Some questions for President Tinubu:
I know that it’s early in his presidency to start a serious discussion on the presidency of Bola Tinubu, but the Yoruba people [to which both I and the Nigerian leader belong] have proverbs to cover almost all contingencies.
One that is most fitting for the Nigeria’s president is: Ojú tó máa báni kalẹ́, kò ní ti àárọ̀ ṣe ipin. / The eyes that would serve one until old age, won't be rheumy while one is young.
Why did President Tinubu, whose loyal supporters call Asiwaju ( Leader; the one that leads) commit such an egregious faux pas in his first foray into foreign affairs?
Yes, I talk of his disastrous decision to issue an ultimatum to the coup leaders in Niger?
As a leader, an African, and, principally, a Yoruba, Tinubu ought to know better than to leave his foes no margin for them to save face.
The issuing of ultimatums is alien to the Yorubas and to the African system of Conflict Resolution.
It is simply not done.
The junta in Niamey, rightfully so, ignored the unwise ultimatum, making the president of Nigeria look like a complete idiot!
Tinubu’s folly was compounded further when he claimed that he issued his order on behalf of ECOWAS, an organization with reprobate characters like Alhassan Ouattara and Faure Gnassingbe as members.
Are we to believe that the Nigerian president felt no compunction whatever as he stood side by side with Faure, whose father killed Togo’s first elected (right in front of the American Embassy where he had earlier sought shelter); the man that the Togolese army brought to power; the man whose family has ruled Togo like forever and a half?
The most cursory glance at the wiki pages of these two unsavory “leaders” makes Tinubu’s position look more ridiculous.
The Nigerian president came across as, at best, an ill-informed sanctimonious hypocrite and, at worst, an unashamed/unabashed puppet of Western imperialism, who is unattuned to the anti-neocolonialism feelings of the African people, especially the younger generations of Africans, whose future political vultures like Tinubu has destroyed for their pecuniary gains.
Tinubu did not help his case when, at the urgings of Senators from the Northern region, the Senate of Nigeria invoked its powers under section 5 (4) of the constitution, by passing a resolution against waging war on Niger.
Section 5(4) of the 1999 Constitution says: “Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section: (a) the President shall not declare a state of war between the federation and another country except with the sanction of a resolution of both Houses of the National Assembly, sitting in a joint session; and (b) except with the prior approval of the Senate, no member of the Armed Forces of the Federation shall be deployed on combat duty outside Nigeria.”
A more intelligent leader would have sought the opinions of the power elite in his country before he made important decisions.
It is all good and jolly that academics and commentators throw the idea of democracy as the best of all political systems around, but, in the case of Nigeria, it is difficult to sustain the argument that democracy is the best form of government.
It simply lacks an empirical or theoretical basis.
If any period in the history of Nigeria can be described as the Golden Age, it was during the 1974-1979 military rule.
It was the military that built all the international airports, expanded the seaports, built ultra-modern highways, four petrochemical refineries, and the Ajaokuta and Aladja steel mills.
What else did I forget?
Oh, yes, Peugeot, Volkswagen, and Suzuki had Assembly Plants in the country in those days.
And let it be recalled that it was civilians, in democratic governments, that ruined the whole infrastructure that they inherited from the military!
The expensive Ajaokuta mill was allowed to rot, despite consuming vast budgetary allocations every year. Ditto the four refineries, despite gulping huge amounts every year.
Today, Nigeria shamelessly imports the refined products of its primary export - crude oil!
Need we add that, under the bloody military, the Nigerian currency, the Naira, was on par with the British Pound?
Yes, the Naira was stronger than the US Dollar, today the Naira creeps toward the 1,000 mark against the dollar.
It is also rather unfortunate that Tinubu refused to check the current geopolitical weight of the country in whose name he rule.
Nigeria of the 1970s to the 1980s packed enough wallop (Military, political, economic, and diplomatic) to make her decisions in/on Africa stick. Sadly, years of rule by insatiably greedy and corrupt politicians, masquerading as national leaders, have reduced the country to a shadow of its former self.
Despite the illusions and delusions of Nigeria’s “foreign policy experts”, absolutely no one respect Nigeria today. Not even our immediate neighbors in the West Africa sub-region regard us with any affection.
Any Nigerian who has bothered to travel around the region would have witnessed the contempt with which our cousins treat us, most especially the French puppets in the French-speaking countries.
No, Nigerians have only themselves to blame, as the Yoruba have a proverb that, adequately, covers this: Iri ti a ba ri ojo la nna / Goods are priced the way that they are displayed.
Another Yoruba proverb: Bi iya nla ba gbeni sanle, kekeke a ma gun ori eni / if a great calamity befall one, tiny indignities will pile atop.
Nigerians have no one to blame but themselves if the world regards them as deluded people who continue to live on past glory!
Rather than engage in grandstanding in ECOWAS meetings, the new president should tell Nigeria his explanation of how he and his fellow nation-wreckers in the political class squandered $742bn of the country’s oil revenue in 21 years.
To the deluded “experts” who keep goading Tinubu to become the leading imperialist Chihuahua in Africa, I say a big shame unto you.
Where was your expertise when your so-called “Giant of Africa” missed out on the biggest Geopolitical game of the century?
Yes, I talk of BRICS.
That the organization, which accounts for close to 40% of global GDP, did not consider Nigeria worthy to be invited as a member is a big slap in the face.
This would have been unimaginable when the ultra-dynamic Colonel Joe Garba was in charge of the country’s foreign policy.
Did these “experts” forget that, notwithstanding geography, Nigeria was made a member of the FRONTLINE STATES which fought for the liberation of many African states in the southern part of the continent?
Today, under Tinubu, Nigeria appeared to have abandoned its robust Pan-Africanist stance; it has firmly pitched its tent with the colonialists who continue to consider the continent its playground to be raped at will.
©️Fẹmi Akọmọlafẹ
August 29, 2023
Fẹmi Akọmọlafẹ is a farmer, writer, and published author.
His latest book, “Africa: A Continent on Bended Knees” is available on:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Africa-Continent-Bended-Femi-Akomolafe-ebook/dp/B08FGZNJ5T
On Booknook.store: https://booknook.store/product/africa-a-continent-on-bended-knees/
PSS: Three days ago, the military in Gabon staged their coup and deposed the long-ruling Bongo's family.
What will Generalissimo Tinubu do now - send another useless ultimatum and rattle saber on military intervention?
Why is the simple fact that the only antidote against military intervention is good governance escaping Arican misrulers?
We were told that the reprobate misrulers in Africa organized what they called a peer-review commission to correct the glaring anomalies, but it appears that this is just another idea that looks great on paper which no one is interested in implementing.
©️ Fẹ́mi Akọ́mọláfẹ́
Farmer, Writer, Published Author, and Social Commentator
My latest Book, From Stamp to Click (it’s still a hello) is published and is available online at:
https://www.africanbookscollective.com/books/from-stamp-to-click-its-still-hello
How to order it: https://www.africanbookscollective.com/how-to-order
My book, “Africa: A Continent on Bended Knees” is available on:
• Amazon
My other books on Amazon:
• Africa: it shall be well (Get a FREE Chapter Here)
• Africa: Destroyed by the gods (Get a FREE Chapter Here)
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Another excellent piece, Femi! Evicting these colonialist predators and parasites is going to make Africa much more prosperous and its many peoples will be so much happier without these scumbags' boots on their necks!
Thank you Femi. Your writing teaches me the much needed backstory to major events in Africa. As a US citizen, I am at the mercy of the corporate media which has obvious financial and political ties to certain political establishments.