For Asiwaju Bola Tinubu at 65, it is ode to brilliant ideas and deep compassion — and just as well; for no politician of his generation better epitomizes these two concepts.
But the remarkable thing about this year’s birthday: that Tinubu philosophy, of razor-sharp ideas founded on deep compassion, is seeping into the grassroots.
That was clear from the adoption, as part of the Tinubu 65th birthday, of 300 indigent pupils, from all of the 18 public primary schools, in Eredo Local Council Development Area (LCDA), in the Epe Local Government of Lagos State.
That charity’s punch-line could well have come straight from the celebrator himself: “No child will be left behind”.
Now, to some lexical arithmetic: if you graft compassion with ideas, what you get is compassionate ideas.
That would appear the fundament of the Social Contract, that theoretical basis for the pristine government, in which the people surrender parts of their rights, in exchange for welfare and protection, by the mutually empowered Leviathan.
Until neo-cons, under US President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher (both late) seized the globe by the scruff, and left the world much poorer, hungrier and angrier, compassionate ideas, as government policy, was given.
Indeed, the democratic concept of the vote-for-sound-governance would appear a logical flow from that given, subject, of course, to voter renewal or rejection, at periodic elections.
But then the neo-cons came, changed state compassion to capital worship, and condemned the people to scrounging majority need from minority greed. Governance has since never been the same!
So, when Asiwaju Tinubu, at the 9th Bola Tinubu Colloquium, with the theme, “Make it in Nigeria: use what we make and make what we use “, declared the political economy must work for the people, he was only reasserting an instinct that had endeared him to millions of Nigerians.
Tinubu, as grand symbol of compassionate ideas, as the cornerstone of governance, was apparent from the attendance mix at the May 28 colloquium in Lagos.
The policy geeks were there in numbers. So were entrepreneurs, thriving or budding, eager to mix and mingle with the governmental royals, on fresh ideas for national economic redemption — all under the grand mastermind of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
But so too were the political hoi polloi, beneficiaries of the legendary Tinubu empathy, no less eager to celebrate with their champion.
From the inaugural colloquium in 2008, Prof. Osinbajo had been the quiet but acute mind, bossing this yearly festival of ideas.
The inaugural theme, “Every vote must count” was a logical response to President Olusegun Obasanjo’s “do-or-die” election of 2007, that foisted the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as president, in what would prove the beginning of the end for the former ruling party.
But even poor Yar’Adua — goodly soul! — recoiled at that “election”. He therefore set up the Justice Muhammadu Uwais Electoral Review Panel. That inspired Tinubu’s own Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reforms (CODER), which drove the theme for the first-ever Tinubu colloquium: Every vote must count.
So, from the harsh Siberia of opposition, when the PDP loomed, as if it would swing its threat of 60-year uninterrupted rule, Prof. Osinbajo had run the colloquium; to engage the polity on cutting ideas, in a political economy neither proud of its past nor clear about its future.
This year, the Tinubu colloquium has engaged the Buhari government, in which Osinbajo serves as vice-president; aside from other Nigerians. Between Tinubu and Osinbajo then, it is as Chief Obafemi Awolowo, himself the most vigorous ideas man of his generation, quipped: only the deep can call to the deep.
Unlike the Shakespearean Ides of March that doomed Caesar, the Tinubu Colloquium is morphing into grand Ideas of March, that could well save a nation.
So is the novel Eredo Epe charity, saving the rural poor. No less striking was its symbolism: an act of compassion, to toast Tinubu at 65, to kick-start the birthday celebrations, their unique Eredo way.
It is equally interesting how the Indigent Pupils Adoption Programme came about. Shamsideen Adeniyi, former secretary to the Eredo LCDA, whose Ojo Ibukun Foundation is chief driver of the charity, recalled how he observed the acute discomfort of a bare-foot pupil, one hot afternoon, in the Eredo country.
As his boisterous mates barged on the tar, seemingly without a care, the poor child skipped, now on the hot tar, then in the adjoining bushes — all the “kokoma” dance just to relieve the searing afternoon heat, on his shoe-less sole! Even then, his short was tattered. So was his shirt. Of course, he logged a rude sack for a school bag, which was all the more remarkable for its full emptiness!
That set Adeniyi furiously thinking — with a mere N5, 000, this child could get two pairs of uniforms, a pair of school scandals, a doughty bag to carry his books and some dozen exercise books for school work. The Indigent Pupils Adoption Programme was born — and in its first coming in 2016, it benefitted 100 pupils!
But then, Wasiu Odeyemi, aka Wastab, another big shot in the Eredo political universe, bought into the idea, adopting 120 of the 300 beneficiaries this year, under the ambit of his Hassmowun Foundation (after his late parents, Hassan and Omowunmi who, especially his mother, were great lovers of education).
Both foundations agreed to use the event, the second in the series, to celebrate Asiwaju Tinubu at 65; and in that, drew virtually every who-is-who in that community.
From 100 in 2016 to 300 in 2017, Adeniyi’s Ojo Ibukun Foundation, with collaborating partners, would continue expanding the scheme until it achieves its ultimate goal — No child will be left behind.
What is more? Every beneficiary child would be yearly kitted throughout his or her primary school years. That is the term for adoption, and donors have bought into it.
Asiwaju Tinubu must feel doubly proud: his persona inspiring charity to the society’s most vulnerable; and his policy temper, spawning progressive thinkers, even at the grassroots. For Lagos, that is good news.
In Achebe-speak, for Tinubu-esque compassionate ideas, it’s morning yet, on creation day!
