DR. VITUS BLOG

Tinubu and the Okanga
Agila illiteracy
September 26, 2017
My friends all, ordinarily I don’t respond to
the tendency of some hired word-for-penny
political writers to turn logic on its head for
clear pecuniary reasons. But, sincerely, when
political chicanery, masquerading as
intellectual discourse is carried to the point
of stupid absurdity, one must for the sake of
decent minds set the record straight. My
grouse this time around is with one political
jobber, Okanga Agila, who on November 20,
2016 wrote his innuendo-laden article titled,
“Tinubu and ambushed political ambitions”.
Please refer to http://
www.vanguardngr.com/2016/11/ tinubu-and-
ambushed-political-ambitions/.
From his near two thousand word elevation
of absurd journalistic ranting, one thing was
obvious: Agila is a warped, money-
conditioned mind whose sense of analytical
reasoning is squelched by the straitjacket of
blind sniveling to the dictates of his pay
masters. From the onset, it was obvious that
Agila had nothing objective to offer as far as
his money-conditioned Tinubu-bashing was
concerned. Even his introduction of his
subject smacked of the odious matrix from
which his anti-Tinubu theories originated.
Let me state categorically here that I have
personally never met Tinubu. But I have as a
matter of principle admired the man for his
political resilience, sagacity ad courage. I
have for long been a student of the Tinubu
school. Only a man of no mean timbre in
politics would stand up against the Federal
might as he did in the Obasanjo and
Jonathan eras and emerge unscathed, even
almost single-handedly dealing the deadly
blow on the former ruling party. But even
more endearing is his unflinching stand for
equity, egalitarianism and human freedom.
Tinubu is surely no saint, but, on balance, he
has emerged over the years as a man of
impeccable character and dignity. It is thus
utterly disgusting to see some political
nonentities and jobbers casting aspersions
with the clear mission of serving the ulterior
motives of their pay masters.
In his too obvious mission of malignign
Asiwaju Tinubu, Agila ranted about the former
Lagos Governor’s alleged efforts to over-
assert himself in the APC. To Agila, Tinubu is
one over-ambitious godfather who would
want to be deferred to and his wishes
acquiesced to always. In Agila’s myopic
view, Jagaba’s sole purpose in politics is
nothing but avarice and self aggrandizement.
The question for Agila then is: where were
you when Tinubu staked his personal security
and also political future to ensuring that
though he was the last man standing in the
old AD, he stoutly defended the independence
of Lagos as a state governed by a party
different from the one at the Centre? Against
the almighty Federal forces, he stood his
ground and ensured that democracy
was not trampled upon.
Now, coming to your main grouse. You,
Agila, do not measure up to the kind of mind
capable of intelligent analysis and
understanding of the Ondo debacle which
Tinubu, in his usual circumspect mind tried to
prevent. By your myopia, you may see the
eventual victory of the President’s loyalists as
a possible vindication of Tinubu’s detractors.
Contrarywise, if care is not taken and
perceived injuries are not assuaged properly,
the Ondo victory may soon turn out pyrrhic
and the euphoria of victory transmorgrifies
into ashes in the mouth of the “victors”. The
injustice of Ondo, being glossed over by
those who should know better, may be the
beginning of the end for the party. Already,
the cracks are becoming obvious. There are
really weighty stories of new mega alliances
and before you know it, the APC
superstructure may yet prove to be the
proverbial clay-legged bronze statue. Ask the
PDP and its minders would tell you, that is
the same kind of illusory mindset and
myopia, including tendencies to injustice that
crumbled a once invincible behemoth. In your
toddler’s opinion, and to quote you, “Senator
Ahmed Bola Tinubu is in the political
wilderness,” and he is also a politician
“whose passion for power is unsurpassed”.
How wrong! You surely do not know Tinubu.
This is a man who had all the opportunity in
the world to insist on being Buhari’s VP but
decided to sacrifice personal interest for
national balance and equity. You ranted about
the so-called “kingmaker syndrome” only
because of the limited scope of your
understanding of the concept in world
politics. Every politician is a kingmaker and
one example for you is the recent Ondo
election where even the President was clearly
unequivocal about who he would prefer as
Governor. Where Tinubu is different is his
more circumspect, democratic and fairto-all-
concerned approach to a normal game in
politics. Integrity and fairness was murdered
during the Ondo APC Governorship Primaries
and that is Tinubu’s grouse as a democrat
who believes in fairness.
Also, you certainly committed a blasphemy
of thought when you so brazenly accused
Tinubu of having “gleefully forgotten all about
“change” and the betterment of Nigeria.”
Suddenly, the man upon whose back your
“infallible” hero rose to power after years of
incessant failures has become over
ambitious. As the Yoruba would say, how can
the plantain tree that nurtured the cocoa tree
to maturity suddenly be condemned as a bad
tree? “Ogede to wo koko (Cocoa) ye se wa di
igi buruku?” If you had been clear minded
enough and your understanding has not been
whittled in the spittle of blind partisanship
you would have seen the gist of Tinubu’s
ever-present abhorrence of injustice.
How can anyone gloss over the brazen
disregards of party statutes that was the
hallmark of the flawed primaries that
produced Akeredolu? What Tinubu was up
against was not any loss of political
patronage but the uncouth attempt by the
Abuja powers-that-be to install a puppet in
their quest to whittle down Tinubu’s influence
in Yorubaland. In appalling disregard of all
known democratic norms, the level playing
ground principles was thrown to the dogs and
the power of money, the might of Abuja
overwhelmed the rule of law and fairness.
I only hope the wise men of APC, unlike
clowns like Agila, would see reason and
rectify the huge dent already inflicted on the
soul of their party. Only a foolish party will
celebrate the brazen resort to the suicidal
tactics that not too long ago destroyed the
PDP. Nothing destroys more than self
delusion and power drunkenness.
Ojewusi wrote via solaojewusi@yahoo.com