By Hakeem Tijani
I love to read your piece because it’s often syllabically written, but the syllabification of your article is often a bait for your ballistic resentment against Tinubu, which makes your piece insalubrious. I want to suggest that you make it issue-based rather than personality-based. Let me adumbrate the argument here! Fundamentally, as you are aware, governance goes beyond media stereotypical ideas; it is about the concreteness of issues, and it is how leaders concretise their programmes for their people in a way that makes the desiderata of democracy reach them. Your thoughts on Tinubu’s administration are likened to Bernard Manin’s (1997) audience democracy, in which you often focus on the performance of the Tinubu administration in the media rather than policy engagement.
In your piece, you alluded to the fact that Awolowo said that Yorubas are a sophisticated, but self-warring tribe who needed an ANCHOR (capital, mine). It is in that context that Tinubu becomes the point man who should reintegrate the Yoruba race. Yorubas who show their support for Tinubu are not sycophants; they are real Yoruba kinsmen who are conscious of their race. It happens in all the major tribes in Nigeria; it happens everywhere, too. The color line has historical roots and for example, a Eurocentric hegemonic worldview has shaped the experiences of Black people and Africans living abroad. To counteract the crippling effects of Eurocentrism, a countering racial essentialist ethos has emerged. In other words, hegemony and counter-hegemony have historically been constructed and maintained based on racial essentialism. The New Economic Policy (NEP) of 1971, which sought to lessen economic inequities between ethnic Chinese and Indian minority and the Malay majority (Bumiputera), made racial consciousness apparent and institutionalized in Malaysia. National unity and ethnic balance were linked to development. In Singapore, the same strategy was adopted, and a multiracial meritocracy model was implemented, where official ideology placed a strong emphasis on racial harmony. Racial consciousness existed, but it was controlled for unity by the government through measures like racial integration and public housing quotas.
You claimed that Tinubu does not pay tribute to Awolowo; in fact, Tinubu does not abhor sycophancy, hence he believes very strongly in following the footsteps of Awolowo, like building on the foundations laid by Awolowo – Tinubu has recalibrated the restructuring resurrection, constructed solid infrastructures, galvanized the grassroots for governance and built institutions. All of this is for the development of the country. So, it’s surprising to read in your article that Tinubu does not pay tribute to Awolowo. You argued that Tinubu’s lifelong ambition is for the Yoruba to erase the name of Awolowo from their lips.
You also wrote that Tinubu is pursuing excessive Yorubanisation and that Tinubu may suffer his exit from Aso Rock in 2031. Your thought is incongruent with the indispensability of the globalisation tide. In an era of globalisation with its adverse effects, such as social and economic inequalities, polarization of wealth and poverty, the overriding influence of supranationalisation, and Lenin’s “Who-Whom” syndrome, the zero-sum game, among others, it is incumbent on a visionary leader like Tinubu to consider his race in the scheme of things without jeopardizing the national interests. This has become imperative, more so with the insolubilisation of globalisation. Adherents of globalisation trajectory have, therefore, come up with strategies to counter its menace. I would not want to talk about the economic or the political stratagems employed here because you limited your accusation against Tinubu to a racial construct – Yorubanisation! To tame this incommodiousness, social constructs which include gloracialisation (distinctive consciousness of one’s race) and glocalisation (modifications of global concepts, goods, or organizations to suit regional settings and cultures) have been created. So, Tinubu is a visionary leader, adapting to the globalization tide and adopting strategies to address it like other great leaders in other regions have done.
Hakeem Olatunji TIJANI, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations