It’s a slap comparing Tinubu With Amaechi

Those who are quick to compare Bola Ahmed Tinubu with Rotimi Amaechi may not know much about politics before the present democracy.

It is like talking about the hero of that English epic movie, Merlin without the life and time of Gaius. Tinubu as Gaius, others as clowns.

In the movie, “Merlin”, there is this old Wiseman, a sorcerer, Gaius who lives in the palace with King Uther Pendragon of Camelot.

Gaius is not just a magician, he is a physician too who has learnt so many things about the palace and the inhabitants, including the heir to the throne, Arthur.

Gaius isn’t a warrior, yet he knows much about the military in Camelot, he is old but his closeness to the power brokers became the biggest asset Arthur and Merlin will need to bring peace to the land. Camelot would reject Gaius at its own peril.

Nigeria May not need a sprinter like Rotimi Amaechi as president but a wiseman like Asiwaju Bola Tinubu whose decades of his life had been spent with power brokers to rewrite the story of this country.

The only man that may accidentally fall in the class of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu among the present presidential aspirants is the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

This is because Atiku was there from 1993 when Tinubu won a senatorial seat for Social Democratic Party. But what makes Tinubu thicker than Atiku was his leading role in NADECO in its fight against the military rule.

Challenging the military top brass exposed Tinubu to both danger and knowledge. His audacity to challenge the soldiers and succeed them gave him an edge over some of the clowns that are running on the pitch to flex their muscles ahead of a game of wits and votes in 2023.

The 1999 general election brought together different classes of people of very different motives as our leaders. We were so much in a hurry to have democracy after years of military dictatorship and we got one that we are still patching till today.

But of all those who joined the train in 1999, only Tinubu had got a moving structure, which today had formed part of the present government, humanly and materially.

Atiku who was a foundation member of the Peoples Democratic Party had since turned himself to a stranger in his own party by jumping from one party to another seeking presidential tickets instead of building a strong structure around himself. His flaw is that he has always been looking for a party to carry him instead of him carrying his party like Tinubu.

It is becoming clearer now that the sustenance of the All Progressives Congress has largely depended on two personalities, President Muhammadu Buhari and Tinubu. However Tinubu has been the one paying the biggest price between the two. At this juncture Buhari has nothing to lose, having fulfilled his personal ambition but Tinubu whose dream of becoming the next Nigerian president will depend more on the Buhari’s sincerity as a real party man and loyal friend.

These are the guys that have shown guts to keep the party together despite the internal crisis and betrayals. The disrespect to Tinubu by some members of the party who did not know how APC was formed is enough for him to leave the party, betrayal by his allies is big enough to make him throw in the towel but his confidence in the face of all these that he can return Nigeria to a new glory is what has been pushing to work harder.

Amaechi declared during a thanksgiving service at his Port Harcourt backyard to run for presidential seat, saying that APC needs a steady hands to move Nigeria forward.

For those of us who wish Tinubu well, we understand the import of Amaechi’s phrase and also know that his agility, his votes and swiftness are too meagre an attribute to compare him with BAT. “Igi imu jina sori”.

At Port Harcourt, it was clear that the crowd at the field came to demystify the state Governor, Nyesom Wike who had also declared his presidential ambition in PDP. In Rivers, it is about Amaechi and Wike not about PDP and APC because in that state, PDP has always been defeating APC.

It will be difficult for Amaechi to win in his ward against a Wike who had since become the “Lord of the Rivers”. Who is Amaechi in Porta? He is living on a structure he never created. Today, Wike has got his own structure as he is even claiming to have invested in PDP more than anybody, including Atiku. Even though he is another clown.

At the Port Harcourt gathering, I learnt that only the former National Chairman of APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole came from outside the state to grace the occasion, no Senator, no federal lawmakers and perhaps there was a governor. Yet some people called the declaration a grand one. It was the gathering that stimulated Amaechi to test his popularity, I’m sure he did not have the intention to declare.

Going by Wike’s words, if Tinubu visits Rivers today, the governor will accord him more respect than his predecessor, Amaechi. The Minister of Transportation is good as an athlete.

Kunle Awosiyan is a journalist based in Lagos