Proceeding from his incisive theoretical dilation on the intricacies and interstices of the concept of leadership and the intertwining theme of the dynamics of leadership -followership relationship, which was the focus of the first part of his treatise on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s ‘trajectory to the throne’, Dr John Ekundayo in subsequent chapters of the book, dwells in concrete and exhaustive detail, on the diverse sociological, political, psychological, organizational as well as spiritual facets of the Jagaban of Borgu’s epochal ascendancy to the apex of the country’s political leadership. The book is a veritable rendition of the history of progressive leaders, parties and forces in contemporary Nigerian politics and traces Tinubu’s ideological disposition and philosophical orientation to the Chief Obafemi Awolowo -led school of progressive political thought and praxis in the First and Second Republics respectively.
Dr Ekundayo sketches in vivid and pungent prose Tinubu’s transition from the corporate world of the multinational oil conglomerate, Mobil Nigeria Ltd to the slippery and unpredictable terrain of partisan politics in Nigeria during the protracted and tortuous political transition programme of the military President, General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime, his election to the Senate on the platform of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), from the Lagos West Senatorial District, his active, front line role in the SDP primaries in which M.K.O. Abiola emerged as presidential candidate of the party as well as the campaigns that culminated in the billionaire ‘s triumph at the polls in the historic June 12, 1993, presidential election.
He documents Tinubu’s courageous record at the vanguard of the momentous struggle that was waged by pro-democracy forces after the capricious and unjust annulment of the election, widely perceived as the fairest and freest in the country’s history, both for the actualization of the June 12 mandate and the withdrawal of the military from the political terrain to ensure a restoration of civil, representative governance. In this struggle, Tinubu proved his mettle as a committed fighter for the liberal values of open, plural democratic mode of governance, the sanctity of democratic rights and the rule of law as well as a society predicated on equity, justice and respect for human dignity.
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Dr Ekundayo sees his baptism of fire at this stage of his political career, a phase in which, like many others, he had to flee into exile as the goons of the Abacha military dictatorship fire-bombed his house on Victoria Island, Lagos, and sought to take his life as critical signposts on the path of his political evolution and the eventual fulfillment of his destiny as President of Nigeria.
The author dissects with clinical and meticulous care, the next phase in Tinubu’s political career when he emerged as elected governor of Lagos State in 1999 and served for two terms which came to an end on a euphoric and triumphant note in 2007 with the widespread acknowledgement that he had laid a solid foundation for the resuscitation and future accelerated growth of a once dormant commercial nerve center of Nigeria. The re-enginering of the state’s finances; overhauling of the public service orientation and functioning through innovations in Information, Communication and Technology; massive infrastructural modernization, expansion and renewal; the drawing up of a 25-year development master plan for the state and the establishment of several new parastatal organizations to enhance greater efficiency in critical sectors including transportation and traffic control, urban planning, security, building control and safety, environmental protection among others all attract the critical evaluation of Dr Ekundayo.
Taking particular note of the fact that of the six governors of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the Southwest, it was only Tinubu that survived the PDP’s electoral Tsunami in the 2003 elections, Ekundayo sees this as another significant milestone in the evolving political journey of Tinubu which was perhaps inevitable to help forge in him the steely disposition and fortitude necessary for him to triumph over adversity in higher and more sensitive stages of his political ascendancy especially given the formidable obstacles he constantly had to contend with on his onward March to the making of history. Thus, beyond the technocratic focus on governance in Lagos State under Tinubu, which incidentally is one of the author’s sphereres of specialization as an expert in project monitoring, management and control, Dr Ekundayo beams his searchlight on Tinubu’s emergent politics at this time.
He describes as a function of his vision and foresight, Tinubu’s decision to stay on in the decimated AD even when he remained the only governor of the party in the country, the last man standing, rather than engage in political vagrancy and peregrinations. He submits that “Thereafter, due to irreconcilable differences and his strategic insight and foresight, he jettisoned AD to form the Action Congress (AC), which later metamorphosed into the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). At that time, some people thought it was a political miscalculation on the part of Asiwaju to have seemingly abandoned the platform that got him elected. Candidly, he saw what many others, especially his peers, at that time, did not see”.
Dr Ekundayo illustrates how the experience garnered by President Tinubu in rebuilding the progressive political base of the Southwest, following the electoral routing of the party in the region in 2003, facilitated his capacity to be at the forefront of helping to build a strong political platform to provide a viable alternative to the erstwhile behemoth, the PDP, that had become a liability to itself and the nation after 16 years in power by 2015. Thus, Tinubu played a critical catalytic role in forging, with other key leaders such as former President Muhammadu Buhari, Chief Ogbanaya Onu, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, the transformation of a loose coalition of the ACN, Congress for Progressive Change, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), as well as factions of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and PDP into the All Progressives Congress (APC) which has displaced the PDP as the ruling party at the centre since 2015.
As he puts it, “However, to many top-notch of PDP, the political savvy, skillfulness and sagacity of the enigmatic and Titanic Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) is the nexus ensuring the huge success of seemingly rag-tag ‘strange bedfellows’ that later culminated as the APC”. Quite apart from the skills in bridge building and networking across diverse ethnic, regional, partisan and religious cleavages in a complex polity like Nigeria, a necessity to meet the stringent conditions to win a presidential election, the author cites Tinubu’s ingenuity in identifying and nurturing talents who he aided to develop their leadership skills and, in turn, assume leadership positions as governors, Ministers, local government Chairmen, State commissioners, head of parastatal organizations, members of the state and national legislatures and key positions in the private sector, as another factor that later constituted an asset in his path to the presidency.
This was because in addition to being able to enjoy the support of these strategically placed individuals in his bid for the presidency, his role in mentoring and being a role model for them deepened his own political leadership skills and human resource management capacity in preparation for the challenges of the daunting challenges of President of the federal Republic of Nigeria. The author examines the contention in some quarters that, given Tinubu’s role as a ‘king maker’ with his facilitating the path to power for political actors at the sub national and national levels, he should not aspire to be ‘king’ as obtains in traditional African political systems where king makers do not ascend the throne.
He traces the root of the concept of ‘king maker’ in modern politics to the 16th Earl of Warwick in 1599 through its occurrence in countries like South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore and concludes that “Any aspirant could have a dream: you cannot stop a person from dreaming but followers in Nigeria should be interested in the trajectory of such personalities to the throne”.
Other factors analyzed in the book include controversies arising from the APC ‘s Muslim-Muslim ticket in a charged multi-religious polity like Nigeria, the several obstacles placed before Tinubu by powerful elements within his own party opposed to his ambition and his famous ‘Emilokan’ declaration during his campaign stop in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, signalling his determination to persist in the race and actualize his goal. In many parts of the book, the author serves us a scintillating political thriller that makes for exciting reading. He does not approach his writing in this book like a detached political analyst who strives to be emotionally distant from the subject of his inquiry.
Rather, he comes across as a convinced and passionate progressive ideologue himself who is personally deeply impressed in the struggle to actualize Nigeria’s potentials through active political participation. A key and recurrent theme that runs through the book is that even more critical than the requisite type of development-oriented leadership is the necessity for a vigilant, responsible, patriotic and public-spirited followership that holds leaders to account.
