By Steve OsuJi
TINUBU WAS NO FLUKE AFTERALL: When a Bola Ahmed Tinubu was declared president of Nigeria, a cold chill spread around the country. It was the same response a few days ago when a Donald Trump clinched the presidency of the United States of America. There was a moment of gloom across the globe. The moon could have winked to cause a momentary eclipse.
If Tinubu’s was a stolen mandate; if a rogue electoral body shamelessly blamed it on “technical glitch” and a suborned judiciary cuckolded itself, what happened in America, the bastion of civil rule and democratic ethos? Donald Trump who was returning for a second term after failing to get it eight years ago, is elected to the number one seat of power in the world with a resounding victory. He won both the electoral college and the popular votes by wide margins. How could this happen? A convicted felon, a man who represents everything anti-civility and anti-norm?
This column puts it down to an emergent phenomenon – let’s call it, NEGATIVE LEADERSHIP or NEGATIVE POWER.
WHAT IS NEGATIVE LEADERSHIP/POWER? It’s a looming trend which seems to DESTROY THE NORMS AND NORMALISE THE ABNORMAL.
Back to Nigeria, where a Tinubu grabbed the presidency last year, way back in 1999, exactly 25 years ago when he won the governorship of Nigeria’s rich city-state, Lagos, it was established right then that the fellow was a cheat.
First, he claimed to have attended the University of Toronto, then took that back. He also named primary and secondary schools he attended in Ibadan. By the time his accusers caught him out on the lies, he was already a state governor and enjoying the cover of constitutional immunity.
You would think such a felon would quit public office after he got away with crime the first time, but no. He had not only remained in the public glare and power circles, he went on to grab a second term as governor, purloined the treasury to mass up formidable wealth, captured the rich, city-state of Lagos, reigning as its godfather from 1999 till date.
He formed a special utility political party, APC with which he gate-crashed the presidency of Nigeria in 2023.
Finally, with the enormous resources from the Lagos kitty, Tinubu was able to purchase Nigeria, grab the presidency and capture all institutions of government as at this moment.
Yet in all this, there’s no trace of his root and parentage just as he never authenticated his records of early education. His claims of tertiary education in Toronto, Canada and Chicago, USA have been shredded as the tissues of lies they actually are.
Therefore, Tinubu, so-called president of Nigeria, the largest black nation in the world, is a PHANTOM.
AMERICA MADE TINUBU AND GOT TRUMP: Beware what you cook, you may have to eat it. Phantom Tinubu perfected his art in the USA. He reconstructed his persona there, getting phoney certificates from phoney tertiary institutions in the USA. He wangled his way into some blue-chip firms like Mobil and he did drugs, managing early Nigerian US ring in the 90s. He was convicted in the US and a tome of drug cash traced to him was confiscated and forfeited.
When it was time last year for the US to provide damming evidence of these criminal acts to stop a common criminal from ascending the pinnacle of Nigeria’s power, the US authorities renegaded. US left Nigeria in the cold at the most material time Nigeria needed to unhorse a felon.
The Joe Biden administration has unashamedly been in bed with a man who openly stole an election in the purview of the whole world; a man who should be doing time for multifaceted criminal infractions of the law.
But Biden would support him by stealth, congratulating Tinubu through the backdoor, sending emissaries at night!
Biden’s latest act was making a phone call to Tinubu to commend him for upholding the rule of law! How could an outlaw uphold law unless it suits his agenda!
THE RETURN OF TRUMP, AMERICA’S GREAT COMEBACK KID: Karma is a bitch. Since Biden and his crew seemed to love Tinubu much, now they got someone in Tinubu likeness. And as if to rub it in, Trump beat Biden and his party silly. While Nigerians voted against Tinubu, American joyfully shooed in Trump. To put it correctly, Americans barred their asses to Biden and his party, preferring a skunk.
The way Nigerians have been in a deep muck with Tinubu in the last one and half years, so shall Biden and the Democrats roil in the dust for the next four years. Trump defied all odds to return to the White House. Just as the world scoffed at him in 2016 when he stepped up to the plate the first time, so they continued to jeer at him until he did it again. Not even the fact of his supporters invading the Capitol when he lost in 2020 and his abysmal performance as president (2016 – 2020) mattered.
THE RISE OF FASCISTS AND ANTI-HEROES: America would sacrifice democracy elsewhere on the altar of its strategic military and economic interests. This explains why she would look the other way while a felon stole an electoral mandate in Nigeria. This is the reason a Saudi Arabia would do no wrong even if a journalist is butchered right there on Times Square before the whole world.
Now that anti-hero leaders like Tinubu and Trump are on the rise, is the world going to make a heave to the left?
Just so the world knows what we are walking into, the coming of fascists like Trump and Tinubu to leadership means narcissism, megalomania, empty showmanship, inordinate corruption, rogue cabinets, anti-institution, anti-people, anti-intellectualism, outlawry and a total lack of culture. These are some of the fruits of negative leadership. Nigerians have tales to tell from Muhammadu Buhari and now, Tinubu.
With the 2nd coming of Donald Trump, majority of Americans are raucously boarding the dark train into a dark night. Let’s see what happens at daybreak … four seasons hence.