•Reveals His Success Principles
Many people tend to underrate APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Not many understand the kind of person he is. In this interview with TheNews Magazine team, he reveals what many don’t know about him. Below are excerpts
Some people within the APC and PDP and the other parties have signified their interest to contest the 2023 presidency. Why do you think you are the best?
I have a track record. I have governed a state that is a microcosm of this country – Lagos State. I have navigated it from the brink of collapse. Some of you saw Lagos for what it was – the second or dirtiest capital city of a state in the world. You all wrote or read about it – the international classification of Lagos then. But I faced the challenges squarely, tapped the best of human resources to think along with me, develop a blueprint and from the blueprint we developed a ten-point agenda as a must for Lagos to excel. And we’ve religiously adhered to that and Lagos has excelled – from N600 million a month in internal revenue, sometimes, less than N2 billion from FAAC to N45 billion a month in internally generated revenue.
If I were governing an independent Nigeria with sovereign wealth, I think I can bring the nation to excel very well with the human and capital resources that we are endowed with. We have spent enough time talking about our potential, now is the time to realise our potential. The time is now and we don’t want to wait. The world is leaving us behind. We have talents – great talents in this country, we have men and women of vision and capacity to manage the affairs of our country. I have demonstrated my capacity, my gift. I did it and you all, one way or the other, witnessed it. I still have the vision, the focus of a mission that can make Nigeria a better country for all of us.
Do you expect a very serious opposition to your ambition within your party?
As a democrat, you focus on your lane. You can’t win a relay race thinking about the baton alone. Go on your lane, maintain your lane, be focused, develop your can-do attitude and straight ahead, go and win the race. So, I am not worried about some names being bandied around. I am not. If you concentrate on that, you will be distracted from focusing thinking on how to be a winning candidate. Winning is very, very important in a political race, that’s my focus.
You were instrumental in the merger that led to the emergence of APC and the eventual victory of President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2015 general election. But there were speculations that you were elbowed out of the scheme of things immediately your party assumed power them. Tell us what happened and how were you able to cope?
I believe in what we did. The merger is for the unity and stability of this country; for the progressive thinkers to be together and start working on the stability of this country and a new vision that will put the people first. Yes, you have different characters and people in a merger; you will experience el-bowing to gain space, to gain opportunity.
But I stay focused, I maintained my relationship and anytime that I am tired of choking in the odour of enmity, I travelled. I enjoyed my freedom and change the environment in order not to let anger overtake me. I should control my anger. Frustration is not part of my Vocabulary. You will see that in politics.
If you don’t expect that, you are not a politician. Bringing people together for progress was what I did with the merger. And that is what I’m still doing. If you are about to wrestle with the pig, don’t take your best clothing out. Be ready to live with the mud, that’s how it is in politics. You face it.
What is the state of APC now that couldn’t organize a Convention?
No. We can organize a convention. Sometimes you make mistakes and take wrong personnel and if you give them the assignment and give them the opportunity to do it. I will do the same thing as what President Buhari did. Let failure move aside, success should be rewarded. So, we are putting our convention together, we will meet the requirement. We will follow democratic principles and norms. We will comply with the Electoral Act. I am sure of that.
I want you to take us through this merger process that you just talked about. What made you support President Buhari energetically and even sometimes emotionally in the process of that merger?
We were about to get out of a military dictatorship. Unfortunately, they brought Obasanjo as the best man for the country.
I disagreed with that because he had been part of the rot of military dictatorship. So, we said we didn’t want him. But he became the president all the same. But instead of serious electoral reforms, we started seeing different conductors for democratic orchestras. We did not follow the rules of a good democratic foundation. The Electoral Act was messed up and that’s when we started the advocacy for electoral reforms. And that’s why I will always respect the late Umar Yar’Adua, when we confronted him – I did- on the election that brought him to the office. He accepted the majority of the pitfalls and he said he would work to correct it. He did and that’s what led to the Uwais Commission. They started that, but unfortunately before the serious implementation, he died.
Before his death, he was sick and there was a seeming crisis of succession and a lot of doubts developed on whether Goodluck Jonathan should take over or not. And that’s my opportunity to meet several people, including Pastor Tunde Bakare of Save Nigeria Group then. He was not a member of any political party, but I admired what he was doing. Buhari too was in opposition and he supported the idea that there should be easy, smooth transfer of power, and respect for constitutional democracy. So, Jonathan took over and we supported that. Then, we were talking of an alliance with then General Buhari. Unfortunately, the alliance didn’t work. We conceded that okay Buhari is a retired General and we had started experiencing the challenges of insecurity, that he would be the ideal person to lead Nigeria at that particular time. We were not looking for a very sound economist fundamentally. So, we conceded the presidency to his group, but unfortunately, they picked Pastor Bakare who did not belong to any political party. I think Buhari was impressed by his commitment to democracy in Nigeria. I will let the president speak for himself on why he took that decision. But he announced Pastor Bakare’s nomination as his running mate without consulting with us and we said this man still had his military hangover. We are yet to consummate an alliance and you pick a running mate when we had just conceded the presidency to you and that broke the keg. The alliance fell apart.
What did you tell Buhari then?
We asked him to withdraw his candidate. But he said he had committed himself to it, he had written a letter. I said “Imagine, you asked me to surrender my two legs for my brother to survive without providing a wheelchair for me to go back home, how would I do that? No, sir, this alliance will not work.”
So, why did you resuscitate the alliance again in 2014?
In 2011, General Buhari came out when he lost the election and if you saw him and the emotional speech he gave; he cried, shed tears in public, regretting that he lost the opportunity to bring Nigeria together and so on. So, I was touched by that. Then, I called on our leaders – particularly Chief Bisi Akande and others and told them that we should revisit the alliance. Maybe they’ve learnt their lessons. And then, we made arrangements. We called on him that we were headed for Kaduna, met him there and we had a nice discussion and we said, okay, it is not an alliance now where you can keep ACN in chains and then make CPC the father. It has to be a merger of equals and that’s what we resolved to pursue and we pursued it successfully.
Were you the one who insisted on the broom symbol for the merger?
Yes.
Why did you choose the broom symbol?
Because it symbolizes unity. The broom came through hard labour. Before you get a branch of a palm tree, get it straightened out, get it made into a broom and put those tiny sticks together you have to sweat a little bit. You have to be patient; you have to be determined. It is a great symbol. It evokes thinking and it is equally an instrument of killing the insect that the PDP represented. They were geckos on our walls.
Do you foresee APC imploding in the run-up to the next general election, as some have predicted?
No. You will have teething problems when a party is just coming for the first time into power. You will face all those challenges. I laugh at the fears of a whole lot of people.
When President Olusegun Obasanjo wanted to go for a second term, he got other governors in the Southwest to support him, promising to also support them. But he hoodwinked them. You were the only one that was able to see through that lie. Again, when the military was leaving, other pro-democracy activists said they were not going to participate in politics, but you decided to.
What made you see what others did not see? And who are your political mentors?
Let me answer the second leg of your question first. My mentors: Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Bola Ige, and Chief Bisi Akande. I admired and read so much about the leadership qualities of John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln and people like them. I read about the challenges they faced in their nation-building efforts and what quality of leadership they demonstrated to their people during trying periods. Reading about them, I was fascinated, and impressed. Concerning the second leg of your question, I always try to make sure that people don’t deceive me. That’s why I call myself a smart boy.
I see through deception easily and bring into play defensive mechanisms that will get me out of trouble. You don’t deceive me easily.
If I just submit to your deception, I only submit. I am a very highly inquisitive person. If you offer me a bowl of gari, I will ask questions particularly if I didn’t tell you I was hungry. So, why should Obasanjo trade his position for your own and you believed him, took him for granted? He was in opposition; he was seeking power.
Power is not served a la corte. Have you gone to any restaurant and looked at their menu and seen, ‘power: 2/6?
So, you’re not going to Abeokuta to seek his blessing and advice?
I will. Remember I went to see him at the beginning of our merger. I still respect him as an elder.
Except that you will not allow him to deceive you?
No way! When he said, “You are rascally, Bola Tinubu”, I said, “Sir, I copied it from you!”
How healthy or strong are you to cope with the big challenges of ruling Nigeria?
I have been out there to assure people. I have gone from Sokoto to Zamfara by road; I have gone from state to state where it is convenient. I didn’t apply to run for Lagos State Marathon or London Marathon or the race in New York! I have one of the best brains available in this country. I have the leadership trait and I have demonstrated that leadership quality. I have made a nation out of Lagos State. I have equally been dispelling the rumour that I am not in good health. I am not going for World Wrestling Entertainment, WWE, job and, of course, I am not looking for a concrete mixer’s job — these days they’ve even mechanized that already.
Why did you decide to study Accounting?
I was fascinated by Mathematics, though people run away from it. I was fascinated by one of my best professors – Joe Jesse. He was a tutor, a committed individual and very rich from investments. He used fat chalk and I had never seen that before coming from Nigeria. The chalk was bigger than a candle, he would just hold it and he would chew investment accounting like meat. And he guided my career. Another professor was Professor Goodman – I always call him ‘Badman.’ He would close the door exactly when the class started and would open it as soon as the class ended. He got us into snow in Chicago one night. We didn’t know it was snowing. He was good. It was good studying Accounting. After the first two semesters of scoring ‘As’ in all my courses, they made me a tutor, teaching deficient students to improve on their courses. So, I was a student earning tuition fees in the same university. The records are there, go and investigate. I may contribute to your airfare.
How do you feel at 70?
I feel great. I feel thankful to God almighty, thankful to my family-scaling the age hurdles graciously with wisdom, enriched with good talent from God Almighty to still be functional and able to use my brain and energy to harness the resources around me for the betterment of people. I can’t thank God enough.
Do you have any regrets?
No. I don’t have any regrets. It is only a defeated person that will probably be thinking about regrets. Regret is a negative word in my dictionary. You will experience disappointments, but just set them aside and move on. Think positively. Be focused on positive things around you. If you don’t expect disappointments, you cannot experience creativity. Just keep taking risks with the hope and belief that you will harvest prosperity.
– Called from the NEWS Magazine
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