QUESTIONS about Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Jagaban Borgu, former Senator, former Governor of Lagos State, presidential candidate of the All Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Jagaban Borgu, former Senator, former Governor of Lagos State, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who mostly fancies himself as the owner of APC, keep popping up. They are just too many.
Had he taken a retirement as his mien grossly suggests, the matters would have gone home with him. He opted differently by throwing his hat and heart into the arena for the 2023 presidential election, an election that for many reasons would redefine our country.
Whichever way one looks at it, Tinubu holds the key to some doors that are closed in our politics. Accountability and transparency may be starting points. There are many flanges to accountability that may not be about money, how it was spent, and why it was so spent.
Jagaban has those questions to answer in his rosy accounts of his stewardship as the Governor of Lagos State. So much of him is shielded from Nigerians.
We cannot evaluate someone who wants to be President of Nigeria only on assumptions
People are wont to ask that he is forgiven if the stories do not fit, considering that he did a great job as Governor. There is no verdict yet on that tenure which is not a substitute for the tasks of the President of Nigeria. Truthful answers to more basic questions about him could be more useful to the voting public.
After all he wants to be President of Nigeria. He is not out to be President of a section that would jump if he barks orders.
Most of the questions are personal. They are best answered by Jagaban to avoid the 1999 “mistakes” when Tokunbo Afikuyomi reportedly filed the INEC forms for Tinubu who was on exile. The forms for the 2023 presidential election are assumedly filled by him, the information countered the contents of the 1999 forms.
Tinubu has inalienable rights to be President of Nigeria. Do we also have rights, no matter how whittled, to know him? Is he willing to answer questions about him? Will he answer them for himself by himself?
Issues of his roots should not be taken so lightly for proxies to address them. The persistent practice only aggravates the situation. More contradictions emerge through them.
My suspicion is that most of the people around Jagaban would be too embarrassed to ask him those questions. Like Afikuyomi before them, they answer at the risk of providing us inexactitude. They could also be digging deeper holes to fill the old ones.
Where Tinubu does not know the answers or has forgotten, he should say so. Too much time has been wasted in trying to get Tinubu to say who he is.
Tinubu’s handlers have been loud in shredding the television interviews of other presidential candidates instead of telling their own stories. Could it be that they have no stories?
Impossible. They should discuss his in successes of Lagos that have made it one of the most inhabitable cities in the world since they also call the Jagaban the father of modern Lagos. They can do better.
Their strain in justifying a Muslim-Muslim ticket is a recurring nightmare that has turned them to Photoshop opportunists. They do not care if they are found out. Their solution is to pile more lies on the earlier ones.
If you thought we had seen the last of this misbehaviour during the campaigns for 2015, you are dead wrong. Pictures taken in 2017 have been brazenly used to prove that Tinubu is in good health. Pictures of a 2017 courtesy call that Catholic bishops made on Kashim Shettima as Governor have turned proof of their support for Tinubu’s Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2022. Since there is nothing wrong with Muslim-Muslim ticket why lie in defence of it? People doubt that they speak for Jagaban.
We should hear from Tinubu about Tinubu. His eloquence would be useful. I have always admired his version of an American accent
Tinubu’s answers on public television would help us know him more. He needs to address the doubts about him. He is dealing with some of them though with depths too base to dust the doubts.
It should be taken for granted that Nigerians should know Tinubu to decide on him. That should be a minimum expectation from someone who wants to be President of Nigeria. Each of the questions asked about him deserves comprehensive answers.
Has he always been Bola Ahmed Tinubu? Did he have a change of name? Is there a document supporting the change of name? Who are his parents? Are they dead or alive? Is he from Osun or Lagos State? How young is he? Is he related to Osun State Governor Adegboyega Oyetola? Why are there controversies about his origins?
Which schools did Tinubu attend? Can he remember the dates and some of his classmates, especially in primary, and secondary schools? These are simple questions he can answer.
What did he do in America outside schooling? Did he forfeit $460,000 to the US government for any reason whatsoever? What were the circumstances of the forfeiture?
What is his relationship with Alpha Beta? When did Apha Beta’s relationship with Lagos State start?
Answers to these questions would give Nigerians better chances of evaluating the man who wants to be President. He is the best one to speak for himself in these matters.
Tinubu and his minders missed the point in launching a comparison between Shettima, his running mate, and Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa of PDP, and Dr. Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed of the Labour Party. The questions were about Tinubu’s judgement and appreciation of the enormity of the current challenges of exclusions in our politics.
His strident defence of his choice of Shettima is the best inkling that the election is about his life-long ambition to be President of Nigeria. Nothing else matters.
Finally…
PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari can make any claims he likes about the security of Nigerians. The fact, and it must not be glossed over, we have never at any moment felt as insecure as we are today.
…Ikeddy Isiguzo is a major commentator on minor issues
