Tag: tinubu

Text of the remarks by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu at the launching of the building fund of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, (NGE) in Abuja on Thursday

It gives me great pleasure to be with you today. I feel comfortable being among one of the great constituencies of our body politic. What you do is dear to my heart. As I scan the hall today, I see familiar faces many of who fought during the dark moments of dictatorship to free this nation so that democracy could take root in our land. When the nation needed you, many of you answered the historic call by braving the oppression to stand as beacons of conscience, freedom of speech and human rights. The media served as an advanced guard for democracy. Where would we have been without those who demanded a free press? What would have become of our democratic destiny if the media had not stood in defence of our rights, our freedoms and constitutional rule? Nigeria would have become a huge barracks run by the men in uniform and their civilian confederates. Because you manned the barricades alongside pro-democracy activists and progressive civil society, the reign of the jackboots ended. Nigeria rediscovered constitutional rule. I am tempted resign all of that to history, but I cannot because history more often repeats itself than it slips quietly into the past. This is so because the character flaws and the political footworks of our present leaders are similar to the jackbooted- back steps past leaders took when we suffered dictatorial leadership. The approaching sounds of the drum of ethnic tension are now heard, religion has become a tool of hate-thy-neighbour politics. An imperial yet parochial presidency arrogates to itself the powers of National Assembly and the courts. meanwhile, it withholds funds from state and local governments in order to bring them under heel and to quash political dissent and opposition. As long as it persists in this effort to use the enormous resources and powers of the Federal Government to intimidate or impoverish those who are not in their camp, the Federal Government has wedded to the path of arbitrary rule and an over-concentration of power. These bear the marks of dictatorship and they imperil the sanctity of the Nigerian national project. The people need to understand that a great change is underway but not the change they want. I nstead of wobbling slowly forward, the government is taking us steadily backward. We move not toward the future but toward the past. The people are being feted on a false feast of true lies. To save Nigeria, we need a whistle blower or a courageous town crier to alert and wake us. In this vein, the media remains the one vital institution upon which we depend to play the role of watchdog. You, as an institution, must hold the political system under your gaze and hold those who operate it accountable to the people. The Guild of Editors should be in the vanguard to build a new Nigeria. As an organisation for journalists who have achieved the exalted position of Editor at their various publications or media organisations, The Guild possesses the caliber of people that can lead other journalists in the right direction towards crisp investigative and reporting and political analysis. If you maintain your integrity and that of your publication, if you show the way by example, if you remain objective, open and uncompromising, you will show the path for the media, the political class and others to follow. However, recent events bring into question the purported non-partisan stance of the organisation when one considers how many editors have turned their publications over to select interest groups. Servicing interests at variance with the sacred oath made to the public to disseminate factual and comprehensive news and information is not the way of professionalism. The hijacking and distortion of news reports by powerful interests has turned the media into a commodity with a price tag. It has made a mockery of the very notion of non- partisanship to which the media subscribes. Editors and newspapers that willingly turn over their pages or wittingly publish misleading and false stories that serve narrow interests or spike the more accurate reports dealing with an alternative viewpoint have lost their way. They may be making money but they choke democracy just to curry favour and gain a few pieces of silver. The only partisanship allowed of the media is neutral partisanship that stands on the side of truth. As far back as 1972 during your annual conference, you launched your Code of Conduct. In that document, among other things, you committed to firm journalistic ethics and nationalistic ethos. Part of the preamble states: “But experience has shown many lapses in the practice of the profession and it has for long become apparent that a code of conduct must be established among practising journalists themselves, if they must fulfill their true functions and if a standard below which journalists may not be expected to fall may be laid down.” The NGE made these solemn declarations among others: • That the public is entitled to the truth and that only correct information can form the basis for sound journalism and ensure the confidence of the people. • That it is the moral duty of every journalist to have respect for the truth and to publish or prepare for publication only the truth and to the best of his knowledge. • That it is the duty of the journalist to publish only facts: never to suppress such facts as he knows; never to falsify either to suit his own purposes or any other purposes. • That once information has been collected and published, the journalist shall observe the universally accepted principle of secrecy and shall not disclose the source of information obtained in confidence. • That it is the duty of every journalist to correct any published information found to be incorrect. While a section of the media have performed creditably well, a growing section seems besotted with power, often crossing the line. The lines have been crossed. The newsrooms have become shopping centers where interests shop for the most pliable editor or reporter to push their point of view or story. Investigative knack is gone. The fire of patriotism continues to be extinguished and that of professionalism is now only a flicker. Journalism has become not just a danger to itself as a profession but now inflicts harm to the republic by knowingly feeding the people half truths, innuendos and outright falsehood. When reporting and reality are too far apart, journalism has ceased and propaganda has begun. A nation awash in propaganda is a nation dry and devoid of democracy much like a desert is devoid of water. I have chosen today to strike at the heart of the perils confronting journalism and the dwindling influence of the media because no matter how big and beautiful the physical edifice we build, unless the practitioners of the profession and the occupiers of the building reform internally and commit themselves to be professional, the building becomes more of a symbol of wasted opportunity than a model of right and justice. It serves to extol but to indict. NGE has the responsibility to ensure that our media leaders are held to the highest standard. It must lead the crusade side by side with the NUJ to tackle this problem. Once an editor is upright, it will be difficult for his reporters to compromise. You must revive the spirit of courageous and non-compromising journalism that described the fight against military rule. Then, the media became the last hope of the common man. Even the judiciary had caved. Those were days when dictatorship reigned supreme and impunity was the order. Under a suspended constitution our rights, freedoms and privileges were taken away. All opposition groups and points of dissent were decimated. Only the media remained standing. You the journalists, the editors will not stand down. Rather, you stared dictatorship in the face until it blinked and returned to the barracks. I will never forget what Prof Wole Soyinka said of the media after that struggle (1986-1999). I paraphrase: “When it is all said and done, we shall erect a monument to the Nigerian media for their positive role in seeing to the exit of the military and a return to democracy….” Today, that monument is at risk because of a weakening foundation we approach a sober moment in the nation’s history. Next year, elections will be had and they will pit the incumbent conservative elite against a band of reformers. If things go as they are, many of you will meekly report what the government suggests. Or you will report at the superficial level regarding the various personalities and interest groups that comprise both camps. However, few of you will get to the core issue: that the two sides have vastly different visions for the nation. We are engaged in a ideological battle for the soul and future of the nation. Yet, you report as if such a struggle does not exist. Those of you who say this battle does not exist are simply being disingenuous, lazy or cynical. The contrast is there but you must have the intellectual courage to report it. That is your job. Once you have done so, the people will be amply informed and they will make the choice according to their collective wisdom. Let us try to rescue this democracy by giving the people a chance to exercise that collective wisdom by giving them your best journalistic product at this time. If you do less than this, you fail your national mission. If Nigeria fails, if democracy falters, your profession is again endangered. Why risk a return to a time when being principled journalists made you an enemy of the state and placed your life and limb at risk? As editors, you hold the key to change our society. The media has a role in upholding the rule of law, justice and fairness for all. Let us build this democracy together. Then, the edifice you launch today will sand the test of time. The storm of change is blowing. There is change in the air. I urge you to be part of that change. I leave you with these two quotations: “Let us resolve to be masters, not the victims, of our history, controlling our own destiny without giving way to blind suspicions and emotions.” — John F. Kennedy “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” — Barack Obama. Thank you for listening

His type blazes the brilliant trail across the political firmament like a meteor once in a blue moon; eliciting varied comments from different observers of diverse perspectives. And that depends on where one stands on each side of the great political divide. His breed is here on a bold mission-to right the many wrongs wrought by anti-democratic forces (both military despots and unpatriotic civilians) with the aim to leave his immediate community, his state, his country, indeed the world much better than he met it. Such a mission, we must admit is not for the lily-livered but for men of steel.

It would, therefore, be foolhardy for any of his teeming admirers to expect even those who he has come to rescue from the stranglehold of the political oppressors to applaud his noble efforts. Such is the dilemma of the socio-political matrix within which political strategists operate; all because they see what many do not.

Put simply, he is a visionary armed with the 3-C concept of courage, candour and charisma, possessed all to the quantum level. But as usual, not a few would understand or even identify with his DNA and more so align with his consistent political ideology of people-friendly governance down to the grassroots. Lest we forget, it was his undying love for democracy as an enduring political vehicle to deliver the greatest good to the majority of fellow Nigerians that saw him confront the monstrosity that the military dictatorship had turned his dear nation into. What with the crude, callous and conscienceless annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential annulment believed to have been squarely won by Chief M.K.O. Abiola of blessed memory. His claim to the enthronement of democracy, therefore, did not start last night. That is much unlike many self-seeking politicians of our current dispensation who care less about the source and form of the waters from which they gulp to the point of self asphyxiation!

Our man of today is none other than Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the erstwhile governor of the Centre of Excellence, a one-time Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who has over the last decade come to redefine the concept of party politics in the effervescent terrain called Nigeria. From the Alliance for Democracy (AD) through the Action Congress (AC) to Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)and now, the game changer tagged All Progressives Congress(APC), his rare managerial acumen of men and materials has come to the fore.

He knew right from the outset, that it was going to be a long-drawn battle, especially with political power in the iron fist of late General Sani Abacha. He again it was who provided the buffer that cushioned the efforts of pro-democracy activists as NADECO brought the attention of the world to the castration and gross violation of the people’s inalienable human rights. Let it be known that at that material time, he had all the opportunity to sell out as some fare weather friends did to betray our common cause. But Tinubu chose to stay on the people’s side while the struggle lasted. Had he been a political turn-coat, we would have no moral ground to identify with him, least of all, celebrate him on this auspicious occasion.

Perhaps, it would be more appropriate to underscore his sweeping political machinery to the metaphor of the broom, which incidentally has been adopted for much of the metamorphosis of the aforementioned political parties of the progressives. To start with, he, Tinubu as the governor who took the mantle of Lagos state amidst monumental filth that clogged the drainage channels and the highways swept it all with the introduction of LASTMA. Other creative organs of government such as LASTMA, KAI, LAMATA that his visionary administration established brought sanity and safety in the critical areas of public health, transportation, education and massive infrastructural development. They have been copied by governors from virtually all the six geo-political zones of the country.

Worthy of note also is that all these took place even in the face of daunting odds. Not the least being the withholding of allocations to the Lagos local government councils that stretched from months to years, when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo held sway at the federal level. In other climes, well-heeled writers, historians and political scientists would be all over him to decipher that unique attribute that has made him a strong brand of a survivor. This raises some fundamentally significant questions.

How did Lagos state weather the storm of months without federal allocation when the internally generated revenue was yet to assume a sustaining level? How did his AD-led political party, more like a David pitched against the behemoth of a Goliath, survive the political onslaught of the PDP rigging machinery that bulldozed its way through the South-West geo-political zone? He became ‘the last man standing’; how did he do it? How did he wrestle back the same zone from the stranglehold of the PDP in 2007 and went on to strengthen his hold on the vastly resourceful and politically sophisticated zone by 2011? And to cap all, the trilogy of the bruising battles won, how did the ACN merge with other progressive parties in the mold of CPC and ANPP, both from the northern fold to form the All Progressive Congress (APC), now giving the PDP sleepless nights?

It was the democrat in Tinubu that saw him calling for Resource Control, as a Senator, against the vociferous voices of those who claim to love the country only when it suits their fancies. Today, that clamour re-echoes with greater verve and frenzy as the National Conference kicks off its deliberations. But would anyone remember who belled the cat? That is the million naira question.

From all these salutary efforts, it would be a disservice to our sense of history to misconstrue Tinubu as a self-serving politician. If he was one, perhaps he would have been contented to cocoon himself with the AD. And he would not have used his political clout to assist incumbent Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State to send the PDP packing, even though it is controlled by the Labour Party, just as he had done in Ekiti and Osun states. Even when he has been accused of influencing choices for the party, one issue even die-hard critics would not deny is that he makes the best choices, always. Name them: the award-winning governors of Lagos, Ekiti, Osun, Edo ,Oyo and Ogun states do not come to political prominence every day. Do they? That magic wand of his to identify the best man for the job should be a source of PhD thesis.

To all those who, out of sheer envy, label APC as a political party devoid of philosophy, a closer look at the ground-breaking achievements of the states under its purview would be revealing. And that is, the enduring principle of making governance to be driven by the wishes, aspirations, dreams and desires of the average Nigerian. That is, rather than that of a fraudulent family of shameless kleptomaniacs, whose stock in trade is not only to steal the nation blind but to make culprits walk our streets with a sneering swagger under the leaking umbrella of the crass culture of insidious impunity.

Asiwaju, no doubt, believes in the sustenance of justice, fairness, equity and people-driven development. He believes, and firmly too, that it all starts with free, fair and credible elections. That always provides the firm foundation for the house of democracy to stand. Only when then would people’s votes count. If that is not a political philosophy, what then is?

According to Michael Ciric, an American political analyst, ‘voters tend to believe in political ideology much more than those who are actually running for office. Naturally, candidates will more often than not say whatever they must in order to get elected and worry about their promises later…Still, for most people, their political choices pretty much come down to a belief in a particular ideology as opposed to the candidate being the best qualified for the job.’

One may say that happens only in America. But evidence abounds here in Nigeria that political ideologies have played their part in electoral cjoices made.It did so with the late Dr. Namidi Azikiwe as it also did for late Chief Obefemi Awolowo. And now, as 2015 general elections move closer by the day, Nigerians would be hard put to trust PDP, a political party that has since 1999 been unable to turn the fortunes of a vastly blessed country in favour of its long-suffering people. With monumental fraud in the form of pension scam, aviation mess, oil subsidy scandal, money allegedly growing wings from NNPC, Nigerians would want to pitch their tents with the ideology of the progressives to make their choices count and their voices heard, loud and clear. That opposition to the PDP is APC.

One man, whose political antecedents would provide a credible factor in the yet unbalanced equation in the political landscape, is Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. As we celebrate him today, we wish him God’s abiding grace and fruitful years in the service of our fatherland. Has the game-changer an ace has under his sleeve, come 2015? Only time will tell.

The 62nd birthday anniversary of the former governor of Lagos State and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will hold today with a colloquium.

The Bola Tinubu Colloquium is scheduled for the Lagos Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, from 4pm.

The colloquium, tagged ‘The Summit of the Common Man’, is the sixth edition in the series.

Also, a book of quotations by the Asiwaju, entitled Truth Unmasked, will be presented at the event.