Sir: Many notable Nigerian politicians including ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, Kola Ologbondiya, Ebenezar Babatope and Najaatu Mohammed, the erudite activist turned politician, are miffed by Tinubu’s entitlement mindset which is amplified in his Emilokan campaign slogan.
Some of us who were very supportive of Tinubu from his NADECO and AD days have realised lately, how difficult it is to sustain the rather incongruent image of Asiwaju as a true progressive. His totalitarian and behemoth control of Lagos State resulting in the sidelining and untimely retirement from active politics of several previously known progressive politicians in the state such as Dapo Sarumi, Adeola Solomon, Chief Ogunlewe, Chief Remi Adiukwu, Senator Afikuyomi, Kuforiju-Olubi, Doherty, Muiz Banire, Obanikoro, Ambode, etc, lend credence to this and as well, portray him as a political despot who brooks no opposition no matter how progressive.
The recent revelations of Najaatu Mohammed that Tinubu once said to her hearing that “when he, (Tinubu) sleeps, the South West sleeps and when he wakes, the South West wakes, “lays credence to this nauseatingly overbearing self-conceitedness of Asiwaju. His eleyi remark in reference to a sitting governor coupled with his claim of being solely responsible for making Buhari the president of Nigeria further underscores his presumptuousness.
One wonders how Tinubu feels so comfortable in his continuous use of the Emilokan campaign slogan which, in all intents and purposes, has become more of an image-rendering than image-mending expression. Are his image makers so birdbrained not to realise that Emilokan is an insensitive, self-serving, pedestrian campaign slogan reminiscent of the audacious claim to political authority in medieval times by feudal lords? With his Machiavellian inclination and knack for behemoth control, a Tinubu presidency will be the ultimate recipe for fascism. One had thought that it is only people like the British King Charles that are mentored with such a feudal sense of entitlement.
Unfortunately for BAT, such mindset has no place in modern democratic contest and cannot yield him electoral victory in a trouble-infested, multi-ethnic, multi-religious Nigeria of today. Far from being a slogan attributable to a progressive democrat, Emilokan is rather a discouraging expression depicting monarchical machismo of a desperate despot.
With Emilokan, the world now knows the real Tinubu. He is medieval in his political orientation and ultra-conservative with political power. To put it succinctly; his atavistic type of mindset is inimical to Nigeria’s body polity of today.
Nasa Erick.
