This column originally appeared in Vanguard
Ardent fans of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) are something else! They can’t abide anyone who doesn’t share their blind allegiance to their hero. They choose to wallow in intellectual dishonesty and to disbelieve deservedly negative stories about his performance and his past. They blame him for nothing that is going wrong in Nigeria .
I am never popular with the BATified Brigade, as I call them, because I am always contradicting their deluded, gaslighting propaganda.
And I am particularly unpopular with the BATified Brigade at the moment because I have taken it upon myself to burst their bubble at a time when they are swooning over a state visit to the UK they regard as the glittering pinnacle of Tinubu’s career and are loudly insisting that he was invited by King Charles because he is a fabulous, ethical genius of a leader and the best head of state we have ever had.
I have countered this disingenuous narrative by firmly reminding the BATified Brigade a) that Tinubu was invited to ride in golden horse-drawn carriages and dine in magnificent royal palaces because the British government desperately needs Nigeria’s support at the moment and b) that the Brits would have charmingly sucked up to ANYONE who happened to be president of Nigeria at this point in time.
For 2 reasons:
The first reason being that the French are cheekily trying their darndest to steal us from under the noses of our once unchallenged former colonial master and become our favourite European partner.
The second reason being that Europe generally is currently in a very precarious position in West Africa generally, thanks to Francophone Sahel countries like Burkina Faso unceremoniously telling their own former colonial master to pack their bags and go to hell.
And though the French and Brits are rivals, they also have common interests as fellow Western Europeans. And the last thing Western Europeans need is Russians, Chinese, Americans etc moving into the lucrative and strategically important vacuum left by the ejected French.
Long story short: Palaver dey for Oyinbo house in this part of the world; and the Brits need to strengthen their weakened foothold in Nigeria AND also influence what happens in the region as a whole.
And though it is very irritating that they lecture us about democracy and then host the undemocratic Tinubu as if he was an icon of civilized liberalism, such arrant hypocrisy is allowed in the realpolitik space.
What surprises me much more than British doublespeak and fake friendship is how childishly starstruck so many Nigerians have been around Tinubu’s contact with the British royal family.
Yes, Charles et al are glamorous and classy, but I thought we were too grown-up to be so over-excited about the fact that our president is hanging out with a constitutional monarch and a clutch of princes and princesses who cannot add anything to our existences in real terms.
READ ALSO: SWEET AND SOUR: When Truth And Logic Are Defiled By Ethnic Emotions
All this embarrassing elation about imagined royal approval makes us look as if we have a slave mentality and colonial complex; and I expect more restraint from all Nigerians and Lagosian Yorubas especially (because they have had access to education and – as custodians of Lagos, a capital city for decades – more exposure to foreigners for longer than folks from other parts of Nigeria).
Ah well. We live as we learn. And human beings never cease to amaze me. And I’ve received some tellings off from friends who feel that it is my patriotic duty to be glad for Tinubu and Nigeria, so let me reluctantly concede that it is nice, at the end of the day, that Brits have given an African leader this kind of reception; and say that I hope that something positive comes out of this trip for the Nigerian People.
HOW DID TINUBU CONQUER NIGERIA?
Ikechukwu Amaechi is one of the finest writers in this country and I’d like to quote a few lines from an article he wrote in the Niche, his online publication. I will follow up on this fascinating topic next Friday.
If readers have any opinions about Tinubu’s conquest, I would like to hear them before I write next week’s column. I am particularly keen to know whether you share my view that the conquest doesn’t have to be permanent…and that 2027 is not a done deal.
“Few months to the 2027 elections, there is no arrowhead for the opposition. They are not allowed to hold meetings, carry out membership registration exercises or even welcome new members into their fold. Yoruba irredentists are warning that anyone opposed to Tinubu’s ambition should steer clear of the Southwest. Yet, no whimper of protest. A once vibrant political nation has been hypnotised. Nigerian politicians have been castrated. Men of yesterday have suddenly become political eunuchs… Tinubu owns APC just as he owns Nigeria and the fear of Tinubu in the party is the beginning of political wisdom. The hitherto swashbuckling Nigerian political elite now cringe at the mention of one man’s name. He has become the sole administrator of the country, and not even the constitution – the grundnorm that is supposed to be the fons et origo (source) of legal validity – can constrain him. He surely has Nigerians by the balls…”
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DONU’S WORLD
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NIGERIA UNFILTERED – spicy commentaries on Naija issues – appears every Wednesday, while DONU’S WEEK appears on Fridays and is international as well as local and covers a mish-mash of soft and tough issues around Donu’s personal life, her work and her worldview.
Two days ago on my Nigeria Unfiltered video, I talked about President Tinubu’s state visit to the UK in somewhat scathing terms.
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