by Remi Oyeyemi

Well, Tinubu may not be the only one who contributed to Buhari’s success, but he is the ACE. He was and still is the most important variable in the success of Buhari in the last election. Remove Tinubu from the equation, Buhari’s last effort would have been more woeful than the previous efforts. How come people have such a short memory?

“Even among thieves, there is honour.” – Professor Wole Soyinka

“Though, force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

“No matter who or what you support, I believe in supporting fairness first.” – Jennette McCurdy

In recent weeks, I have been watching the way and manner that Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu is being tossed around by his beneficiaries. I have been watching in consternation, though not surprisingly, how he is being schemed out of the House of Mohammadu Buhari that he has toiled to help build. I am watching how suddenly he is the leper that everyone must run away from now that the food is cooked. I am aghast at the ingratitude of politicians and their cruelty. I am appalled at the crass opportunism pervading the air.

Yes, people have often tried to divorce integrity and honour from politics. People have tried to create a gulf between morality and politics. People have always tried to excuse treachery and perfidy as inseparable concomitants of politics. People have justified dishonour and shamelessness as ingredients of politics. There have been efforts since the days of yore to justify immorality, ignominy, dishonesty, unreliability, and subversion as fundamental tenets of politics. I believe all the above are just means of excusing irresponsibility on the part of politics and those who practice the trade. It is why people believe and say that “Politics is a dirty game.”

Niccolo Machiavelli, the Italian diplomat during the Renaissance era gave intellectual wings to this anomaly with his book The Prince published in 1532. Therein, he espouses the obnoxious idea in which political expediency is placed above morality. He noxiously advocates the use of craft and deceit to maintain authority. In short Machiavellianism is “the employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or in general conduct.”

But the great late Chief Obafemi Awolowo fervently disagreed with this heinous school of thought about politics. He posited that politics is not dirty a game, but it is those who play politics that make it dirty. In a lecture given on January 27, 1961, “Politics and Religion” in Ilishan Remo, the great Awo contended that “the description of politics as a game is a felicitous one,” and insisted that “any game at all, other than a game of chance, is good. But the manner of playing it may be clean or dirty, all depending on whether or not the players observe the rules for playing the game which mankind has laid down in conformity with universally accepted standards of decency and ethics.”

The above postulation by Awoolowo underscored why he was the type of politician that he was and why he was enormously successful, as well as why History has held him up as primus inter pares. Buhari and his handlers would be well advised to scour through history and see how any government that adopted Machiavellianism, as opposed to Awoism, has ended. They should educate themselves and make up their minds which of the two philosophies of politics they want to adopt.

Obeying the rules of the game, such as politics as the great Awo posited, is functionally related to “honour” that Professor Soyinka apotheosised on an occasion at the Oduduwa Hall, University of Ife in 1982, as being fundamental “even among thieves.” Thus, I am assuming that Buhari is an “honourable man.” I am also assuming that his handlers are decent and ethical. It is based on these assumptions that I know it is inescapable for Buhari and his handlers not to give adequate and commensurate space to Tinubu’s influence in this administration. Not to give Tinubu his dues would amount to perfidy and a betrayal of the highest order. It would amount to dishonour among the “thieves” in the APC. It would also suggest that Buhari and his men are indecent, unethical and treacherous.

I find it weird that suddenly, Tinubu “is too controlling.” “He wants to impose all of the time.” “He is too ambitious.” “He is not good for Buhari’s Presidency.” “Buhari will do well to stay away from him.” “Tinubu must be neutralised.” “Tinubu is corrupt.” ”Tinubu is selfish.” “Is Tinubu the only one in the APC?” “Why must he seek to exert influence in Buhari’s Administration?” “Tinubu is too powerful.” “Tinubu should leave Buhari alone.” “Tinubu is not the only one who contributed to Buhari’s success.” Tinubu this, Tinubu that!

Well, Tinubu may not be the only one who contributed to Buhari’s success, but he is the ACE. He was and still is the most important variable in the success of Buhari in the last election. Remove Tinubu from the equation, Buhari’s last effort would have been more woeful than the previous efforts. How come people have such a short memory? Have some people been in Russia not to know what transpired? Or they are just being in denial because they lack the capacity to be fair to Tinubu? Do we have to like Tinubu to be fair to him? As Jennette McCurdy insisted above, “no matter who or what” anyone of us supports, “supporting fairness first” should be the first order of business.

How can people forget so soon that Buhari has been running for President for 12 years and has been failing very woefully until Tinubu came to his rescue? Where were all those making noises about Tinubu wanting to exert influence? What is wrong in expecting to reap the fruit of your labour, as Tinubu is seeking to do by having some of his supporters and men in the Buhari House that he was the architect of?

Those blaming Tinubu, if they are not ingrates and hypocrites, didn’t they know that Tinubu was corrupt when he was toiling to put the coalition together? Didn’t they know that he was always imposing candidates when they were all running after him to help them install Buhari as the President? Didn’t they know that he always wanted to put his own supporters in position of power when he was sweating to make Buhari successful? How come it is now that they are just realising that Tinubu is an undesirable element?

Now, all these ingrates and hypocrites are shouting the names of Babatunde Fashola, Kayode Fayemi and the rest of them. Have they forgotten that there would not have been any of them on the political stage if not for Tinubu? Give it to Tinubu, he knows how to put square pegs in square holes. Or has everyone forgotten that the tragedy of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was foisted on Nigeria by Mattew Aremu Okikiola Olusegun Obasanjo-Onyejekwe? How come Tinubu is suddenly bad and has to be ostracised from the Buhari House that would not and could not have stood if not for Tinubu?

I am not a politician. But I am seriously interested in politics because it affects me on a daily basis. I am not a supporter of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s school of politics. I am not fond of his political philosophy. I have criticised him several times in the public space. I have a lot of beef with the way he has conducted a lot of things. All these have not blinded and would not blind me to the fact that he is entitled to the fruits of his labour. There is just no other way to slice it.

Although Tinubu put himself in this predicament because he did not heed the warnings given to him regarding a lot of things by some elders in Yorubaland. He believed he saw something that some of us did not see. He was committed beyond commitment. He was dedicated, determined and focused. He put everything he had into making Buhari successful. He hurt a lot of his own people as a result. He made enemies out of his “extended family members.” He gave everything. To deny him now what is due to him would be utterly unfair. What is fair is just fair. What is right is just right.

It is true that Muhammadu Buhari is now the president. Now he has the power. But he would be advised to be cautious on the way and manner he treats Tinubu, regardless of his (Tinubu’s) imperfections. Tinubu may not be one hundred percent accepted in Yorubaland. Chief MKO Abiola was not either. Same goes with the great Awo. But it would be a very terrible mistake to judge him based on that. Buhari would be well advised that it would be in his best interest and the interest of Nigeria not to ostracise Tinubu. Not at this time or anytime in the life of this administration. Buhari’s failure to hearken to this advice would have serious ramifications for the fortunes and future of this country.

It is my hope that Buhari and his handlers would not make the same mistake that Ibrahim Babangida made with Chief MKO Abiola. I hope Buhari would not repeat the mistake of his good friend, General Sani Abacha. It is my hope that Buhari and his handlers would not miscalculate and take decisions that would put this country in jeopardy, and that they would not act in an ungrateful manner. It is my hope that Tinubu would not be denied his fair share of influence in this administration. If there is anything that the Yoruba man hates, it is unfairness, even against strangers or detractors, not to talk of one of their own, regardless of how recalcitrant s/he is.

It is too late in the day to just realise that Tinubu is not good. It is too late in the day to want to discard him and undercut him. It is too late in the day to look for excuses to ostracise him after he has helped put the government in power. Regardless of the way it is sliced, without Tinubu, there could never have been any Buhari presidency. Not Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, and certainly not Senator Bukola Saraki or any of the crass opportunists circling around Buhari presently could have made it happen.

As Jennette McCurdy preached, no matter who or what you support, “supporting fairness first” is the best way forward. Expecting a modicum of decency and ethics in the conduct of our politicians regardless of their imperfections is nothing too much to expect. Even, among thieves, there should be honour, as Professor Wole Soyinka put it.

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