Leading Nigeria and why experience matters, By Folabi Ogunleye

ONE IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION influencing my preference for a better established and cerebral personality [as opposed to a relatively inexperienced or less-established candidate] to govern the affairs of our widely diverse and hyperactive political terrain of 200 million-plus Nigerians has to do with our widely acknowledged impatience and general lack of regard for anyone who we do not know or see from a ‘bàbá’ or ‘alayé’ point of view.

And no, when I say ‘we,’ I am not referring to those of us of the barely consequential ‘social media constituency,’ who vote, protest, dictate and agitate mainly from behind the comfort of our little keyboards in our privileged cocoons at home or abroad, among whom are the people of the ‘ward’ of the ‘children of anger,’ who respect and fear nobody or anything more than the loss of their fake-uppity privileges.

No, not that constituency.

On the contrary, I am talking about the larger constituency of the masses who matter in the greater scheme of things – the constituency that actually exercises its civic duties (among other duties) in massive numbers, and who respond more positively to public personalities like Baba Obasanjo, Baba Buhari, Baba Tinubu, among other fairly popular babas that preceded the aforementioned men, like Baba Awolowo, Baba Azikiwe, Baba (Olusola) Saraki, among others.

Hate or love these ‘babas,’ the masses tend to have eyes and ears for them.

Only a few other younger personalities have been able key into the interests and attention of this less privileged masses of great consequence. They include, among a few others, personalities like the irrepresible former Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State, and the incumbent transportation minister who launched his “thanksgiving“ bid for president of Nigeria the other day, the dynamic personality that is Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, a former governor of Rivers State.

It is however not necessarily the age of these ‘babas’ that earns them their appeal with the masses. It is more the case that this class of leaders are the ones who have gotten their hands ‘dirty’ in the truest sense of the work of getting out early and timely from the comforts of their familiar surroundings to put in the real work of exceeding the boundaries of political engagement – long before others show up on the scene with that air of one on a divine order to redeem the people of our highly diverse political entity for their daddy’s kingdom.

Experience, for some of us, is much more than what is gained after a speedy, privileged and convenient elevation from state commissioner to vice president. Rather, true experience is having borne it all, from being head-hunted for persecution by military goons, and enduring same at the hands of an imperial civilian president who, despite starving you and your people of your constitutionally-guaranteed rights for so long, failed to kill your enduring and innovative spirit of survival to become a fisher of brainiacs for the good of all.

Experience also is knowing what it is to be underprivileged and surviving nevertheless; it is experiencing the disdain of prejudiced people of elitist mindset who question your birth and origin as well as your hard-earned academic accomplishments, and yet finding the grace to continue on your journey of success without bearing that damaging air of permanent hurt, and instead forging new alliances as well as re-uniting with prodigal comrades without malice.

The privileged minority and their enabling Elite Guard may not see all this but the masses see it and will always recognize one their own who is as cunning as he is street-smart – one who has fought tooth and nail all his life, from being a cab driver in college to emerging as a wizkid darling of organizations like Arthur Andersen and Deloitte who fell over themselves to acquire his brains and talents as a financial wizkid. This is the man who some, cocooned in their privilege of ignorance and prejudice, tried but failed to tag an ‘illiterate.’

Of course Nigeria has no doubt had its share of selfish babas whose spidery tenterhooks across the regions threaten to bind our best hopes and expectations in eternal bondage. Of particular note are those who presided over the affairs of Nigeria’s political space for 16 long years of incredible petrodollar earnings, but had only so little to show for it. Today, amid a pausity of funds, the current order has a few good things to showcase for its time in power – even as we must acknowledge that so much yet needs to be done.

Nigeria is too complex, too diverse and definitely too restless for the kingdom-complex of yet another ‘lucky’ guy summoned by a real or imagined forces to do the job of steering the ship of state. I prefer someone who has been preparing for the job of president and commander-in-chief as an executive administrator and a master-politician of note; a leader who bore backstabs and attacks with great deft and with unflinching commitment to the obvious successes of his purpose to emerge from opposition to become a redoubtable kingmaker.

It’s been at least 4 years since I have wanted my preffered alternative to be the next person in charge of the affairs of our federal republic. The man I want is a true Aṣíwájú, a first among his equals – the one to whose credit Nigeria summoned the spirit of a true opposition party that defeated the albatross that sat on our collective posterity for 16 years with little to show for it.

His name, is Bola Ahmed Adekunle TINUBU.

-Ogunleye, a Public Affairs analyst writes from New York