served under Abacha government forgetting that Pa Awolowo too was the Vice Chair of Federal Executive Council in General Yakubu Gowon’s government. There was primary election and it was believed that something happened and Tinubu won in Lagos Island. In Ogun State Osoba emerged as against Biyi Durojaiye who later settled for the Senate. In Oyo state, Lam Adeshina, former aide of Awolowo and friend of Bola Ige emerged. In Osun, Omisore attempted but lost to Bisi Akande Ige’s deputy after the resignation of Sunday Afolabi.
Then if this worked, what went wrong? It all went wrong after Bola Ige lost the primaries to Olu Falae at the D’Rovans Hotel, Ibadan. Ige enjoyed the support of Osoba, Alayande, Lam Adesina, Bisi Akande but not that of Bola Tinubu. Bola Tinubu voted against Chief Ige that night. The choice of Olu Falae by Ige former fellow Awoists, led to the break up Afenifere with a splinter group- Council of Yoruba Elders which eventually undid the Alliance for Democracy.
Why should the splitting of Afenifere and YCE break Alliance for Democracy? It should be recalled that Chief Bola Ige was part of the formation of PDP and APP before leading his fellow Awoists to forming Alliance for Democracy. Afenifere supported one national chairman and Bola Ige had his own party chairman. By this time, Tinubu had crossed over; he is now an Ige man no more with Adesanyas and Adebanjos. While the old Awoists were fighting, Tinubu was watching and learning.
The 2003 re-election shellacking of the Alliance for Democracy in the South west opened the door of opportunity for Tinubu. Of all the 6 Southwest Governors, Tinubu was the only lucky survivor. Lam Adeshina lost to Rasheed Ladoja, Niyi Adebayo lost to Fayose, Adefarati lost to Agagu, Akande lost to Oyinlola, while the Arole Bola Ige and the Akinrogun of Egba lost to Gbenga Daniels. Being the only most senior elected officer from the Regional party (AD), Tinubu, well equipped with Lagos state money became the defacto leader of Yoruba. He took over AD, and became the new Awolowo.
Unlike Chief Obafemi Awolowo, whose reasons for hand-picking candidates was not informed by personal gains, Tinubu rewrote the Awo’s political book and added the Lamidi Adedibu’s political book of gbegiri and amala politics. Tinubu’s impositions of candidates are mostly for his personal gains. I know no Local government chairman in Lagos state will ever admit this in public, many of them complain quietly about it.
Awolowo established Oodua investment for the Western Region- Caxton Press, Wema Bank, National Bank, Sketch Newspaper and more for the benefit of the region. The Action Group, invested in individual members who managed businesses for the party in order to generate funds to run the party’s programs while Tinubu invested in himself- Oriental Hotels, Shoprite franchise, Nation Newspaper and Television, Hi-Tech Construction and many more.
In 2011 when the ruling party, PDP zoned the House of Representative Speaker position to the South west, Tinubu instructed the Southwest representatives from his party AC not to support the Southwest candidate and the position went to a northern candidate. The president is from South-south, VP from Northwest, Senate President from North-Central, Speaker from Northwest, and The deputy Senate president from South east, Deputy Speaker from south east.
How do we explain the lies of Tinubu in the summer of 2012 that he attended the US Democratic convention on the invitation of President Barack Obama and his meeting with the US National Security Council? Tinubu was neither invited nor did he meet with the US National Security council, rather he came to the US to receive award from Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition and paid $5,000 to buy the VIP seat at the Democratic convention. What is not clear is why Tinubu and his media team would make up such stories, even backed by Lai Mohammed.
Tinubu’s ostensive interest and thirst for power has led him to move from Alliance for Democracy to Action Congress which he formed with his former enemy Atiku but the two broke up after Tinubu was dumped for the VP position by Atiku and which also cost Atiku greatly. Tinubu with some of his friends in the South-south joined hands to launder money to Nigeria through British Virgin Island to assist Yar’Adua to defeat Atiku. In 2011 brought up Ribadu as Presidential candidate, the man who once called him thief when he was EFCC’s head. Ribadu was later to step down from Buhari in an alliance that failed because Tunde Bakare refused to agree to an agreement to resign as VP for Tinubu. With that, Goodluck Jonathan, under the nose of Tinubu, won.
One lesson that Tinubu failed to learn is that you cannot successfully lead people by extorting them, but by empowering them. The big difference between Awolowo and Tinubu if we can ever compare the two, is Awolowo’s selfless leadership style. Awolowo led with a plan to empower the people, help raise people up from poverty level. Lateef Jakande was governor of Lagos state, and most people living in Iyana Ipaja estate and more of such in Lagos will forever be grateful to LKJ. He truly built those housing projects for true low income workers of Lagos. My aunt bought one for N30, 000 then. When Tinubu came to power in 1999, he invited Lagosians in diaspora to come back home. He offered them houses in Ikeja and Lekki for 6M and 11M. Most of these guys paid in full; now in 2014 they still don’t have the houses and cannot get their money back. How much does Tinubu make daily from the Lekki toll gate? There is nothing more unethical for a party leader to also be a major contractor to states controlled by his party. Asiwaju’s problem is that of unparalleled greed; one akin to Lamidi Adedibu of Ibadan.
While Tinubu has enemies outside his circle, his enemies within prove deadlier and the funny and unpleasant thing is that they are unknown; but they work to undermine him. Unfortunately, the man like other sightless politician surrounded himself with same self-serving aides, who care more about what to gain.
Just as Jaiyeola said in his article, and as I have said on the numbers, the PDP stand a very good chance of returning Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 because it has been proven that Jonathan can conveniently win the needed one-quarter of vote in 2/3 of the 36 states. I have looked at the National Assembly seats and I see that the PDP is still very much in control. How can APC win one quarter of votes in Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Rivers, Cross River, Kaduna, Katsina, and more?
Lets’ wait and see.. Like Chief Bola Ige, I siddon and look……
Africanreporter 
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