Three weeks into the presidency of Bola Tinubu, there is still this feeling of ennui across Nigeria. The fun and glitz that often herald the swearing in of a new President and Commander- in- Chief, have been absent. Big but dangerous decisions have been made. For example, the removal of fuel subsidy was like a stab into the chests of poor Nigerians. In many parts of the country, it was as if an invisible force had descended on the nation. Nothing could be more fatal for a new President than to have a false start. If the indefinite suspension of Godwin Emefiele as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, is not surprising, and deserving no tears for him, same cannot be said of Abdulrasheed Bawa, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. One hopes the ouster of Bawa is not for political interests. Whatever Tinubu has done so far for which some people are applauding him, can only be measured in yards, not miles.
Contrary to his claims, President Tinubu is yet to give any real sense of renewed hope to Nigerians that he truly cares and feel their pains. Great leaders don’t start with unleashing pain on the people before rallying the troops. In leadership position, the Paradox of Excellence begins the very moment an ambitious politician let his performance compromise his progress. How do we explain this? Well, historians will tell us that by the nature of power, the complexity of ambition, and the role that the greater good can sometimes play in the making of a leader, certain things are obvious, and that’s: Many people want to be leaders, but very few are leaders in the true sense of the word: using power for great purposes. Robert Allan Caro, Harvard-trained American journalist and author known for his biographies of some U.S. Presidents, did an extensive research on power and leadership. His deep understanding of the inner workings of power is very revealing. And most striking is what he says power always does: it reveals. That’s why, in his words, “what leaders do while they are trying to get power is not necessarily what they do after they have it”. I share his insights about the nature of power, and the complexity of ambition, particularly as it relates to those who aspire to the highest office in the land.
The lesson in the case of Nigeria today, is indeed, sobering. “No man can lead”, Caro says, “who does not first acquire power, and no leader can be great who does not know how to use power”. The trouble, he says, “is that the combination of the two skills is rare”. He argues that the “temperament and behaviour of the ambitious, cynical player adept at amassing power is often at odds with those of the daring and imaginative visionary able to achieve great things with that power”. Is that not where we are today? Good leadership requires human qualities beyond the conventional notion of authority. Power brings responsibility. That’s why the hasty removal of fuel subsidy without consensus will not go away anytime soon. Nobody disagrees that fuel subsidy is not a scam, a criminal offence against the poor to feed the rich. However, its removal by fiat has fouled unusual national mood, and killed the desire for renewal of hope and purpose that Tinubu made during his campaign. The greatest harm is on poor Nigerians who have been going through unprecedented hardship since 2015 that the All Progressives Congress (APC) ‘captured’ power. Few things are clear now: A dangerous cartel led by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) determines the pump price of fuel even when the supply end of the argument has not been addressed. The company’s MD/CEO Mele Kyari, has claimed that the federal government is owing the company a hefty N2.4trn spent on subsidy of petroleum products. We are back to Catch-22. How low can our leaders go? Since the removal of fuel subsidy three weeks ago, we have been reminded of what Tinubu said in 2012 during the infamous #OccupyNigeria protests over planned removal of fuel subsidy by the Jonathan administration. Tinubu, had, in a letter published in many media, accused Jonathan of breaking social contract with the people. “I am not calling Jonathan an evil man”, Tinubu wrote, “ I do not believe he is perverse. However, the economic ideas controlling him are so misguided and they have a perverse impact. Because he(Jonathan) is slave to wrong-headed economics, the people will become enslaved to greater misery. This crisis will bear his legacy. The people now pay a steep tax for voting him into office. People may occupy office, but how that person performs depends on the ideas that occupy his mind”. Tinubu concluded his attack on Jonathan by saying that subsidy removal “is ill-timed and violates the condition precedent necessary before such a decision is made”.
From that moment, Jonathan’s administration did not fully recover from that evil political blackmail and the protests that some believed were sponsored by Tinubu, an allegation he vehemently denied. You see, nobody is calling Tinubu ‘evil’, but what has really changed between then and now? Between 2015 when Buhari took over and now, the pump price of fuel has increased by almost 300 percent, the highest in the history of the country. The lesson from Tinubu’s attack on Jonathan in 2012 has come in the fullness of time. Time heals. As one saying goes, “If you destroy someone’s life with lies, take it as a loan. It will come back to you with interest”. That’s one of the enduring lessons in life. It’s even more so in politics. Who says our politics is not a fun to follow? For sure, what politicians do when they are seeking your votes is not necessarily what they do when they got elected. What has emerged now is a president in his true colours. Where is Jonathan now?. In his memoir, MY TRANSITION HOUR, Jonathan wrote, “If you embark on digging a hole for your enemy, you better make it shallow because you might end up in the hole yourself”. It was a dig at the APC government propaganda machine that slandered him, and almost succeeded in destroying the economy. Investors left the country in droves, the consequences we are still yet to recover from. It is now the fire on Tinubu’s plate. As Jonathan painfully recalled in his book referred to, “there was an attempt to erase my legacy from history”. Who did all this against Jonathan? APC. From what has happened in the last three weeks, my take is that Tinubu is missing the opportunity to build trust. He has also failed to seize the moment that history has offered him to build consensus on his presidency which is still a matter of litigation.
When he needed solution providers, he went the “Rehoboam” Way. Recall that Rehoboam, Solomon’s son ill-advisedly adopted a harsh policy that divided Israel into different kingdoms by taking the counsel of “old men”. His infamous quote: “My father made your yoke heavy, I will make it heavier. My father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions” (1Kings 12:14). Read the details and see how Rehoboam got punished. I don’t think Tinubu wants to unleash heavier punishment on Nigerians than Buhari did. All the same, Tinubu should begin now to look at how history will judge his presidency. Though he was part of the making of Buhari that has put Nigeria in this big hole, he should not make the already existing yoke heavier. APC, it must not be forgotten, came to power by beguiling Nigerians, through deception, trickery, manipulation and outright lies. My advice to Tinubu is to stop making his pride stronger than the recognition of his Achilles heel. So far, his understanding of what leadership entails in turbulent times is wrapped around ego. That’s not the stuff of a great leader. Those who are telling him that he is a great achiever, that what his predecessors could not do, he has done, are sincere deceivers. These are serial deceivers, difficult to detect their lies until they bring down a president and his government. These are ‘yesmen’. They are not solution providers. They are our today’s problems. Tinubu, beware of these men, especially the gang called G5, led by Nyesom Wike. In the last two weeks alone, they have been regular visitors to Aso Rock , praising Tinubu as the best leader in Nigeria. “Power is where power goes”, Lyndon B. Johnson( the 36th U.S.President) once said. It’s no surprise why politicians are going in droves to see Tinubu. Faking to be nice has its cost. It will serve Tinubu well if he can masterfully read the eyes of these politicians, for what a man says with his mouth is sometimes less relevant with what he says with his eyes. Interesting days are ahead.