Tinubu Should Remember The Past

It was George Santayana (1863-1952), Spanish-American philosopher who said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”; and not Winston Churchill (1874-1965), who later became British Prime Minister (two times – 1940-1945 & 1951-1955). What Churchill actually said was: “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.

How be it, President Bola Tinubu not only knows the past and history of Nigeria, but can even write both the history of Nigeria and that of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), to which he was a founding leader.

Tinubu is not a political rookie in Nigeria. Many remember his star performance during his time as Lagos State Governor (1999- 2003); a past Nigerians remembered during the last Presidential election in 2023 and voted for him.

President Tinubu should remember the past; his personal life experiences, to be able to project a prosperous future for those he leads today. Remembering the past helps a wise leader avoid life’s pitfalls and predecessors’ poor choices, especially as he navigates through his present purpose of leading Nigeria to safety and happiness.

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu’s avowed tenacity in pressing on with the necessary reforms required to turn around the economy, has not earned him much applause. Unfortunately, Tinubu’s efforts have rather earned him the enmity of both the poor and the powerful, without and even within his own ruling party, the APC.

Many people contend that the reforms should be curtailed to reduce suffering and save lives, official vote of confidence notwithstanding. No matter what critics say, however, Bola Tinubu is known to have been on the side of democracy and the well-being of the people all his political life.

During Nigeria’s long military regimes, spanning nearly 40 years altogether, Tinubu was known to have fought the autocrats for the good of the common man; a struggle which forced him into exile for four years.

But his policies in the one and half year he has been president are sadly at the risk of turning the people he had always fought for, against him due to hardship and hunger.

Japan once had a Prime Minister named Takeo Miki who lost re-election in 1976 because he pressed on with the Lockheed bribery case against his predecessor, Tanaka Kakuei.

While pressing to bring the culprits to book in the case in which the American aeroplane-maker Lockheed was said to have bribed Japanese of ficials (including the former Prime Minister Tanaka) to buy its product, Takeo Miki was accused of neglecting of the welfare of the people and not listening to public opinion.

That cost him and his party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) re-election. Quite an irony one would say: losing an election because you did the right thing by fighting corruption. Just like Takeo Miki, Tinubu’s removal of fuel subsidy, though the right decision, is turning out to anger the people whose wellbeing he is fighting for.

Public opinion says President Tinubu should have considered what President Ibrahim Babangida did with the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) by subjecting it to public debate or any other action that could release Nigerians from the choke position they find themselves in, at the moment.

The democracy and freedom Nigeria has today was won to a great extent by the members of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), a pro-democracy group which came into existence in 1994 with the aim of forcing the hands of the then military ruler, General Abacha to relinquish power to Moshood Abiola who was said to have won the presidential election of June 12 1993. NADECO, to which President Tinubu was a member, was led by Michael Ajasin and Anthony Enahoro.

Other leaders included Gani Fawehinmi, Beko Ransome Kuti, Aka Bashorun, Philip Asiodu, Wole Soyinka and many others, some of whom also went into exile abroad. While some were in exile, many others were in various jails in Nigeria as political prisoners.

This group included, but was not limited to, Arthur Nwankwo, Professor Udenta O. Udenta, Chief Cornelius Adebayo and of course, the winner of the 1993 presidential election, Chief M.K.O, who died in Abacha’s prison. Bola Tinubu did not serve a prison term but continued to fight for the freedom of his compatriots whose rights were infringed upon by an undemocratic military regime.

This is an ugly past no one should neither forget nor wish for anyone. This advisory, which is non-binding and which tries to be as apolitical as possible, makes the case that leaders at all sectors, the

Public opinion says President Tinubu should have considered what President Ibrahim Babangida did with the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) by subjecting it to public debate…

judiciary, the legislature, the executive at the federal, state, and the local government levels should also remember the past in order to make profitable and workable plans for the future; better policies, just court judgements and better laws for the protection of lives, rights and happiness of the people.

Spiro Agnew, former Vice President of the United States, who resigned from office on corruption charges (which he committed when he was Governor of Maryland), months before his principal, President Richard Nixon, who also resigned due to the Watergate scandal, must have remembered his disgraceful past, when in retirement he said:

“The lessons of the past are ignored and obliterated in a contemporary antagonism known as the generational gap…” Agnew learnt the hard way as he kept a quiet and low profile life, keeping to himself until death.

President Nixon on his part, among other things, had sought to implicate his perceived political enemies and opponents through some information he illegally obtained from the American tax system. This past, he remembered but regretted later in life. Powerful as the 37th American President was in life, he was said to have yelled, “help”, to his house-keeper as his last word in death, as he grappled with a heart attack.

This writer wants to remember the past here: The stage was set in early 2015 and Lai Mohammed’s daughter was to wed in Lagos. And almost all the big wigs of the newly formed All Progressives Congress (APC) made their ways, through various routes to the old city also known as Eko.

That was the largest gathering of the leaders of the new political party, the APC which was at that time planning and plotting to take power from the incumbent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which had been in power for 16 years. General Muhammadu Buhari was of course the centre of attraction at the big event and later made good and became the first President produced by the new party later in May 2015.

The National Leader, biggest sponsor and financier of the APC project, Bola Tinubu, who is now President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, was also there, beaming with broad smiles, as though he was a fortune teller.

Everybody wanted to be there. Dr Chris Ngige, who was former Governor of Anambra State, scampered down from Alor his home town, after troubling me with phone calls about proceedings, before finally arriving at the venue.

After the Lagos event (which was actually, seemingly, cut short) we all headed to Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital where Governor Ibikunle Amosun feted us to an early but sumptuous launch. Thereafter we headed to the Hilltop, residence of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo who received the APC leaders with open arms.