Fwd: Two speeches, one by Tinubu, the other by Obasanjo
Cornelius Hamelberg
Some of the furore and fury that accompanied the announcement that Ruto had won - in spite of disagreements raised by four of the seven members of the electoral board, has died down and is still ebbing away as Ruto goes about consolidating his power and promising that Kenya belongs to all ethnicities…
These two videos were forwarded to me today by a Gambian friend. Such is his avid interest in what’s going to happen when the sleeping giant wakes up. He would like an opinion - maybe even a fatwa from me, but of course, it will take a savvy Nigerian to make a qualified commentary on what these eminent Yoruba men are saying in these videos. The necessary background to my own understanding would be grounded on Auwal Musa Rafsanjani’s communiques, Jibrin Ibrahim’s timely essays, and all of ( for me) the King & Dean of all Nigerian commentators, the always succinct and insightful Professor Ayo Olukotun, all his previous dispatches on the state of the nation, right up to his latest musing on Professor Falola adumbrating the necessity of Nigerians at all school levels making themselves familiar with Nigerian history if indeed there’s any truth to be put to the test regarding Runoko Rashidi’s adage that “History is a light that illuminates the past, and a key that unlocks the door to the future.” Professor Falola’s advocacy is to be expected - after all the History professor has been professing in Texas - that’s his day-to-day background - and all Americans are supposed to know their history ( here’s some)... hmmm Brer Soyinka will soon be professing in Abu DhabiMore contemporary Nigerian history is being recorded here:
Without Me, Buhari Wouldn’t Have Become President – Tinubu (1,966,428 views, from 3 Jun 2022, 2023 Elections: Wrong Choice Will Consume Nigeria - Obasanjo (443,230 views, from 11 Aug 2022)
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
Theatrical Display as Political Strategy
Bola Tinubu and the ''Emilokan'' Phenomenon
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
That is a great speech, a masterly piece of political theatre. I would like to one day to adequately translate and interpret its use of verbal, non-verbal and situational dynamics.
The speech is dynamised by imagistic language, theatrical
body movements, such as the expansive, power evoking agbada rearrangement (the agbada is a Yoruba ceremonial men's clothing evoking splendour and power ), meaningful pauses for rhetorical rhythm, historical recollection, sheer
verbal evocation of overarching power as in his description of how he got a
governor his position, referring almost dismissively to the governor by gesturing to the man as he sat behind him, identifying him simply by the almost contemptuous reference, ''eleyi'', ''this one'' or ''this thing'', a style of reference impolite when used in referring to a human being, a speech framed by his account of how he got Buhari to power.
The speech is consummated in his concluding evocation of Yoruba customs of respect even in the midst of self-assertion-
"dobale re", " here is prostration"- as he performed an
abbreviated form of the Yoruba culture of prostration, ordinarily meant for
authority figures or older people but which he invoked in recognition of the
power of the delegates he was addressing, a form of pacificatory amelioration of his forceful self assertion as well as affirmation of his own authority as a representative of the Yoruba people whom he describes as next in line for a chance to be positioned in competing for the APC Presidency, with himself as the pre-eminent Yoruba candidate, mature, educated, politically seasoned and accomplished, as he described himself.
These explicit displays are reinforced by the entire dramatic piece being delivered almost completely in the Yoruba language, in Yorubaland, to underscore the ethnic thrust towards national prominence the speech is anchored on and thereby ignite the ethnocentric platform he wants to galvanize in striving for the national political centre.
This initiative is escalated through that speech in the face of a move spearheaded by the APC chairman, present at that speech, to more or less rig him out of the APC Presidential ticket through anointing the Senate President as the APC consensus candidate, a move the chairman later claimed to have cleared with the very President Tinubu in that speech declared himself as underlying his coming to power, a move vigorously resisted by APC Northern Muslim governors, from the same ethno-religious demographic as the APC chairman and the Senate President, the governors arguing that the party would suffer if the APC platform were zoned to the North after 8 years of a Presidency by a (Muslim) Northerner. The religious dynamic in these issues is also strategic and constitutes a central challenge for Tinubu, who is also a (Southern) Muslim.
Almost all Yoruba candidates in the APC primaries that followed stepped down for Tinubu in the process of making their speeches, or as in the case of Dimeji Bankole, were persuaded to do so after making his speech presenting himself as a Presidential candidate.
Smiling shyly in announcing his withdrawal from the race, Bankole stated, ''emino fe dagba'', ''I too want to mature into age'', or ''I too want to become an elder,'' as this expression may be translated, the perhaps 40ish Bankole alluding to the very mature age of the person-officially in his 70s but seen as higher by critics- on whose account he was withdrawing.
Ekiti state governor Kayode Fayemi sums up this sentiment more clearly in stating his own reason for stepping down for Tinubu, along the lines of ''I am still young and there will be more opportunities ahead,'' even as the man, perhaps in his 50s, looked most unenthusiastic about the sacrifice he was making.
Tinubu's protege, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, whose Vice-Presidency Tinubu enabled, as Tinubu stated in that speech, and whose rapid political rise would have been most unlikely or impossible otherwise, chose to contest, however, and was defeated by Tinubu, who later made sure he was seen visiting Osinbajo after the primaries, suggesting mending fences in creating a united camp.
Pastor Tunde Bakare declared he was stepping down for no one and was presenting himself as the best person for the job. He got 0 votes.
What follows for Tinubu?
Kassim Shettima, his ( Northern Muslim) running mate, has been quoted dismissed the restructuring idea
that Tinubu's SW may have long been noted for, but which his faction seems to have been quiet about since they reached Aso Rock, the Presidential office, through Vice-President Osinbajo.
I suspect a significant no of Yoruba people are not moved by Tinubu's vision.
As it is though, "emilokan", ''its my turn'', a term he invoked in arguing the APC should not restrain his freedom to compete for the party's Presidential platform, rather than a declaration that the Presidency must be his-as it might seem, has gathered resonance in Southern
Nigeria, either in identification with the concept, with or without reference
to it's originating context or in rejection of Tinubu's vision, even as
the Tinubu campaign is using it as a rallying cry, evident in billboards in
Lagos, such as a giant one visible from Lagos' Third Mainland Bridge.
Perhaps the most memorable dramatization of the critique of that speech is the Pyrates Confraternity rally, where using striking Pidgin English, they mocked Tinubu's seeming self entitlement, even in the face of what they described as his visible significant health challenges ( Money Central; Etiquette Twitter ) his health being a recurrent feature of critiques of Tinubu's aspirations.
I find the ''emilokan'' speech memorable although the maker of the speech is invoking reward for a most questionable deed, enabling to the Presidency a man whose dangerous views he had earlier denounced, thereby contributing to plunging Nigeria into the present horror orchestrated by the ethno-religious terrorist culture of the person he helped bring to power, a culture long evident, before coming to power, in that person's open support for Boko Haram Islamic terrorism.
I used to think the speech showed Tinubu had balls and could take on the terrorist
masterminds represented by Buhari, Miyetti Allah Fulani Sociocultural organisations and the Fulani militia, until
he chose ex-Borno State governor Shettima as his running mate, a man circumstantially but significantly implicated with Boko Haram.
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Cornelius Hamelberg
That was a masterly exposition and decoding of some real living theatre - Yoruba political dramaturgy for those uninitaiated into the mysteries - by Oluwatotin Vincent Adepoju , a Nigerian who is uniquely qualified and prepared to enlighten us about this matter at hand, even though, as we all know, he himself has been showing us for over a decade now in this dialogue series that just like everyone else, he too has his own biases and his own axe to grind, whether it’s about the pandemic of corruption that’s consuming the soul of the nation, church arsons, the conditions conducive to the mass exodus known as “the brain drain” - including the mass exodus of medical doctors to the greener pastures to be found outside of the country, the epidemies of ransom kidnapping throughout the Federation, the lack of electricity on the moonless nights in certain parts of Lagos, Boko Haram still doing their Jihadi thing, purposefully sowing death and destruction everywhere in order to eventually raise their flag over Abuja and declare Islamic State & Sharia soverignity over all of Nigeria , grinding poverty, a collapsed and collapsing educational system - in the middle of which sixteen new private universisties are about to be raised (on what kind of foundations?), paranoia about alleged machinations in the interests of Northern Hegemony, Miyetti Allah, marauding Fulani herdsmen militias that are dangerously and miraculously popping up everywhere, asserting their grazing rights over other people’s private farm property, hell-bent on terrorising the nation.
All of the above is more or less the background of every conscientious and conscionable Citizen X of Nigeria. And the politicians of every tribe, shade, religion and stripe? They want everybody to vote for them. Every Boko Harami, every Fulani or non-Fulani Herdsman, every Muslim, every adherent of the Ifa rites, every Pentecostal or non-Pentecostal Christian, every Hausa, Igbo, Ijaw, Yoruba.
This is a little question to the three main aspirants for the job of Nigerian President: How do you intend to remedy the situation whereby after all these years, according to the World Bank statistics( 2020) “87% of all the poor people in Nigeria are in the North.” ?
As the saying goes, you only get a - one chance to make a first impression and in this case this strong showing by a vigorous and dynamic Bola Tinubu was spectacular, down to the little detail of how he hoisted, adjusted, re-arranged his Roman-like toga virilis ( Yoruba Agbada) around his shoulders with dramatic effect - in a calculated theatrical show of power - worthy of a Mark Antony - eloquent like a gifted Shakespearean orator, eloquent and at home in his mother tongue, his native Yoruba dialect - the sort of straight talk that hits the intended target, simple, effective, and direct - far removed from the sometimes tortuous, convoluted pretensions we see in print and even accented in the spoken word, by those whose wont it is to make a parody/ caricature of themselves - at least to the outside world by projecting pompous “big grammar” - not for comic effect but as an indication of their own (self-)importance - for which the paternalistic Oyibo will give them an insincere pat on the back…
This episode of Tinubu’s dynamic showing laid to rest some of the swipes being made about Hon. Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s health, not by his doctors but by his political enemies, and that’s the way it is, the political enemy will forever be going on about the cognitive decline or dementia, whether it's Brother Buhari, Joe Biden, once diagnosed as “sleepy Joe”, by dear Trump, and in more recent times the relentless slew of reports that Vladimir Putin is very very ill and about to give up the ghost. Wishful thinking.
What we see is a Bola Tinubu in complete control of his senses and not only that, he’s also witty - something you can never say about Big Grammar, even this late in the day. Another thing that we can say about Bola Tinubu is that he is pretty much used to wielding power and is at ease in public speaking. Such skills are not learned or honed in a day.
Although the other saying is that “ one good turn, deserves another”, reducing the essence of Bola Tinubu’s speech to a bare essence such as “it’s my turn” is rather ingenious unless we want to make a mockery of the idea behind zoning where the next President should come from - in which case Atiku has transgressed his party’s convention about it’s the turn of the South, by riding roughshod over that convention and that understanding - and that kind of haughty disregard and aloofness from party protocol should serve as an early warning signal of the kind of dictatorship an Atiku presidency would most likely turn out to be ( apart from Obasanjo reneging on his earlier oath that God would never forgive him (Pastor Obasanjo) if he supported Atiku’s bid for the Presidency.
So that leaves us with one and only one alternative: Tinubu or Peter Obi….
Some Dance Music - it gets better and better
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
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