A public Appeal To President Tinubu

“People don’t pine for democracy. They want homes, medicine, jobs, schools… with a few exceptions, democracy has not brought good government to developing countries.” – Singapore former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew

It is quite unfortunate that the Nigerian president, Asiwaju Tinubu, who touted experience as one of his special qualities, decided to violate some basic tenets of rulership/leadership in Africa, especially as taught by his Yoruba people.

The first one is that a Chief does not make new laws when he is angry.

Having suffered grievously under military dictatorship (we all did), we can excuse his disdain for military rule, but rulers/leaders are not supposed to lose their heads so much so that their actions are ill-thought-out, knee-jerked, and driven by emotion and anger.

The reason is quite simple: A Chief’s actions can have very dire consequences.

Second, Africa’s conflict resolution mechanism pride itself in reaching conclusions that seek to satisfactorily reconcile warring parties. Issuing ultimatums is alien to our way of resolving conflicts.

The Yorubas have ample proverbs to guide them. One is: Iku ya ju eshin lo. To wit: Death is preferable to ignominy.

As we seek to solve problems, we do not give people ultimatums that would make them lose face. Another proverb: Ti a ba le ewure kan ogiri, o ma bu ni je / If we push a goat to the wall, it will bite back. Of course, goats do not have the sharp teeth of carnivores to inflict grievous harm, but our ancestors simply try to tell us not to tempt fate.

Our ancestors left us a corpus of wise sayings to allow us to make decisions that are based on sound reasoning, it is quite sad and unfortunate that an elder like Tinubu chose to ignore them.

One of the reasons why the late Chief MKO Abiola wowed many people is that his comments are often laden with deep Yoruba proverbs. Alas, Tinubu who proclaimed himself an apostle of Abiola, appeared not to have imbibed much of a wisdom from that great man.

We can excuse Tinubu’s angry and irrational response to the coup in Niger because he is new to the job, and foreign policy was never touted as one of his fortes, but his inability to reach back into the wisdom bank of his own Yoruba people is simply inexcusable.

How will Tinubu explain himself to Nigerians if the Junta in Niamey decided to disrupt the flow of the River Niger and deprived the Kainji Dam of water required to run the turbines?

It is quite sad to witness a Nigerian leader behave so unwisely and so unreasonably in the way Tinubu acted in his handling of the crisis in Niger. Even as Russian troops pummeled their Ukrainian foes, President Putin scrupulously kept all the agreements his country signed.

Tinubu’s advisers also badly let him down. They should have told him to calm himself down and, perhaps, remind him of another Yoruba proverb: Oba to je ti ilu toro, oruko o ko ni pa re, eyi to de je ti ilu fon kan, oruko e na ko ni pa re / The King, under whose rule the town was peaceful will never be forgotten, the one under whose rule the town was destroyed will also not be forgotten.

For better or for worse, Tinubu is carrying the Yoruba race on his ancient shoulders: it must never be said that it was a Yoruba man who set fire to Africa and ignited a pan-African war. Yoruba people in every corner of the world ought to get it across to Tinubu that the reputation of the Yoruba race is not his to besmirch.

Another Yoruba proverb: Bi ara ile eni ba nje kokoro buruku, ti a ko ba tele so fun, aruwo e o ni je ka sun loru / If a member of your family is swallowing poisonous critters and you fail to warn him, his groaning will keep you awake at night!

The Mother of All Question: Why is Tinubu not willing to write his name in Gold among the pantheon of African gods and heroes by leading ECOWAS to get France to renegotiate its Pacte Coloniale agreements, and grant Niger better terms for its minerals!

Why, in the name of African gods and ancestors, is Tinubu not willing to lend his authority to the decolonization of Africa? It shouldn’t require fire-breathing Pan-Africanists to know that the current neocolonial setup in much of Africa, especially in West Africa, is simply untenable.

©️Fẹmi Akọmọlafẹ

Fẹmi Akọmọlafẹ is a farmer, writer, and published author.

His latest book, “Africa: a Continent on Bended Knees” is available on:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Africa-Continent-Bended-Femi-Akomolafe-ebook/dp/B08FGZNJ5T

On Booknook.store: https://booknook.store/product/africa-a-continent-on-bended-knees/