The same CCT, currently trying embattled Senate President, Bukola Saraki concerning his asset declaration when he was governor of Kwara state between 2003 and 2011 has dramatically said that Tinubu was discharged in error, while maintaining that Saraki must continue to be docked. It would seem like the tribunal, often appearing docile not only want to prove that it has teeth, but that it can now bite.
Pebbles with Igbotako Nowinta
Weeks to the 2015 Presidential Election in Nigeria, extremely desperate political enemies of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, using media mogul, Chief Raymond Dokpesi of the Africa Independent Television (AIT) to the tilt, came out with a devastating documentary called: The Lion of Bourdillion.’
The name ‘Bourdillion’was actually copied from the Street name where Tinubu resides in Lagos, Nigeria.
In that ruthless and malicious television package his personality as the national leader of All Progressives Congress (APC) was almost brought to the vicinity of the garbage dump.
The Lion of Bourdillion was conceived and designed to paint Tinubu in bad light before the Nigerian voters because of his legendary and unshakeable support for the then APC Presidential candidate, Retired Major-General Muhammadu Buhari.
Because the message was well crafted to deceive the Nigerian voters that he was a merciless and blood sucking capitalist, who allegedly amassed stupendous fortunes as two-time Governor of Lagos State, many voters believed the producers.
That was indeed the second time ever in his political career that his integrity and political ascendancy were shaken to their very foundations.
But on Election Day on March 28th 2015, majority of Nigerian voters had already made up their minds where they wanted the pendulum of victory to swing to and the political party of their choice.
It must be mentioned here quickly that a competent court of proper jurisdiction ruled recently, where both Tinubu and Dokpesi’s AIT agreed to settle out of court, with Chief Raymond Dokpesi recanting and apologizing for all the venomous contents in the Lion of Bourdillion.
Who says the national leader of APC has not been vindicated!
In 2011, after he had served creditably well as the two time governor of Lagos state (1999-2007), Tinubu was confronted for the first time in his political career with question of integrity, honesty and creditability.
The Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) had accused him of using 10 different foreign accounts when he was governor of Lagos state.
It was a move which analysts saw as instigated by the then Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ruling-government to cut to shreds, his political wings.
Luckily for him, he was discharged and acquitted by Justice Danladi Yakubu Umar, who ruled that the case was ‘legally defective.’ That was how Tinubu escaped the political noose hanging on his head then.
The same CCT, currently trying embattled Senate President, Bukola Saraki concerning his asset declaration when he was governor of Kwara state between 2003 and 2011 has dramatically said that Tinubu was discharged in error, while maintaining that Saraki must continue to be docked.
It would seem like the tribunal, often appearing docile not only want to prove that it has teeth, but that it can now bite.
Whether the CCT truly has jurisdiction as a court to try Senator Bukola and his likes or not, we all patiently wait for how the current dramatic scenario will play out.
But the point must be made unambiguously, that Tinubu who clocked 64 years precisely on March 29, 2016 has proved himself to be one of the greatest political emblems in Nigeria since the nation returned to democracy in 1999.
Tinubu has remained consistent even in the face of the harshest political confrontation from his rivals and enemies.
Since 1992 when he embraced and threw his hat into the political ring during the Ibrahim Babangida’s botched transition-to-civil-rule program, Tinubu has won enviable laurels as Senator and Governor of Lagos state.
His towering influence in the politics of the South west is undeniable, where he has continuously metamorphosed incredibly from Alliance for Democracy (AD), Action Congress (AC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and now to All Progressives Congress (APC) with a grip on power in Nigeria.
We must not forget easily that in June 1993, when democracy was in mortal danger in Nigeria, Tinubu joined forces with the likes of late Chief Tony Enahoro and other pro-democracy activists to fight General Sani Abacha’s demented agenda that resulted in the formation of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO).
Certainly, Nigerian voters will never forget March 28, 2015 Presidential Election. Except for political pundits, many Nigerians probably never knew that Tinubu’s political gamble, calculations, sacrifice, iron resolve and sagacity contributed immeasurably to the common sense democratic revolution that brought President Muhammadu Buhari to power.
Tinubu proved that he was a political prophet and a firebrand of the highest order in the political turf of Nigeria, when he discovered early that the former Military Dictator was the political kite that must be flown in the firmament of the All Progressives Congress for the 2015 Presidential Election in Nigeria.
This man who made a President is my man on this column today for his ability to lead a gargantuan political crusade that was able to uproot former president Goodluck Jonathan.
Tinubu has won for himself a deserving political crown, which no one will be able to take away from him, despite all controversies that have trailed his political career.
Nowinta wrote: Where We Are – A Call for Democratic Revolution in Nigeria
