Asiwaju's Sins Are Legion. And he is Not Alone.

Chief Asiwaju Tinubu did not participate at President Jonathan led National Conference. Acting in cahoots with all the APC Governors in the West, they embargoed the deliberation to make President Jonathan irrelevant. In the end, the Western region and all the progressive commentators at home and abroad were denied a cohesive platform to leverage their pitch for True Federalism and Decentralization of the over-bloated power at Abuja that President Jonathan placed on the table. So, if you are waiting for him to take a stand on the ongoing AMOTEKUN debate, please, think again; his time might not come in time and manner as reasonably anticipated.

Like Oshiomhole, Asiwaju is street smart. But their dictatorial tendencies and their unwillingness to hire brilliant and selfless advisers or consultants are their major shortcomings. Not just smart and intelligent advisers, but those not readily susceptible to intimidation and the lure of money.
You would think the Hausa/Fulani political leaders are fools. Think again.

They are more politically savvy than their southern colleagues. And the reason for that is that obvious. They hire consultants at home and abroad to do their thinking and mapping strategy and tactics for them on the most important national issues. That was what they did during the deliberations on the PIB during the Jonathan Presidency. To them, it is about their interest as Northerners as opposed to the overall interest of Nigeria as a nation-state.

And that was what they did during the visit of the former US Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry, to Nigeria. You could see the handiworks of lobbyists or Lobby Firms in his itinerary in Nigeria. His meeting with only Northern Governors in the North was not just a coincidence.

In the past twelve years, Mr. Adam Oshiomhole remains the most articulate and outspoken politician in the Nigerian political scene. He has the command of the English language better than any one of his peers. In spite of that advantage, as a Governor in Edo State, the garrulous comrade, as well as the self-hating Amaechi of Rivers State, were in the wood as of choice, when the former Governor of Niger State told his colleagues that until they secure the advice of a consultant in the oil and gas industry to educate them on the mechanics of the Bill, they had no choice but to tell their Northern National Assembly members to cease deliberations on the Bill indefinitely.

The contentious part of the Bill was the old section 10, the "Host Community Fund" clause that provides for a set-aside fund for the host communities in the event of ecological and astronomical occurrences.

Ordinarily, you would expect Mr. Oshiomhole who grew un in the North and who communicate in the Hausa language as a native speaker and Mr. Amaechi who was the Chairman of the Governors Forum, to deploy those connections in persuading their Northern colleagues to act in good faith and save the Bill. They never did. Senator Enang of Akwa Ibom, or so, did. He was authoritative and fearless in his published essays on the hijack of our oil wealth by influential leaders from one section of the country. Surprisingly, when President Buhari came into office, he picked the guy as his Laison Officer to the National Assembly. He was not to speak or write again on the matter. 

No Governor from the South or from the Niger Delta responded to Governor Babangida Aliyu, despite the fact that the decision to expedite action on the passage of the Bill was taken and agreed on at the Governors Forum meeting. That was about seven years ago.

Today, Comrade Adam is the Chairman of the ruling party after serving in the capacity of a Governor in Edo State for eight years. In a similar manner, Mr. Amaechi is spending his fifth year in office as the Minister of Transportation after serving as the Governor of Rivers State for eight years.

Where is PIB today? Still in the hanger. And as Papa Awo (of blessed memory) would say, it is not becoming the President of a country that matters the most, but the use made of it. Now you know how your Southern political leaders have been playing the greedy sophisticated morons on very important national issues over the years.