TINUBU: POLITICAL ELEGY FOR A 'DEFRAUDED' SALESMAN By Samuel Ajayi.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu

The noise was deafening and the emotions were overwhelming. The "Sai Baba" crowd took over space and common sense took a flight.

Tinubu might not have made Buhari president, but he made him ELECTABLE!

I am into communications. It is my turf. And I know the power of what is called RIGHT MESSAGING. What it does is to primarily target your EMOTIONS. And when it captures your emotions, REASON, and COMMONSENSE usually take flight. You find it difficult to ask pertinent questions and interrogate certain claims. It is a young man who overwhelmed a teenage girl with sweet words that made the latter feel she was on Cloud Nine. Words of caution from a third party were always "rantings of haters".

Tinubu used his massive media and propaganda contacts to recreate Brand Buhari. And what was the outcome? Even educated, intelligent and exposed Nigerians, especially Yorubas, suddenly fell in love with Buhari and suddenly saw in him a little god that could do no wrong.

Tinubu was naive, though. He played into the hands of the Northern Establishment. They knew Buhari would always be a hard-sell in the South. Very obvious. Therefore, they needed someone to serve as his salesman in the South and that person must have considerable political clout in the South. Tinubu fitted perfectly into this. He too wanted change!

BUT THE "CHANGE" BOTH OF THEM WANTED WAS NOT THE SAME: TINUBU WANTED HIS INFLUENCE TO GO BEYOND LAGOS, NORTHERN ELEMENTS WANTED THEIR MAN TO RECLAIM THEIR 'POLITICAL BIRTHRIGHT': NIGERIAN PRESIDENCY!

What we had was a convergence of conflicting ambitions but criminally united in the target of one prize: power!

But unknown to Tinubu, he outlived his usefulness on May 29, 2015. WHEN HE COULD NOT NOMINATE EVEN A SINGLE MINISTER FROM THE SOUTHWEST, HE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN!

He will want to fight back. His silence is not golden. But mark my words: those in charge of state powers today are not Goodluck Jonathan. They know the meaning of power in a country like Nigeria and the potency of its deployment They will come after Tinubu. I repeat: they will target him. They will keep him 'busy' he won't have time for any politicking.

FOUR NIGERIEN SOLDIERS DIED By Pius Adesanmi.

The way I am responding to invitations by TV stations for news segment appearances about Africa, I fear I may soon be blacklisted and the invites will dry up.

1

Dear Professor Adesanmi, there is an ongoing incident in Somalia and we would like to have you on at 7 pm blah blah blah...

I reply that I am indeed able to comment on the tragedy - not the incident - that had happened that day in Somalia. However, will the conversation allow me to mention the strides Rwanda is making in the education sector? No response. 

End of Conversation.

2

Dear Professor Adesanmi, there have been reports of a monkeypox outbreak in Nigeria and we were wondering if you would be available to come on air...

I reply that I am indeed able to make the appearance. However, the President of the African Development Bank, a Nigerian, has just won the World Food Prize. Any chance our conversation could extend to that issue? No response.

End of Conversation.

3

Now there is another invitation to come on national television this evening and discuss Mugabe's appointment as a goodwill ambassador by WHO. Now, I don't like Mugabe but the email I am reading says that the appointment is "being heavily criticized by the whole world" and every sentence of the invitation expects me to come on air and rubber stamp this critique. The whole world here, of course, means the West. I am likely going to reply that I have a more nuanced understanding of "the whole world" and I do not like it when TV stations prepackage Africa and invite me to legitimize a particular slant. I will also offer to discuss Ghana's remarkable recovery from power cuts.

You could say I should just go on air and stylishly veer into the things I want and need to discuss Africa. Last time I tried it, the news anchor brutally cut me off.

That is why I wrote that viral piece asking that freaking continent to develop at least one global information brand that could tell her stories at the level of CNN, BBC, Al-Jazeera, etc.

How can an entire continent not have something close to Al-Jazeera for her own stories at the international level? SABC in South Africa is a local champion deluding herself that she is a brand beyond SA, Ghana, Nigeria and a few other countries. Nigeria's NTA International is a disgrace and an embarrassment. Not a single global information giant, owned by the continent, that could power our stories from our manifold viewpoints.
Do you know that four Nigerien soldiers were killed and eight wounded in the attacks that killed four US soldiers in Niger? Try to ask Google about how many Nigerien and African lives were lost in that attack and Google will send you the first 15 pages about four US soldiers killed. Not a single mention of the African casualties.

Do you know that when that Somalia tragedy happened and we lost that many numbers of African lives, CNN was showing stories of courageous dogs that escaped the California wildfires?

And look at Anthony Bourdain and the rubbish he went to do in Lagos. Next, he will fly to Kibera and scream: this is Nairobi!

That freaking continent must stop the feeding bottle mentality of expecting the enemy to tell her story. The enemy doesn't owe you jack! Get your freaking act together and develop at least one global information brand for your stories.

End of Conversation.

Pius Adesanmi, an acclaimed literary and cultural critic, was born in Nigeria and now lives in Ottawa, Canada, where he teaches literature and African studies at Carleton University. He is one of Nigeria's major intellectuals and writes two weekly columns for the influential Sahara Reporters and NEXT newspaper. His first book, The Wayfarer and Other Poems, won the Association of Nigerian Authors' Poetry Prize in 2001.