Tinubu’s legacy: The current test of optimism

Chaos!  We have created turmoil on many fronts, and Nigeria is currently a product of that chaos.  And that’s what Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the incoming president and an advocate for Emilokan, will be leaving behind.

Unfortunately for him, the Muhammadu Buhari he, Tinubu, assisted in installing as president is the principal grazier responsible for transforming Nigeria into what it is.

“In the beginning… all the world was America,” wrote Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. in the Introduction of THE ALMANAC OF AMERICAN HISTORY, paraphrasing John Locke. He continued by saying that Locke’s intention was to use nature as a metaphor for the pre-civil society stage, “as a new beginning, a break in the long, sad continuities of history, a fresh chance for fallen humanity.”

By the same token, Tinubu’s presidency could usher in a fresh start, a rupture in the lengthy, terrible continuities of history, and a new opportunity for a fallen Nigeria, which Buhari has provided. However, this would only make Tinubu’s dilemma, which is the sheer number of things he cannot change, worse.

Since one of the four years is a leap year, he would only have 1461 days to complete his first term as of next Monday, May 29, 2023, when he is sworn in.  Unless fate steps in, neither he nor Nigerians can change it.  Tinubu is unable to alter the Nigerian Constitution’s stipulation that each state is entitled to one minister, despite the fact that doing so would cut down on the waste connected with the cost of governance. Some states may sue him for placing them at a disadvantage because they didn’t get their ministerial slot because the constitution can’t be changed within the first month or as quickly as possible before the appointment of ministers.

Fortunately, Tinubu has a lot more control over these factors as he works to restore faith in Nigeria’s future.

He can first reduce the compensation of his ministers.

The President can make decisions and uphold them to the extent that he is confident they will provide the greatest good for the greatest number of people without violating the law in order to fulfill his campaign pledge to restore hope to millions of Nigerians.

The perception is that Nigeria has fallen because the outgoing president, who refused to properly process what was happening around him, packaged blind sentiment, cronyism, Naira devaluation, insecurity, mindless looting, unrestrained loan collection, nepotism, greed, and a culture of indolence in high places as a staple for him.  The acrimonious and divided nature of the general election campaigns in 2023 only makes this worse.

According to Tinubu, attempting to distribute political power fairly would be the first step in installing a stable political system.  Among other things, Buhari fell short in this area.  And because of this, Buhari was unaware that his management style had evolved into a mechanism for fostering resentment and anxiety.  Frustration and anxiety These mental states are not favorable for any system, whether it is the business sector or the less transparent framework of political governance.  Buhari made it so that a select few became the lords of the manor, making fun of millions of Nigerians and escalating their sense of loss.

Worse still, he misled some Nigerians by making appointments and approving projects, contradicting his pledge to be for everyone and nobody. As a result, Buhari began to represent some Nigerians rather than all of them as president. There is a clear disparity between the advantages that flowed to Daura, his emirate, and Katsina, the state capital, even inside his own state of Katsina.  A president who genuinely claimed to believe in Nigeria would find it sad to refer to Katsina State as a microcosm within the wider Nigerian environment.

Tinubu will need to adopt a paradigm that will immediately convey to Nigerians the proper message that he will be for everyone, given the full realization that he is inheriting a country that has been transformed for some individuals by Buhari.

The advancements Lagos made under Tinubu’s leadership in terms of bettering revenue generation, infrastructure, a redesign of the environment, a reshaping of the judiciary for effective justice delivery, employment, and the establishment of agencies to help drive good governance, however, may never be appreciated by all. Some can interpret this as Tinubu’s monopolistic urge for command and control.

Up until and after the 16th century in Britain, there were ferocious, brutal wars for political and economic control, the seeds of which were laid centuries earlier.  Nothing other than a stifling political atmosphere and an asphyxiating economic environment were created as a result of the circumscription of the political space, which was largely under the control of the monarchy and political elites (and some claim Tinubu actually did so in Lagos).

There were 700 monopolies granted to a select group of the time’s corporate and political leaders by 1621, according to Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson’s acclaimed book WHY NATIONS FAIL, The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

Indeed, the English historian, Christopher Hill, reportedly puts the choking and destructive dangers of a monopolistic economy this way: “A man lived in a house built with monopoly bricks, with windows… monopoly glass; heated by monopoly coal (In Ireland, monopoly timber); burning in a grate of monopoly iron …. He washed himself in Monopoly soap, and his clothes in Monopoly starch. He dressed in monopoly lace, monopoly linen, monopoly leather, and monopoly gold thread…. His clothes were held up by monopoly belts, monopoly buttons, and monopoly pins.  They were dyed with Monopoly dyes.  He ate monopoly butter, monopoly currants, monopoly red herrings, monopoly salmon, and monopoly lobsters. His food was seasoned with monopoly salt, monopoly pepper, and monopoly vinegar….  He wrote with monopoly pens, on monopoly writing paper; read (through monopoly spectacles, by the light of monopoly candles) monopoly printed books”

The authors Acemoglu and Robinson came to the conclusion that “these monopolies, and many more, provided people or groups the exclusive right to control the production of various goods.  They prevented the kind of talent allocation that is so important for economic growth.  Even without considering his accomplishments in Lagos State, many who disagree with Tinubu’s style refer to this.  Contrarily, even with the alleged monopolistic tendencies, Tinubu is still the only state governor from the class of 1999 who can claim Lagos as a victory.

It is encouraging to hear that Tinubu is adept at spotting the skills that will best enable him to manage his administration. It is also encouraging to hear others express that he has good intentions. After surviving Olusegun Obasanjo and the cabal in Buhari’s conclave, it is comforting to hear that Tinubu is a brilliant political strategist who is adept at navigating the complicated political waters.

As a result, we are presenting Tinubu with a ray of light found in Dick Morris’ Washington Post bestseller POWER PLAY (Win or lose – how history’s great political leaders play the game). Dick Morris is a political analyst for Fox News Channel.

For President-elect Tinubu, reading the book is interesting not because he must follow its advice, but rather because he can learn to avoid the carelessness that has destroyed many powerful men.  Morris investigates “how Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) and Winston Churchill succeeded and Lyndon Johnson failed in mobilizing their nations at a time of crisis,” looking at 20 leaders “as recent as Junichiro Koizumi, George Bush, and Tony Blair” Morris asserts that “there is nothing new in politics; there are only clever reinventions of the wheel,” noting that “politics is the pursuit of power and history is the story of that pursuit.”

Therefore, in order to overcome the many obstacles in his way of installing new optimism, Tinubu would need to engage in a significant amount of introspection.

President-elect Tinubu has his work cut out for him in the electricity sector, energy sector, transport sector, health sector, education sector, security sector, water sector, and in too many other areas to list. He would need to be quite cool-headed to deal with that.  This is the case because, in the end, there is a vast difference between the capacity to provide and the will to accomplish. The stark discrepancy between Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Omorele Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari’s willingness to perform and their capacity to execute was where both of them missed the point.

Now it is up to Tinubu to deliver—and without any justifications, might we add?  He may have made a good impression when he first made contact with the people he was up against. For instance, take Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso from the NNPP (New Nigeria People’s Party).

However, Tinubu would be wise to stay away from distractions as he attempts to calm down.  Let’s wax Scriptural now: Proverbs 26:4-5 states: “(4) Do not respond to an idiot according to his foolishness, lest you become like him yourself. (5) React to a fool in accordance with his foolishness, lest he think himself intelligent.

This is a straightforward message about how to respond and how not to respond, as well as how and when to do so in various situations. For Tinubu, avoiding wasting time on activities that will squander both his and Nigerians’ time is important.

Let’s go back to Locke. Nigeria requires a fresh start.

Tinubu should not be hesitant to make choices that will usher in a new beginning with positive transformation.

He should use caution and avoid being patronizing.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel simply stated that there is a time for everything we do or intend to accomplish when he cautioned against “optimism about developing ideas for the future” in the 18th century.  The Politics Book’s Introduction summarizes Hegel’s argument that “we cannot predict how we will appear to those in the future, not whether what seems common sense to us (today) will be seen as persuasive by our descendants (in the future)”.

The question remains as to whether Tinubu’s actions—which seem reasonable given Emi Lokan’s terminology—as well as the fights he waged to win the APC presidential primary and the kind of rekindled optimism he intends to foster—will be viewed as compelling in the future.

Therefore, Tinubu should give Nigerians optimism from the start and never give up, according to the exponent of Emi Lokan.

This serves as the introduction to a special package on Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s involvement in defining sectoral agendas. The event will last the entire week till Sunday, May 28, 2023. Every day of the week will see publications in the categories of Education, Health, Energy (Power), Economy, Polity & Governance Structure, National Security, and Reconciliation.