Last week on these pages, we made reference to the shadowy ‘Kaduna Mafia’ believed to have remotely run Nigeria with a pan-northern agenda since 1966. It is believed that the group imposed Obasanjo in 1999 despite his rejection by his Yoruba people at the polls. One proof of this was Obasanjo’s refusal to revisit the issue of restructuring after articulating same as possible answer to the ‘national question’ in some of his books. Besides the consensus among Nigerians is that fiscal restructuring that allows federating units to keep 50% of what they generate will go a long way in addressing our crisis of nationhood. Unfortunately we continue to live a lie as a federation which Chukwuma Soludo, a former CBN Governor recently pointed out is the only one of its kind in the world where the centre allocates funds it does not generate to sub units it does not control.
As we also observed , Buhari could not have been part of this shadowy group since it was the suspected members of the group that removed him from office, incarcerated him for three and half years and later derailed his first three attempts at the presidency until Bola Tinubu’s master stroke. Bewitching the South-west and some restive groups in the country with ‘restructuring’, Bola Tinubu in 2014 carried Buhari on his back around the country proclaiming him as the answer to our crisis of nationhood the same way powerful nations like Britain France and USA at different times in their history reached out to their tested retired Generals when their survival was threatened. Many Nigerians took Tinubu’s statement as commitment to restructuring. Buhari and APC thereafter won with a change manthra.
For his exploits, it is believed Tinubu, the ‘jagaban’ of Nigeria politics was compensated with Buhari’s ceding of key positions in his government to ‘Tinubu Mafia’ in Abuja. A leading member is Vice President Osinbajo who only last week publicly acknowledged he was a nominee of Tinubu. The president we are told has absolute confidence in him. There is also Raji Fashola, Tinubu’s former chief of staff. He was not ashamed to admit Tinubu was his godfather. He went as far as the United Nations headquarters in New York to inform the world that Tinubu made him governor. As Buhari’s foreman, he controls a number of ministries including Power and Housing. There is also the Lai Mohammed, Buhari’s chief image launderer as Minister for Information and Culture. He was once Tinubu’s chief of staff. He graduated from ACN spokesman to APC information propagandist before emerging as member of Buhari’s inner circle. Of course there is also Kayode Fayemi whose alleged imposition by Tinubu in Ekiti led to a ‘Tsunami’ that tore Ekiti ACN apart with aggrieved party members joining PDP. There are other Tinubu protégés like Femi Ojudu, Abike Dabiri and others in the inner circle of Buhari’s administration. Tinubu as a talent hunter no doubt has confidence in all his products.
But long after Buhari has handed over critical ministries needed for the success of his administration to ‘Tinubu Mafia’, in order to have time for the battle of his life-war on corruption, fifth columnists who weep louder than the bereaved saw only strained relationship between Buhari and Tinubu. What they have however overlooked is that Tinubu is not immune to the usual vagaries of resourceful politicians who are often misunderstood by the society they are called upon to serve. In most cases they are regarded as venal men who easily sacrifice honesty and probity in pursuit of naked ambition. They daily suffer from betrayals and intrigue of party members who are prepared to trade public interest for personal or group interest. Yet the survival of society as an organized group depends on the versatility and brinkmanship of politicians like Tinubu.
And for the mischief makers who are not socialized within the Yoruba culture, disagreement on approaches to set goals between fathers and sons in the face of new realities is an acceptable norm. That in any case was how Tinubu himself achieved the goal that had eluded his fathers for half a century. Although the Yoruba culture impresses it on everyone that a child brought to the world who does not strive to be better than his father is brought to the world in vain, children are also warned that ‘a river that forgets its sources soon dries up’. The empires of Oyo and Benin had their roots in Ife and up to the early 1940s the maximum rulers of both empires took oath of allegiance to Ife before mounting their thrones and had a part of them buried in Ife when they joined their ancestors.
Tinubu has too much stake in the survival of this government to be detracted by those who do not mean well for the government and those who want relevance after rigging election with slush funds from ‘Dazukigate’. With APC in apparent disarray with no coherent policy on any issue, with the governors collecting security votes, riding bullet proof cars instead of made in Nigeria 405 Peugeot cars and APC lawmakers neck-deep in padding scandal, what the nation expects of Tinubu is politics of ideas and not politics of ‘who gets what when and how’. The starting point as this column suggested when APC was first inaugurated is building the party into a modernisisng agent. This is not a task for Buhari who probably see it only as a vehicle for winning election to implement his pet project of war on corruption to free millions of Nigerians from economic bondage.
Besides, this is the first time the Yoruba mainstream political orientation will feature in national politics at the federal level. With the control of key ministries that can make or mar Buharis’ administration controlled by Tinubu Mafia, I think Tinubu’s only task at the centre is to drive it home to those he had groomed that the failure of Buhari’s government is not an option for him and for the Yoruba nation.
I think the focus of Tinubu should thereafter shift to the South-west where with exception of Lagos and Edo, not much seems to be happening. An area that was once the pacesetter in the 1950s has ceded pride of place to other areas. Salaries of workers have not been paid for months. There is virtual collapse of the education and health sectors while the whole areas suffer from infrastructural decay. The South-west cannot feed its citizens while those who should be in farms constitute themselves into ‘area boys’, terrorizing citizens in town and villages while governors cruise around in armoured cars.
And finally, I think Tinubu should henceforth surround himself with a think tank of independent thinkers and not office seekers to avoid a repeat of Ekiti tragedy and the do or die battle currently going on in Ondo State between well known members of his think tank. In the final analysis, it is his service to his people that will determine his place in history. If Awo his role model is today worshipped at home and described as ‘the best president Nigeria never had ‘ by outsiders, it is on account of lives he touched at home.
