The dramatic outing was well rehearsed. It was programmed to be a prize-winning show. Bola Tinubu, the man who has refused to dance for his Nigerian audience, suddenly chose the United Kingdom as his locale. While in London the other day, he set out to be the big masquerade of Nigerian politics. To accomplish that, he needed the accompaniment of drama and showmanship.
As the actor that he is, he will not just walk into the house and walk out. His entry has to be heralded by high drama. Something must draw attention to his presence. This was how the stage was set for the event of the day. That was how a motley crowd of hangers-on swarmed the 18th Century gothic architecture better known as Chatham House.
Truly, the drama may have been well rehearsed. But it fell short of public expectation. The songsters failed to leave a lasting impression. Instead, they gave us what turned out to be a swan song for the man they set out to lionize.
The day in question gave Nigeria away. It was the day the country’s strangeness was exported to London. Chatham House, the policy institute with a mission to help governments and societies build a sustainably secure and just society, was caught napping. It watched morosely as Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his gang thwarted all the rules of engagement that the House is known for.
The organizers of the presidential parley, obviously, did not see the strangeness coming. They must have been taken aback by the make belief that took over the stage. Tinubu, the candidate, was supposed to be the guest at Chatham House. But his over-sized entourage with whom he had rehearsed the grand outing, seized the stage. In the end, Chatham House hosted not a Bola Tinubu but a horde of disparate partisans who shot randomly into the public sphere. This eventuated in an unintended outcome. Tinubu, the man at the centre of the drama, was expected to come to the House with a message. But he had none. He relied on others to tell his story. On that day, the world was made to understand that a Tinubu presidency would be a surrogate presidency. In the absence of a presidential message as was the case that day, members of the gang struggled to outdo one another. At the end of it all, we neither got a message nor was able to pinpoint the owner of the message, if indeed there was one.
So, why did Tinubu and his gang organize such a coup against Chatham House? Those who have been on the trail of the Tinubu presidential campaign can hazard a guess. The man has, lately, been the butt of coarse jokes following the repeated mumbo jumbo that has characterized his public speeches. In recent weeks, his public appearances have become embarrassing owing to the gaffes that often intrude into his speeches. In order to reduce such disgraceful occurrences to the barest minimum, those who manage the candidate have been working very hard to shield him from public speeches. That is why he has refused to participate in the various Town Hall meetings and debates that have been organized for presidential candidates. The Tinubu campaign has told Nigerians in clear terms that their candidate will not participate in any of those public debates. What they did not make clear was the real reason behind their clay-footedness. But Nigerians know and understand. They do not need a third eye to see through the messy situation.
Given this obvious handicap of Tinubu, it was surprising to many that he chose to go to London to do what he has repeatedly refused to do on the Nigerian soil. What kind of cover would London provide to him? We wondered. But it has since dawned on us that those who wondered at the boldness with which Tinubu chose to go to London for a public show were not imaginative enough. We did not know that the man and his gang had plans. They had decided that they would change the Chatham House rules of engagement, a luxury that they can ill-afford back home in Nigeria.
This was what played out at Chatham House. Rather than Mr. Tinubu, the man invited for the round table to do the job, his chorus men were brought in to intervene and interject freely to the consternation and amazement of the watching world. In the end, we did not see a Mr. Tinubu sell his candidature to the world. Rather, what we harvested was another layer of cover-ups, a game Nigerians know how to play too well.
Chatham House must have been taken aback by this strangeness. It must have wondered at the manner of breed Nigerians are. But it must have been too stupefied to interject. It watched the docudrama with helpless disbelief.
But the strangeness is hardly strange to Nigerians. Before the high drama at Chatham, they have watched time and time again the public slips of the APC presidential candidate. Efforts had been made by Tinubu’s handlers to cover up his bloomers, but Nigerians have refused to be led by the nose.
Regrettably, what Tinubu’s ambitious campaigners could not achieve in Nigeria, they succeeded in achieving in London. But at what cost? Chatham House, the otherwise respected world-leading policy institute, has fallen into disrepute. Many of those who watched what transpired at Chatham are wondering why the organizers of the programme did not reject the Tinubu approach. Why did a guest who was invited to tell his story cede the responsibility to those who are not running the race with him? The idea, to all intents and purposes, was for the candidate to speak about his plan for the country that he aspires to govern. But he did not and was not taken to task.
The impression Tinubu has left to the public in all this is that he lacks the capacity for this self-projection. He is also deficient in the area of ideas that can turn Nigeria around for good. The drama was so choreographed that for every question, Tinubu knew who to point at for an answer. So why was Tinubu not called to order? Was his approach in line with Chatham House rules? Why did Chatham give in to this grand cover-up? With this development, can the organizers of the Chatham House event say in all seriousness that Tinubu was their guest on that day? That is debatable. But if they insist that he was, many are bound to retort by asking: to what end? What was the point of Tinubu’s appearance at Chatham House? The man and his gang only gave us a swan song; a fitting goodbye from the presidential race.