The battle is on! The Bola Ahmed Tinubu team is rolling. Around Lagos, hundreds of thousands of posters, banners and buntings proclaiming Tinubu as Nigeria's potential savior, are on every wall. So are those of his 'godson', Babajide Sanwo-Olu. "Emilokan!" It is his time! His ubiquitous foot soldiers and fast-talking PR men have been let loose to tell you the opposite of what you think you know. Television adverts and intricately crafted documentaries will soon fill the air. The bullion vans have been unleashed and in a never-before-seen display of shock and awe, Tinubu is determined to get to Aso Rock Villa by air, land or sea.
The BAT team believes that kilometer by kilometer, they are constructing the express road that will take the Jagaban straight from Bourdillon to the most sought-after mansion in Nigeria, Abuja's Aso Rock Villa. As far as they are concerned, all the talk about Tinubu's health is hogwash. The queries on Tinubu's origins and antecedents are nonsense. The arguments over how he acquired his stupendous wealth, are just evidence of bad belle. The quarrels over a Muslim-Muslim ticket are just noise. Anybody on the road will be crushed. "Emilokan!" It is his time!
The big campaign council has been inaugurated and the glossy manifesto released. All systems, go!
With the many problems that Nigeria has - trillions of naira in unpaid debt, ubiquitous kidnapping, banditry and senseless killings, fearsome oil bunkering in hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude every day, incurable corruption, tribal and religious intolerance, flooded towns and villages, etc., etc., etc., you would think that nobody would want Buhari's job. No! Tinubu wants it and wants it badly. Do not forget that the guy who resides at Aso Rock determines who gets what in Nigeria and who keeps what. With one signature or one sentence, he can make you stinkingly rich or terribly wretched. Probably, nobody in Nigeria more than Tinubu understands that what money cannot do, more money can do it. "Emilokan!" It is his time!
Then, I remember the great MKO Abiola. Despite our different ethnic origins, he treated me like a cherished younger brother and spoke to me on many intimate issues. Indeed, I had a multiple entry visa to his Ikeja home. Most people remember the late MKO for his prodigious wealth, I remember him for his prodigious intellect. The man was as sharp as 'Crocodile Narcet'. Before the computer notebook was made public for worldwide use, Abiola had a motherboard and processor in his head. Abiola remembered everything and forgot nothing. He could outthink anybody at dizzying speed. Yet when it came to Aso Rock, Abiola with his massive intellect, unsurpassed contacts and many-many bullion vans thought he had got the keys to the villa. Na lie! As he tried to open the gate, he found that the keys had been changed. Abiola died fighting for the keys he thought he got fair and square. In his mind, Abiola must have said, "Emilokan!".
Some in the Jagaban team think that Atiku Abubakar is the man they must crush on the road to Aso Rock. Atiku wants Aso Rock Villa as much as Tinubu. Atiku Abubakar had lived in the very next building to the Aso Rock mansion. Just like Yemi Osinbajo, Atiku had at close quarters inhaled the intoxicating perfume of the place and wants to be its principal. As Vice President, Atiku knew all the pathways and back doors to the villa. Atiku Abubakar has deployed money, lots of it; has travelled far and wide on different vehicles; compromised with many people he otherwise would not speak with. At times he lost his way, retraced his steps and began the journey again. When Atiku Abubakar began his walk towards Aso Rock, the villa was very close but the more he has walked, the father away the villa has become. How could Atiku have imagined that he would face the kind of nuclear war he today fights with Nyesom Wike?
Just think of it, could Atiku have imagined that the man who may block his way to Aso Rock would be his friend and former Vice-Presidential candidate with a falsetto voice, Peter Obi. Obi was not in either Tinubu or Atiku's plan. In Lagos, I have not seen even one poster or banner of Atiku Abubakar or Peter Obi pasted on any wall. Is it that they have been so easily out gunned or is it that the game has changed?
The "OBidients" are still busy pasting their posters, but not on the walls or bridges at Ojuelegba, Obalende or the 3rd Mainland Bridge. They are vigorously pasting their posters on millions of Facebook walls, Twitter walls and Instagram walls. They are all over the place on WhatsApp. And they have been for so long … which makes you wonder if most voters in Nigeria have not already made up their minds. Has the game changed?
Believe me, the spiders, crocodiles and vampires on the way to Aso Rock are mind boggling. Beyond the bullion vans, there are intrigues, deceptions and betrayals that no screen writer can contemplate. I have written before that to enter Aso Rock, even by means of a coup, takes everything.
Anyone who tells you that he knows who the next president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will be, is a big liar. Not even Buhari knows. Believe me, there will be many more twists and turns in the tale. There is no question that Tinubu has enormous resources of men and money. He has built a significant war chest. He obviously has done well for himself in Lagos. There are many who fear Tinubu and are hell bent on opposing him. It crosses tribal lines.
Yesterday, I listened to my young mechanic speak with so much passion. He is a Yoruba boy. He pointed to me how Tinubu became the "Emperor" of Lagos and his wife became a Senator, his daughter, the "Iya Oloja", leader of the market women and his son, the henchman of outdoor advertising. My frightened mechanic warns that soon, MC Oluomo might become a minister of the Federal Republic and everyone will become a slave in the Tinubu empire. He holds the strong opinion that everything must be done to stop Tinubu from becoming the "Emperor" of Nigeria.
February 2023 is so near yet so far away. The next four months will be intriguing. Believe me, there will be no express road for anyone to Aso Rock.
See you next week.
