By Yusuf Babangida Sulaiman
It would take so much more than paid trips from one TV station to the other and from one campaign stage to another to undo the enigma that is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. But for a person like Najaatu Mohammed, once she partakes in one’s endeavour and it births success, then she snaps and builds a firebrand of emotions to try to dismantle such a story of success that she was a part of. It happened with Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau after the miraculous success of 2003, and with Buhari after the 2015 victory. This is the tendency that she has carried and a toga on which she has travelled all of the years of her dimunitive politicking.
In Kano, most people take the statements of Hajia Najaatu with a pinch of salt as she has become the proverbial boy who cried wolf. She is reputed to say so much, with little substance, in squeaky high pitch tones and in repeated uncoordinated sequence. How she is always the sole knower of her cherry picked truths remains a mystery, because her accounts of stories are not known to ever carry credible corroboration. When a person gets indulged for so long, they being to imagine infallibility in their folly, but there comes a time when they strike the wrong sensitivity, then they feel the sting of a stark reality and get forcefully recoiled into their shell.
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Ex-Oil Sector Finance Guru, Ex-National Lawmaker, Former Governor of Lagos State, Consummate National Politician and APC Presidential Candidate is a man whose political sagacity, depth and acumen have been applauded even by his archest opponents. History cannot be re-written out of the bitterness of a dramatic persona like Hajia Najaatu, giving laughable stories claiming Asiwaju could not answer her question regarding his plans for the North. One can see how intensely she has pushed the narrative of her meeting Asiwaju in London with so much scorn as that is all she can show even after auditioning so much for prominence in the PCC. In hindsight, the PCC in its wisdom ensured that prominence would be gained through demonstrable capacity and substance, not via fabricated stories and a career-long history of emotional fire-spitting.
For every thousand members of the opposition that raise false concerns about the state of health of Asiwaju, there are few patriotic neutrals with genuine questions, and for the benefit of such nationalists, we restate the avowed mental and physical readiness of Asiwaju to mount the saddle of Nigeria and dare the odds by squarely facing the problems that bedevil the country. The man is on the most daunting and exhausting campaign train across the country, religiously abiding by the schedule and maintaining an amazing capacity to lead private and public stakeholder engagement sessions. Once we see people like Najaatu discussing “firmness of grasp of a tea cup” as issues that matter in a Presidential Contest, we are comforted by their exit from our midst. As there is no room for such trivial discourse at a time when our mount of the country’s leadership saddle is imminent, and our need is of minds that are focused, intellectually enhanced, versatile and unconventional.
It is easy for a discerning mind to predict array of actions of a person, especially when their politics in renowned to be transactional. As the issues raised around Asiwaju’s health have become stale and with Nigerians growing even more uninterested in such hogwash, Hajia Naja’atu has faced the shrinking crowd with tales of Asiwaju inducing APC Governors to get the party’s Presidential ticket. As the aforementioned also evaporated quickly and with the crowd asking probing questions, she started to wander her fires to the direction of the legendary Mahmud Jega, whom she accused of recently acquiring a house in Abuja, after which I have wondered under what section of the law such a private citizen would be penalised.
It is obvious that the saliva in the mouth is drying up, the squeakiness is getting stiffer and the high-pitch of the tone lessens all because the impact of the attacks on Asiwaju’s person is not piercing the right holes. Even the opposition is sulking at the flop the expected fire brand has resulted in. Having granted Hajia Najaatu space on stage to perform the pre-auditioned opera, yet people see through the antics and recall same woman selling Buhari so covetously in 2003 & 2007, lambasting Buhari in 2011 while promoting the ACN, and in 2003 fiercely vilifying the Atiku that she today claims is messiah of the North.
The handwriting on the wall is absolutely clear that Asiwaju will work only with those capable of delivering value, enabling national cohesion and driving a unification agenda for Nigeria. Those whose politics is reputed to be about denigrating accomplished personalities and spitting ethnic bias whenever convenient will not gain desired prominence. As indigenes of Kano, and ambassadors of an enormous heritage, only the best of us will lead us, speak for us and represent us in the march to deliver the most promising Nigeria of our lifetime, one to be led by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Jagaban Borgu.
Hon Yusuf Babangida Sulaiman is a Member, Kano State House of Assembly (2011-Date) representing Gwale Constituency
