TINUBU: The Lion of Bourdillon, congratulations at 67

Efforts are not enough without purpose and direction -President John F.Kennedy

Sen. Ahmed Bola Adekunle Tinubu (Jagaban of Borgu) is a strategist and tactician with one of the weightiest political curriculum vitaes in Nigeria.

His giant strides are not only in the political terrain, he is also one of the most successful businessmen in Nigeria and in the continent, Africa. Like King Midas, whatever he touches, becomes gold.

Jagaban of Borgu came to political limelight during the annulment of June 12 presidential election by the junta of self- acclaimed genius Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida in 1992. After the military’s abortion of an election that late M.K.O. Abiola was coasting home to victory, he joined forces with pro-democracy forces for the actualisation of the business mogul -turned politician mandate.

Tinubu did not only become a leading NADECO member but a close confidant of MKO Abiola. Like most of NADECO members, he eventually embarked on self-exile when the junta of late Gen. Sani Abacha raised a killer squad and let them loose on NADECO juggernauts.

When the junta of Abdulsalami Abubakar mounted the saddle and rolled out a short nine- month transition programme, the political Iroko of our time returned home and contested for the seat of Governor of Lagos state. His 1999 and 2003 victories were easy like placing a hot knife on butter. These victories ushered a new chapter in his life and illuminated his path to political stardom in contemporary Nigeria.

Nothing demonstrated his survivalist acumen like the PDPs electoral Tsunami of 2003 that swept away all his South West Alliance for Democracy colleagues from power. Tales from the political parlance holds that AD went into a pact with PDP to surrender all presidential votes to PDP while PDP will reciprocate by allowing them retain their governorship seats.

Whilst others approached the regionally propelled alliance blindly, he approached it with the sense of a fox and understanding that anything can happen. At the end of the exercise, he was the only player that survived to tell the story. Others were rough-handled by PDP and given a one-way ticket to political wilderness.

This lone player kept pushing-on and shouldered the burden of political opposition in the South West and Nigeria entirely. By 2011, this crown Eagle whose wings are getting older and stronger has soared above all storms and recaptured the entire South West States.

He prosecuted the great onslaught with clones he carefully empowered with political offices and contracts while he was in power between 1999 and 2007 in Lagos State.

As a master of accurate reading of political weathers, he partnered with PDP in the presidential election of 2011, despite wide expectations that their experience of 2003 will never allow him dine with PDP.

Later moves showed that Jagaban of Borgu only stooped to conquer, or bended to permit a whirlwind to pass. He is a great respecter of the dictum of fluidity in an act of political game.

The story of the 2015 unprecedented political merger and eventual victory of opposition party the All Progressives Congress (APC) cannot be full without mentioning his name.

The Lion of Bourdillon did not only provide the cream of opposition politicians with a springboard but financial base to prosecute their campaigns.

His presence alone, gave doubting Thomases of the opposition party confidence and fighting spirit. That automatically gave him the title of The Party Leader. He is a master of risk taker. No wonder our most distinguished governor in Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai calls him my leader’ and looking at the Jagaban of Borgu as a mentor; no wonder, Malam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai replicates the outstanding leadership in Kaduna state by bringing peaceful coexistence between all religious groups, tribes, business minds and even people of different political views, empowering people from all works of life and statues.



The Sir Kashim Ibrahim Leadership Programme is just one of the programmes recently introduced to groom young Nigerians across the nation to become good leaders. Governor El-Rufai today is an outstanding leader and a role model in Nigeria.

Love him or hate him, no political calculus can be made in Nigeria today without taking time to know where he is headed to. Cheer or jeer him, he is a reality you can only ignore at your perils.

Conscious of this realism President Muhammadu Buhari and APC handed over the 2019 electoral project to him which he perfectly executed. He discharged that onerous task with the dexterity of a fox and strength of an Argentine stallion horse.

He knows when and where to punch. And when he punches, those at the receiving end do not survive. Jagaban takes the business of power with utmost seriousness hence, attaching a do or die disposition to it. He is a foe that any reasonable power player does not wish to encounter because of his lethality and fatalism.

Feelers from all the six geo political zones suggested Jagaban will make


source:https://samueljackson12.blogspot.com/2019/04/tinubu-lion-of-bourdillon.html