“The role of a creative leader is not to have all the ideas; it’s to create a culture where everyone can have ideas”
Last night, I had a long telephone discussion with someone I never thought would have an inch of interest in politics but she came across as an expert in the subject matter and elicited her broad views on how and who is able to rescue the country from the total ruins headed to.
I listened to her while she lectured me on why my decision in rooting for Asiwaju Tinubu is Godly and the best thing after slice bread.
What stands Asiwaju out amongst his peers contesting for the presidency of Nigeria is his vast intelligence and wisdom which are not hidden to the discerning ones.
Several people have tagged me asking me to respond to the accusations that Tinubu was convicted by a court in America for drug trafficking and money laundering and that Tinubu didn’t go to primary and secondary school.
Initially, I didn’want to write about these issues because they are irritating. How would a man who was elected as a senator before many of those who are complaining now are born and served as a governor for eight years didn’t go to primary and secondary school?
It’s unimaginable that some people would believe that, without going to primary and secondary school, he graduated from two colleges in the United States. In response, they said he used another person’s result, which means he was admitted to Chicago State University with another name and graduated with the name Bola Tinubu. Ask yourself does this argument make any sense?
If that was the case, the records would be there with no one to tamper with, Chicago State University is a citadel of knowledge just like the University of Lagos, Ibadan or any other other university in Nigeria. It is the culture in these places to have records of many years kept intact. We all know that.
Tinubu never told the INEC that he didn’t go to primary and secondary school as being circulated in some media outlets and on social media. Tinubu left the columns for his primary and secondary education unticked on the INEC presidential form and submitted an affidavit to the INEC as part of his eligibility filings for the 2023 presidential elections because the academic certificates he received from his primary and secondary schools were missing when he went on self-exile from October 1994 to October 1998, which is the proper thing to do.
He can not write the name of his primary and secondary schools on the presidential form when he doesn’t have with him the copy of his certificates to back his claim, if he does so, that could be used against him. What Tinubu did was a smart move and anyone who is not satisfied with his action should go to court rather than make a nuisance of themselves on social media.
Secondly, I believe that those who brought up the issue of drug trafficking and money laundering are children in 2003 when the American government through the US Consulate in Lagos wrote a letter to the then Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun ( I doubt if they will know anything about Tafa Balogun that there was nothing in the records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) indicating that Tinubu had, at any time in the past, been arrested or wanted for crime in the US and the letter was signed by the Legal Attache in the Consulate, Michael H. Bonner. If they are not children in 2003.
They would have known that all the documents they shared on social media platforms against Tinubu are FAKE..
This is why I refused to respond to those who tagged me and the adult who shared the fake documents allowed tribalism and religious sentiments to cloud their judgement, which is wrong and bad. If we want a better nation , the first step is to be true to ourselves and stop spreading fake news.
Nothing kills a society more than untruthfulness and sheer falsehood being spread by those who should know better, but I guess this is done out of primitive envy and jealousy.
You often hear that Tinubu has coveted all the lands in Lagos to himself but people are still moving in droves to Lagos to buy lands and build homes for themselves in the state years after he left saddling the state. My question to them is that how many times has Tinubu transacted with them?
It is more heartbreaking that those who benefit more from his benevolence and the benevolence of the state are the very ones on the forefront of his attackers, but the truth and the best shall prevail.
Written with additional information culled from the social media and newspaper archives.
George Olufemi Ogunjimi Esq
07/07/22
Enfield, England.
