I should have written this profile earlier. Then Donald Trump, the American President, would not have issued his threat, there would not have been rumors of a coup, and I would have celebrated him as one of the greatest ever living Nigerians.
But as I write, he is looking like a giant with clay feet — no response to Trump, insecurity still benign, and the country seems to be just floating like a ship without rudders.
My relationship with President Tinubu has been fluctuating like my blood pressure readings. One moment I’m admiring him for pulling himself up by the bootstraps as an orphan and rising to become Nigeria’s second most powerful President after Chief Obasanjo — in my opinion — and the next, I’m looking at him with one eye and asking myself just how we allowed this to happen to us.
President Tinubu is a different kind of human being. I’ve watched him very closely from afar and have come to the conclusion that this one is the real abami eda — not the one Fela was vaunting all over the place.
Just when you think it’s over, he bounces back stronger. In Lagos, he was almost consumed by a certificate scandal that took all of his grit to wrestle down.
Then Obasanjo’s tsunami came, and all the South-West governors fell — yet he emerged the last man standing. From there, he built a solid platform that took him straight to the Presidency.
It has not been easy since then. Beset with challenges on almost all sides, he has stayed the course. Deeply popular and also deeply unpopular, depending on which side of the terrain you are standing, President Tinubu continues to trudge along.
I had mentioned in some of my earlier positions that I think he would have been adjudged the greatest Nigerian ever if he hadn’t thrown himself into the presidential ring — if he had allowed Prof. Osinbajo to contest and given that one his support. This is because, at that time, President Tinubu had grown even bigger than the Presidency. He had knocked out a sitting President, installed one — twice — and was simply the issue in Nigeria.
Today, he is President, but a very frail one — both physically and otherwise. He continues to be pelted by the tomatoes of criticism while still being hailed by his cronies. But whichever way you look at it, he cannot be ignored.
As things stand, he is simply the most powerful Nigerian ever — like it or not — and barring any sidestepping from Trump, he just might emerge for a second term. From there, he could drive toward cementing his place with the Big Three — Ahmadu Bello, Nnamdi Azikiwe, and Obafemi Awolowo — as founding fathers. But in his case, he would stand apart as the Founding Father of Modern Nigeria.
Kai, some people will beat me for labeling him the Founding Father of Modern Nigeria, and others will carry me shoulder-high for the same reason. And that, right there, is the Tinubu mystique — you sha must take a position.
Na wa.
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