Muhammadu Buhari repeatedly sought to become a democratically elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Repeatedly, he failed. At a time when most people would have long given up, the old man continued in his struggle.
Powered by a reputation for thrift, an almost fanatical support of the talakwas of the North, the Tinubu machine in the West and those angered by the PDP misadventure elsewhere, the General stormed into Aso Rock as our President, the first to snatch power through the ballot box from a democratically elected President.
From May 29, 2015, Muhammadu Buhari began a wrestling match in a horror movie called Nigeria. I am sure that Buhari knew that things were bad with Nigeria. I am pretty sure that he could not have imagined how really bad things are.
The old general had made it clear that he was going to battle corruption hands down but I truly doubt that he was ready to find that army generals had soaked away zillions of naira in soak-away pits and sent our young soldiers without weapons to go and be slaughtered by Boko Haram. Do you think that he had any hint that revered judges of our Supreme Court were travelling First Class to Dubai to collect ‘egunje’ in diverse currencies to trade in the miscarriage of justice in their fatherland?
Please tell me that when Muhammadu Buhari sought our votes he had any idea that a Nigerian public official would keep over nine million dollars as pocket change at home just to titillate himself or that the boss of our custom service had opened a car dealership in his residence with 17 glittering automobiles.
Pray, did he know that to secure the Central Bank, the National Security Adviser had been given the keys to the CBN vault and he could go there by day or night and collect as much freshly minted cash as he pleased?
Have you ever thought how our President could sit down and have any serious discussion with his Senate President whom his Attorney-General is prosecuting for graft on many counts?
Muhammadu Buhari got into office thinking he was a tough guy. He thought he knew Nigerians. Nobody knows Nigerians. Nigeria has not just given Buhari a headache, he has been given every kind of ache you can think of. Don’t kid me, if it were you, would it have been any different except you decided like some have done, to see no evil and do no evil?
If our democratically elected president, a man who repeatedly sought the office, does not appear to be in a hurry to come back to Aso Rock from his leave in the UK, please forgive him. Rueben Abati said it! There is something in Aso Rock! And my friend Femi Adesina was fighting Abati!
Something interesting is definitely going on. While the lead singer appears to have lost his voice and not singing on doctor’s orders, the back-up singer has taken up the microphone and is soaring away. They appear to like his voice. Suddenly, the audience is clapping and cheering the orchestra.
Anyone surprised at the brilliance of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo must have a very poor opinion of Nigerians. No matter how much we love Muhammadu Buhari, we must accept that he is not a master of modern communications, at least, not in the English language.
Osinbajo has been a celebrated teacher of law, a successful prosecutor and a modern minister of the gospel. If you are not a gifted communicator and a truly persuasive person, you have no business in any of these three undertakings.
Once again, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been proved right. Osinbanjo who was Tinubu’s Attorney-General was not known as a politician and had no personal political platform that would have made him President or Vice President.
Does anyone remember that few knew Babatunde Fashola until Tinubu engineered him to be Governor of Lagos State? As I write, Lagosians in many voices are singing the praise of Akinwunmi Ambode, their new wonder Governor delivered on a platter by Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Clearly, Bola Tinubu has that quality that Stevie Wonder calls inner vision.
If an orchestra must deliver a performance worthy of sustained applause, all the instruments must be finely tuned and all the instrumentalists in harmony. In modern show business, timing and drama are of essence. In fact, I consider politics to be show business expressed differently.
I am not surprised that the Osinbajo orchestra is hitting the right notes because I know some of the key figures in the group. One of his top advisers is an incredibly brilliant Nigerian called Ade Ipaye.
Ipaye is the immediate past Attorney-General of Lagos State. Ipaye taught me the Law of Contract at the University of Lagos, became my course supervisor and we developed a warm relationship. While he was AG in Lagos, there was nothing in the carriage of this unassuming and incredibly efficient gentleman that would suggest to you that he was one of the most powerful people in Lagos. Ipaye once walked into one of my events in Lagos. There was no big agbada, no aide following him, no airs, nothing! I like him.
Anyone who has followed the career of Laolu Akande, who is managing Osinbajo’s communication would know that he understands the value of timing, rhythm and drama in communication. The sudden fall of the naira is pure drama. The unannounced visit to Murtala Muhammed Airport? Drama!
But let us not get ahead of ourselves. In the Orchestra, Muhammadu Buhari is still the principal. He is the one with the mass following capable of winning a presidential election and sustaining it. He is the one with enough ‘madness’ to take on the Generals and the Judges and the Dasukis and the Yakubus.
I had once in this column asked for a new Idiagbon for Buhari. Osinbajo may now be playing that role, maybe in a very polished way. Just like in the Buhari-Idiagbon regime, in this new orchestra, Buhari will continue to be the composer and conductor in the background, while Osibanjo sings more and more.
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