Chief Ikimi could not have been otherwise. He’s a very successful architect. His profession thrives on uncommon creativity and some splash of eccentricity. I’m not sure if he still puffs his Havana cigars but I certainly recollect the vivid picture of the cigar-chewing fashionista. I was surprised when he sauntered from the conservative party of PDP to the relatively progressive party of ACN which later metamorphosed into APC. He was in fact one of the arrowheads that midwifed that miraculous birth. Many had dismissed the idea of such a merger as near-impossible but Ikimi and his team worked assiduously to make the impossible possible and they were well applauded for their brilliant efforts.
|| “I’m finally tired of all the attacks against the person of Bola Tinubu. Tinubu is far from being a saint but he has definitely contributed immensely to the Democracy we all seem to enjoy today. The man has wisely invested whatever he is said to have acquired on building solid monuments in the media, business empires and philanthropy, which most politicians have never been able to achieve.”
The aborted bid of Chief Ikimi should not have been contemplated in the first instance. He should have remained a statesman to the end. The moment he attempted to run the race, he should have known anything could happen. Only one man can win in an election. I’m surprised that as a seasoned politician, he expected Senator Bola Tinubu to abandon his old allies and support him just like that. Politics is always about caucuses anywhere in the world. I don’t see what Tinubu has done wrong by supporting his own person for whatever reason. As a matter of fact, nothing precluded Tinubu himself from running. Tinubu as Chairman would have driven the fear of God into PDP. I shall come back to Tinubu shortly.
My epistle today is largely triggered by Ikimi’s recent long-winding and well-publicised gospel to God-knows-who. The epistle was clearly bitter and written to damage Tinubu and APC to boot. Ikimi started by stating his credentials, which I seriously enjoyed. He is a man who served himself, his nation and his God most meritoriously and fervently. He stated the reason he decided to abandon his conservative friends to join forces with members of the opposite camp. He worked actively with his new allies to form a new alliance as a counterforce to those hoping to foist a one-party State on Nigeria. All well and good up to then.
I’ve had cause to disagree with him in the past and he never took it personal against me. One of such occasions was when I challenged him for not supporting the candidacy of Tokunbo Afikuyomi and I blasted him in a newspaper interview. He invited me over to his house in Ikoyi. He wondered why I was kicking against his support for Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola and I replied that I was never against Fashola who was also our friend and saw me anytime he came to play soccer in Ghana; but I was opposed to the way he led Afikuyomi on when he could easily have told him of his choice. I realised one secret about Tinubu that night. Contrary to the allegation of being bullish, he finds it hard to hurt any of his close lieutenants. It is this coyness that gets him into constant trouble; the inability to boldly and openly say No to people.
Three, I believe a slot must be automatically given to the South-South region that lays the golden eggs for all of Nigeria. It would be wicked and dangerous to remove President Jonathan and also selfishly take away the number two position from them immediately. If the clamour is that North has been deprived of its number one position by the accident of the death of President Yar’Adua then the same argument holds true for the South South who would thus be deprived of the number two position by the providential accident that is the Presidency of Dr Jonathan. Also, the tenuous permutation that the Yoruba would not vote unless there is a Yoruba man on the ticket is self-serving and debatable. What makes my position even more compelling is the fact that the Yoruba are always champions of equity and fair-play. How can Obasanjo spend eight years as President and another Yorubaman comes out of the shadow as Vice President eight years after?
It is amazing that it is to Tinubu that all those who demand justice and equity turn when they have been oppressed and abased by the PDP. However as soon as they obtain that which they seek they immediately turn against their benefactor and rush headlong back into the arms of their abuser. Tinubu’s has been a thankless job but it is the measure of this remarkable man that he continues to open his arms wide to embrace all those who seek justice and equity not only because of his love for democracy but also in true spirit of a man who adheres to the holy injunction to love his fellow man as himself. The list of those who have benefitted from Tinubu’s legendary largesse to retrieve their stolen mandate or seek retributive justice for perceived wrongs yet subsequently turn around to betray him is lengthy and is like a Who is Who of Nigeria.
It is said against him that he imposes candidates on his Party and is despotic and nepotistic. However, it is only fitting that someone who has deployed such huge and significant personal resources to the cause when others have shied from doing so should at least be allowed to influence the selection of those who would guide and lead that cause. This is particularly more so as he has had the singular opportunity of observing most of the contenders firsthand because of his ability to sacrifice his time and person and travel far and near to meet with party members and interact with them. None of those who fault him have remotely done a fraction of what he has done in this regard and if truth be told his choices have always been quite successful. Governors Fashola, Adams Oshiomhole, Abiola Ajimobi, Rauf Aregbesola, Ibikunle Amosun, and Kayode Fayemi; Aminu Tambuwal and Abike Dabiri, to mention a few, have been particularly outstanding.
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