President Tinubu: The difficult transition from politicking to governance

It’s very clear that our president is yo-yoing. Yo-yoing is a new interpretation I have just given the word to better explain his style of leadership which has seen him yodel from one corner to the other like a badly damaged ship being pushed around by the waves aimlessly.

I pity him and must say that I do love him. I have met him before when Finance Minister Wale Edun took me to his house for a very brief session.

He came across as a very harmless grandfather and his handshake was weak. I felt like hugging him and telling him – Baba calm down, everything will just be OK.

Sadly, everything is not OK. We have listened to his cry of – emilokan and given it to him but it seems, like a drunk attempting to carry his very fat wife, Nigeria is finally about to collapse on him.

I once saw a picture of our President standing behind the great MKO Abiola – Please my play Kashimawo is coming up this Easter, come and see it – when they went to pay him a courtesy call after June 12.

What struck me was the cap he was wearing. This same cap of today with its very famous insignia shows very clearly that Mr Tinubu has always had the ambition of ruling us.

To me, Mr Tinubu is the most brilliant political strategist that Africa has ever produced. He has not only shown his brilliance in Nigeria but also exported it to other countries like Guinea and Ghana.

Nobody, not even the legendary Awolowo or the colourful Zik could stand Asiwaju’s brilliance. His clarity of purpose and clear understanding of our political clime have been much more than excellent and this is why I had wanted to write a book on him and I will still write that book.

My egbon, Dapo Adelegan, still called me last week to get me ready for the huge assignment. His political sagacity and ability to build bridges, utilise networks and play the unique Nigerian – money for hand back for ground politics put him in my books as one of the most influential political characters of all time.

But it ends there. Governance is a different ball game. After 20 years out of power, Tinubu emerged at the centre with huge inexperience and a loss of confidence.

The blunders were painfully laughable, like issuing statements on APC Campaign letter-headed papers and allowing the maverick Niger Delta warlord to speak under the coat of arms.

Granted his emergence was marked with a lot of controversy hence the need to build a cabinet that could be deployed in the event of a runoff hence the inclusion of characters like Wike and the rest.

But now that possibility is gone with the Supreme Court pronouncement and he is our president and anybody who doesn’t like that can go hug a transformer like we say In Shomolu.

It is now time for governance and here we see Tinubu as a brilliant clay-footed giant. His approach towards governance has been infantile, lacking in purpose and seemingly fearful of engaging.

I feel his fear of repeating the inaugural address faux pas of proclaiming fuel subsidy has gone which earned him slaps even from his ardent supporters have made him to be a little bit more cautious

As he is taking his time, the economy is gone to the dogs, insecurity has taken over and apart from the Super Eagles and maybe Funke Akindele, Nigerians no longer see any reason to think Nigeria.

But all hope is not lost. Tinubu still weights to pull this thing back, he just has to be humble. He has spent all of eight months celebrating his victory and alienating his opponents.

He needs to show some level of humility and rebuild a huge government of national consensus so that everybody from Peter Obi to the spare parts dealer in Alaba and the insurgent to the slay queen in Lekki would once again feel the need to fight for Nigeria.

He needs to shore up confidence in Nigeria that will now seep into the economy so that people will stop stealing Naira to buy dollars and keep in soakaways

It’s time for a cabinet reshuffle. We now need a cabinet of serious experts in governance. Enough of the ‘Lagos boys’ who are on an extended tour of Abuja like starry-eyed tourists.

It’s now time to build a dream team like Obj did. A fine mix of technocrats with international and local capacity and then empower them by giving them the political will to do stuff

Mr President, your cabinet is 70% made up of people who have no business in government. They are career politicians and people you rewarded for jumping up and down on the campaign trail who only know how to win elections but know nothing about governance.

Shey we all saw Akpabio’s birthday jaunt in Uyo. That is a politician and not a statesman.

It’s time to bring in people like Ambode, El-Rufai and maybe Fashola. It’s time to scour the earth and look for established and brilliant Nigerians to come and work while you now support them with strong political will.

We are ready to work with you sir, we have no choice and would give you all the support required to better transition from an Emilokan politician to one of the greatest presidents we ever had, you just need to be the one to take the decision.

Sir, dissolve your cabinet now. It’s not working

Thank you