Tinubu: The old tales are back, By Olatunji Oke
With his emergence as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the 2023 election, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is back on the front-burner of national discourse. It is the same old tales carefully contrived to taint the former governor of Lagos State.
The sweetest part is that there is NOTHING new that anybody wants to tell us about Tinubu that hasn’t been said since 2002. In 2015, the opposition took two floors at PROTEA HOTEL, Isaac John, GRA, to build attack strategies and ‘dig up dirt’ about Tinubu. Part of the outcome was the malicious documentary aired by Raymond Dokpesi’s AIT. After being challenged in court to substantiate the egregious lies contained in the documentary, he (Dokpesi) took pages in national newspapers to apologise and further sent emissaries to beg Asiwaju on his behalf.
Fast forward to 2022; the same lies are being regurgitated and retailed about a man who has not been in either an elective or appointed position since 2007. We all remember that he was tried twice on charges of corruption by the opposition and given a clean bill of health. Nuhu Ribadu, the former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, told us of London Metropolitan Police’s involvement in watching and monitoring Tinubu given the massive influence Lagos wields in Africa’s economy, yet, NOTHING came out of it. Certified clean locally and internationally, yet, our people are still bearing the same old tales.
Peter Obi is a fantastic guy, I like his passion. Per intentions, I’ll rate him top-notch. Per his competence, it is subject to rigorous debate. Why? On core development indices of policies, programmes, and projects if compared with Tinubu, he’d be nowhere to be found. Let’s subject these to the prisms of scrutiny. Don’t tell me about his parsimonious attitude, wrongly interpreted as frugality. Why keep money away in an environment where depreciation hits your currency once in an idle state? Charles Soludo was quoted in 2015 that the poverty rate went as high as 60 percent in Anambra State between 2004 and 2010. I’m willing to be convinced that this is a lie. If they are documented somewhere, I will advise the followers to avail us of his developmental strides instead of trying to bully anyone who questions his claims. After all, criticism is the lifeblood of progress. We can disagree without insults.
It amounts to sophistry reeling out statistics of woes that an average Nigerian already knows. Hint us in the direction of your solutions. It takes more than pure intentions to effect a change anywhere in the world.
Mind you, I am not non-partisan in all these. I’m rooting for Tinubu because of his pedigree such as turning around the perennial flooding of the Bar Beach from a liability to an asset; the increment in Lagos IGR; building the template for the expansion of Lagos’ economy through such policies as the EHINGBETI SUMMIT; and transforming Lagos’ economy to be bigger than some 10 African countries put together, among others.
All of these may not be enough to convince naysayers about Tinubu because they are sold on the starry-eyed ideals being propagated by Peter Obi, conveniently forgetting that he was no superstar as a governor.
However, I am willing to be convinced to follow Peter Obi based on rational, analytical, and superior logic in sync with some premises as exemplified by his policies, programmes, and projects. I am not ready for another political cul-de-sac, a consequence of installing a man with great intentions but a weak capacity for execution.
Thank you.
– Olatunji Oke, a Development Communications specialist is the Publisher, Lagos Indicator and Nigeria Indicator magazines
