Kogiflame
Since the inglorious appearance of His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Chatham House, London, yesterday, there have been tremendous bulaba and bala blue on his performance, particularly his advertised incapacity to provide leadership, even when a direct responsibility was placed on him.
Tinubu forgot that the seat of the President is a chair and not a bench on which you can invite others to sit with you. It is a direct and personal responsibility. This is the origin of the expression, ‘the buck stops on my table’.
For nearly all his life, Tinubu has lived in disguise and in the shadows of others. There are contentions on whether the name he bears now belongs to him or a woman. There are also interrogations on his certificate, his crime record and a great hue of inconsistencies.
It was this same pattern that played out in London, where he chose to assume the names of Nasiru, Dele, Femi and Ben before a live international audience who would not only have pitied the ostrich conduct of Tinubu but saddened by his coterie of defenders and power entrepreneurs who chose to swim in shame with a calamitous candidate.
Tinubu spoke about working as a team. Nothing typifies a team more than a football team, where 11 players form a team. In each team there’s always a captain. One of the formalities for starting a match is the tossing of a coin to decide the side of placement. During this ritual, the captain of each side steps forward to pick one side of a coin. That is team leadership.
Further to this there are ladders of leadership. First, a leader must be able to lead himself before leading teams, leaders and institutions. What was required of Tinubu at Chatham House was self-leadership, but as usual he thought he could circumvent the process. He failed.
A Presidential conversation is not like what we had in our secondary school activity of those days where you have debating societies and the group leader speaks before inviting his team mates. Even then, the leader would speak first before inviting others. It is a great irony that the questions that Tinubu ran from in Nigeria were waiting for him in London, just like Jonah who ran to Nineveh but ended up in the belly of the fish. The man who has always basked in the euphoria of being called the leader of his party chose to hide behind his followers.
It is obvious that Tinubu is not capable of leading Nigeria. While efforts are being made by those who are prospecting to benefit from his unlikely government Nigerians must be vigilant to avoid another wrong judgement in leadership selection. In the Presidential system power revolves around the leader. Our beloved country can not afford to have another regime of an unavailable leader.
I call on all well meaning Nigerians to follow closely the conduct and the character of various Presidential candidates, so that they can take informed decisions. Atiku Abubakar stands out. He is able, available, and capable.
God bless Nigeria.
Senator Dino Melaye Spokesperson PDP Presidential Campaign Management Committee
