I saw a clip of President Tinubu speaking to his grandchildren during his 74th birthday celebrations. Thankfully, it was reported that he decided to mark it low-key because of the mood of the nation. For me, however, this occasion gives me another opportunity to push at him with my sermon of statesmanship.
Daddy wa, at 74, you should be leaving the trenches of partisan politics and aspiring towards the zenith of statesmanship.
Let me speak some hard truths to our president.
Mr. President, your immortality cannot be in the direction that you are headed. If you continue in this way, you will only be remembered as a damn good politician who won almost every electoral battle he entered. You see, they are already calling you “master strategist.” They are boxing you into a very small box, which should not be your matter in all these fights you have fought.
I repeat, you need to be aiming for the heights of the Mandelas, the Kenyattas, the Awolowos, the Marcus Garveys, the Azikiwes, the Sardauna and even the Obasanjos. You must represent something, either ideologically or a positive tendency. You must rise above the very annoying tendencies of ethnicity, self-interest-driven policy initiatives and execution, among others.
You must take Nigeria as your oyster; you must begin to see yourself as the father of the nation and not just the father of the Yorubas. You must begin to push for inclusiveness and robust engagement with all parts of the federation. Be our father in words and indeed, support us, cry for all. Travel extensively, spend days and weeks in other parts of the country. Leave Isale Eko alone, it is enough. Go to Ibeno for the next Muslim holiday and spend Christmas in Sokoto. Realign your appointments, speak more to us. Have open town hall meetings; feel our pain; cut off that inverter in Aso Rock; suffer with us; don’t be doing Animal Farm with us and be leaving the national grid after you have promised and didn’t deliver power.
I simply stand with Dele Momodu when he says he loves you more than all these vultures around you, and that is why he is screaming like a lone wolf in the wilderness, and your boys are calling him all sorts of names.
I love you too, respect your trajectory and see colours in you. It is only a remarkable individual that will just drop from the sky, and today our president is not just an ordinary president, but one of the most powerful and influential ever. Mbok, leave the Owambe politics and aspire to immortal greatness. God bless you and grant you long life, my president – the first time, I am calling you My President, sir. Thanks.
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