President Ahmed Bola Tinubu has been in office for slightly over two years. In this time he has been treated to a lot more put-downs, a lot more denigration or disparagement than any other Nigerian President before him. Not Shagari, not Obasanjo or Yar’Adua or the shorter lived President Goodluck Jonathan. Not even our soldier President Muhammadu Buhari. The archetypal critic is former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. Peter Obi, once himself a presidential candidate, has been just as critical of Tinubu but he lacks Atiku’s consistency and variety in the choice of subject-matter. The man who used to do this effortlessly in Buhari’s time was Obasanjo, but he has now stopped his “Open Letter to Mr President”. Probably, his ink pot has dried up! Or is it because his own tribesman now occupies the seat he once took up?
Well, back to Tinubu and those who have often called him out. The issues have ranged from the very mundane like foreign visits to the very serious like external borrowing and debt service, to appointments and project location. An example of the mundane was Atiku’s condemnation of Tinubu’s visit to Plateau State Oct. 4 to condole with the national chairman of his ruling APC party, Nentawe Yilwatda, who lost his aged lovable mother this month. Atiku said it was “insensitive” of the President to have chosen to attend a “social event” and failing to visit with families of Nigerians who have died in the hands of bandits and terrorists. “With large swathes of the country still under siege from unrelenting insecurity and thousands of innocent lives lost, it is deeply unfortunate that President Bola Tinubu has not, for once, found it worthy to visit any of the affected states to commiserate with the grieving citizens,” reads Atiku’s post on X. I like what the former VP is doing; he is filling the void left by his People’s Democratic Party’s disgraceful failure to play its expected role of a formidable opposition party, one that held power for a good 16 years. Whether he is overplaying his hand in doing this yeoman’s job isn’t an issue. For a man still determined to win the Presidency, after several failed attempts, this is principle not a shot at political relevance.
Maybe, this is why Tinubu hasn’t bothered to respond to Atiku’s or anyone else’s ascerbicism. He is thankful to them for the fortuitous PR they are doing for him – keeping him in the public eye, whether for good or bad. The world is taking note that there is a Tinubu in charge of Nigeria, this Giant of Africa, which in distant future he will turn into the world’s Colossus. Shan’t we all be grateful, proud and happy, even in the hereafter?
One thing more, many of us are talking, all at the same, which makes comprehension almost impossible. Never mind if it is turning the country into a veritable Tower of Babel. But it also means our democracy is maturing, doesn’t it? LooK at neighboring Cameroon, where dying President Paul Biya has his effigy out campaigning for his reelection for the umpteenth time. Nobody dares utter aaah. But here you may call the President by whatever perjorative name you devise, he won’t lose sleep. His media guys are doing a good job telling him to ignore the idlers and focus on the needed job of running the country aground. This, too, is a kind of democratic leadership! I’ll let you go on beating the sounding cymbals, so long you let me keep tearing apart and down. See you next time, buddy.
