Our freshly minted president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, could be described as Nigeria’s real version of Simon Templar, the Saint. There is no reliable official biography about this phenom of a man. Married? Yes. Children? Yes? Known political pedigree? Absolutely.
He emerged from a career in the oil and gas industry where he was said to have made his mark as an accountant, cut his teeth in the murky waters of Nigerian politics where he was elected a senator of the federal republic. He would not serve a complete term as a coup truncated that march. Tinubu followed the famous NADECO route into exile to avoid being rounded up and thrown into jail like his counterparts. Those who know him credit him with fighting for the restoration of democracy.
When the ban on politics was lifted, Tinubu jumped into the battle for the soul of the commercial state of Lagos. It paid off and he was elected governor. He served two terms and some say he retired to scheme his way to the presidency.
Yesterday, May 28, Tinubu was sworn in as Nigeria’s 16th president and commander-in-chief in a ceremony that only Nigeria is capable of.
That is as good as a presidential summary goes and readers would agree that it is an interesting march to the top for any politician. Unfortunately, not many of his followers would swear that they really know him. Any biography of Nigeria’s 16th president would remain inconclusive and unauthorized.
For a man who was born in the part of Nigeria that prides itself on its pre-eminence over others on access to Western education, the man Tinubu remains an unsolved riddle, a curious phenom.
Apparently, nobody alive remembers when his ‘mother’, Abibatu Mogaji, the late Iyaloja of Lagos, carried him in her womb. Despite having functional hospitals and recorded birth records, no such record exists to authenticate Tinubu’s real origin. If Tinubu had been born in rural Kogi, or anywhere else in perpetually educationally backward northern Nigeria that could have been possible. President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua proudly told the world his birthdate was not recorded. President Olusegun Obasanjo’s real birthday is shrouded in mystery. It is doubtful if President Muhammadu Buhari’s real birthday was recorded in Daura. That Tinubu had no known birthdate in the old Western region if he was born in Lagos would have been absolutely curious.
For a famous man of immense political pedigree, Tinubu has not once publicly spoken about his father. Not every born child met both their parents, but those who lost one would be quoted saying so and explaining if and what they miss about him. Our new president has never spoken about this. Yet, it would be difficult to find a state with a richer history of births, deaths and other important events than Lagos.
Most Lagosians remember their playmates. Our new president has no such recollection. Not one Lagosian of his age grade remembers him. Back in the day, only children with severe disability are hidden away from bullies.
If our president had been born to the Ransome-Kuti family, one would have been tempted to say Madam Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti could have home-schooled him. She was that enlightened, but all the Kuti’s attended known institutions both at home and abroad and have known playmates. Why is our new president’s case so different?
Is it possible that the childhood history of our new president is shrouded in mystery because he was dispatched to a less-known school far from Western Nigeria? We all knew how President Goodluck Jonathan had no shoes, no such recall for our new leader. When the issue of Buhari’s classmates came up about nine years ago, he could not produce his first school-leaving certificate, but his classmates rallied and became the first to visit him in Aso Rock dispelling the rumours that he dropped from another planet. There were also pictures of his schooling days. Here is hoping Tinubu’s classmates would visit Aso Rock to dispel our curiousities.
Not everyone who has attained prominence attended secondary school. Some were practical products of proverbially burning the midnight oil homeschooling for external GCSE or even Cambridge exams back then. Did our new commander-in-chief emerge through this process? We need to know to avoid a situation where our new president would claim to have cousins in Benin Republic and would run there if the seat were too hot. Buhari has threatened to relocate to Niger Republic where he has siblings.
Whenever we solve that myth another one is waiting for clarification. It is the payment of $460,000 in ‘taxes’ to the American government by a student without a known job. Was that the proceeds of lottery, which is legitimate in America. If so, how much was the stake? Nigeria should be worried that not Bayo Onanuga, Festus Keyamo nor Femi Fani-Kayode have answers to this puzzle that won’t solve itself.
Ironically, a rejoinder to these puzzles could have been answered years ago when a Lagos-based newsmagazine ran an expose on these questions in a cover story. Tinubu was governor of Lagos State then and officials of the state simply swooped on the distributors, mopping up every copy in print. This happened when humans relied on verified news sources for their diets of authentic reports.
Only Sani Abacha had ever succeeded in carrying out such a mop-up operation of news material, as Mr Onanuga would testify.
It is possible to ignore these ‘mundane’ issues except that they would return to bite us as a nation. Countries run on the integrity and impeccable character of their best leaders. Issues like these are more important than the physical health of our new president since health is not a guaranteed gift of nature to all. It is more important than the hyped hocus pocus of the Muslim-Muslim ticket and Islamizing Nigeria. Religion has never solved the salient problems of our country even though we are among the ‘most religious’ in the world.
If we must be respected as a nation, the authentic resume of our leaders must be easily accessible without a shred of doubt. Our new servant would need to find a way of addressing the dark areas of his resume if we are to be taken seriously in the comity of nations. It goes beyond the international immunity conferred by the presidency.
As it stands, like attracts its kind and many of the loudest vuvuzelas on the Tinubu campaign era have loads of question marks on their character. It would add credibility to the new regime if the president clears the air on his. It would put a stamp of authority on us as a nation when we can attest to the resume of the 16th president. So help us God.
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