Bola Tinubu, A Revolutionary Who Went From Exile To Aso Rock

By Aare Kurunmi Kakanfo

President Bola Tinubu is one of the last guards of the Awolowo political era who walked through the fire that destroyed a lot of Yoruba political leaders and he survived it. He was a student of Awolowo, Abraham Adesanya, MKO Abiola, Pa Rewane and other notable Awoists. A thorough technocrat and a sagacious politician who single handedly saved the Southwest region from the politics of mediocrity that permeates other spaces in Nigeria.

Many people don’t know that President Bola Tinubu was raised by a woman who was one of the hardcore followers of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the first Republic. Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji was a political leader and an Awoist who nurtured and raised Tinubu in the waters of political revolution and Awoism which is now called progressive politics in the Southwest of Nigeria.

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In 1992, Tinubu was already a senator representing Lagos state. His political camp has consistently been with the Awoist which was the SDP then. When the military juntas were wielding the powers of life and death, Tinubu a man with vision has already discovered that the political route is extremely important in protecting Awolowo’s progressive politics and the fixing of Nigeria’s hydra headed problems.

Some months after his emergence as a senator in Nigeria, the military struck again and started waging a brutal campaign of cold blooded violence against the Awoist camp which was led by MKO Abiola an Aare Oona kakanfo of Yorubaland. Tinubu barely escaped with his life into exile where with a couple of others started the pro democracy group called NADECO which was set up to destroy the cold blooded Abacha regime and return Nigeria to democracy.
During this period, a lot of heroes and hardcore Awoists lost their lives. Pa Rewane, Kudirat Abiola, MKO Abiola, Alhaja Suliyat Adedeji and a host of others lost their lives. People like Soyinka, Kuti and Tinubu managed to escape with their lives to the diaspora.

President Tinubu had no hope of ever stepping back into the land of his ancestors but he never gave up and by 1999, the military mafia had been sent packing from Aso rock.

Tinubu by an act of divine action became the governor of Lagos state and was the only governor that went toe to toe with the federal government to enforce true federalism in Nigeria. He fought for tax reforms, population census, local government reforms, state police, power generation reforms, Judicial reforms and a host of other issues.

As expected he became a governor under the Alliance for democracy which was the political party that represented Progressive and Awolowo’s political ideology. Unfortunately, via rigging and brute violence all the pro Awoist governors of class 1999 mostly in the South west were rigged out via federal might and it was only Tinubu that survived that onslaught.

By 2003, Tinubu was the last man standing and by virtue of chance became the last bulwark, leader and resistance in protecting the Awoist and progressive politics of the Western region of Nigeria. One after the other all Southwest states including Edo state became part of the progressive camp.

Lagos state which was before a den of robbers and pick pockets became the 5th biggest economy in Africa between 1999 to 2023. For the first time in over 50 years of Nigeria’s existence, the pro Awo bloc of Nigeria’s political divide is in Aso rock.

From exile, persecution, political hostility and sabotage Bola Ahmed Tinubu successfully brought the Southwest from opposition politics into the bulwark of Nigeria’s political power games. President Tinubu was attacked, defamed, betrayed, sabotaged, insulted and denigrated but as a true revolutionary he never gave up. He continued to fight for justice and fairness when he was in exile.

As an Awoist, I have nothing but admiration for this man called Tinubu and I owe him my support. He is a revolutionary, who lived to see the glory.

May President Tinubu succeed.