YNaija Analysis: What’s the difference between the leadership records of Obasanjo and Tinubu?

In a recent interview with PUNCH, Ayo Fayose was very clear about his views on Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Olusegun Obasanjo. About Tinubu, he said this:

Even, if I don’t like Asiwaju, he has attained an enviable height in his political endeavours. He has done so well economically. He has led his people to wherever they are today. I can’t stand here and be denying the obvious […] It is true I’m not a member of the APC and I will never be. The fact remains that honour should be given to whom honour is due. There is nobody – mother, brother and sister – that will wish, with the efforts Asiwaju has put into Nigeria and his party, that he should be disgraced. It will be unfortunate for the Yoruba nation if they short-change Asiwaju in APC.

And about Obasanjo, he said this:

If you are talking about corruption today, Obasanjo is the cause. (What about) the N50m Obasanjo (allegedly) gave each lawmaker for his failed third term agenda? I was an Obasanjo boy. Obasanjo can’t be celebrated as a saint in Nigeria. When he talks, I just shake my head. Sometimes, when he goes to the (Presidential) Villa, I wonder if he has shame at all […] The fact that he is supporting the government of the day tactically is to protect himself. Sometimes, I ask if he is looking for a political appointment. Have you seen Ernest Shonekan and other former presidents visit Buhari like he does? He is becoming a laughing stock. That is the way I see it.

These viewpoints uttered by Fayose are widely held. Tinubu is respected, even if grudgingly. His achievements are not taken lightly. Obasanjo is viewed altogether differently: a man whose presence is tolerated more than anything else, whose need for relevance seeps out of his every pore, progressively diminishing him with every passing year.

Both men stopped being President and Governor respectively in 2007, despite Obasanjo’s best efforts at a third term. Their respective actions and inactions have been crucial in shaping a country trying to leave its military past behind; Obasanjo, through entrenching the PDP at all levels, and Tinubu, through ensuring a strong opposition that eventually won power in 2015.

This is where both men begin to diverge. Everything Obasanjo has done since 2007 has served to weaken his influence, while Asiwaju’s influence has only grown. In selecting Babatunde Fashola to succeed him, Tinubu set in motion the succession planning that has made Lagos the reference point for other states in Nigeria, and provided the base on which the credibility of the opposition was built. Fashola’s good work reflected well on Tinubu, and with that credibility, he set about putting together an alternative to the PDP.

On the other hand, Obasanjo set in motion the decline of the PDP by selecting Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, a rather average duo, to succeed him. The result was a truncated Presidency and a sequence of events that let all the steam go out of Obasanjo’s achievements.

For a country like Nigeria that has little by way of strong institutions, what comes after is often more important than what currently is. Progress, however small, can be quickly reversed. Tinubu made what looks more and more like another good call when Ambode replaced Fashola. After a slow start, the governor has since come into his own.

The loyalty shown by Tinubu’s friends and enemies alike is also noteworthy. He commands the kind of respect that Obasanjo simply does not. Fayose who was quoted above is a case in point, and it is similarly hard to find anyone who has benefited from Tinubu in the past say a bad word – in public, at least – about him.

Baba Iyabo on the other hand is fair game. His increasing distance from circles of influence cannot be masked by the occasional courtesy visit by this or that politician, but more telling is how he is spoken about in public.

Whenever Obasanjo makes an intervention about Nigeria, many are quick to remind him of his own role in the way things are as a two-time head of state.

Tinubu’s influence is similarly viewed as overbearing. His hand is seen in any event that happens in the South-West, whether or not he is really involved. But while he is given a pass concerning his record since then, Obasanjo is not.

Therein lies the difference between both men. One has picked winners that will carry on his legacy, while the other has picked losers who serve as cautionary tales.

One comment

  1. pls dis men served @ different capacity n can’t be compared

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