The unforeseen twinning of Tinubu and Obasanjo, By Tunde Akanni

So, the truism of the unity of bias and preference of the political class no longer takes time to manifest? And, the philosophical approach to governance by OBJ and Tinubu is the same after all? So, the interest of the people may never matter in our dear country? 

Recently, a photograph of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, was all over the internet. The world has however been left to hazard only guesses about the subject of their discussion when they met, before or after posing for the historic photograph. Neither Dame Tinubu nor OBJ has been forthcoming on this. Not even the fact that Obasanjo spotted a cap adorned with a symbol popularly associated with President Tinubu seems to barely signal, far from revealing reality.  Is it time for some convergence or review of otherwise irreconcilable differences? There is so much to interrogate.

Prophetic (?) and uncommonly witty newspaper columnist, Sam Omatseye, during his National Concord days once asserted in an article: In Abuja, the federal capital city of Nigeria, the tempo is always false. Omatseye, at that time found most decisions taken by the then General Sani Abacha regime unimaginably laughable, and always at variance with the reality, hence his verdict. It therefore never occurred to anyone that a government to be run by the avowed enemy of that military government, the then Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, would validate Omatseye’s thesis.  

Indeed, more ludicrous is the fact that even as President Obasanjo seemed to be severely adversarial to the Bola Tinubu-led government of Lagos State, President Tinubu feels so confident in validating a failed policy of the Obasanjo administration.

Until last week, I had always been enthusiastic in retransmitting The Explainer, an online newspaper innovated by Alhaji Lanre Isa Onilu, my friend and professional colleague, who is now the director general of National Orientation Agency (NOA).

The edition for that week I found incredible, with its heralding of the Tinubu government’s plan to invite investors to partake in the ownership of Nigerian universities. Not a few Nigerians had fiercely spoken against the immorality in former President Obasanjo’s ownership of a university to rival those owned by government he headed. Obasanjo founded Bell University, Ota, Ogun State. His deputy, Atiku Abubakar, who he has vilified repeatedly and published on his (Atiku’s) moral ineptitude in a book, also established the America University of Nigeria in Yola. Nigerians have been unsparing in condemning OBJ and Atiku on their deliberate sabotaging of the public universities in favour of theirs and those of their cronies.

Today, there are no fewer than 147 private universities in Nigeria. Some of them are suspected to have evolved from illicit funds stolen by their owners. Indeed, one of them, NOK University, Kaduna State, was recently ordered to be forfeited to the Federal Government by a law court.

So, the people’s triumph over and above the machinations of Obasanjo’s education minister, Oby Ezekwesili, was only temporary? Is this how Nigeria will keep defeating its own people, like another columnist once posited?  When you begin to heave some sighs of relief in Nigeria is when the political class signal to you that uhuru remains a saddening mirage.

And although the private universities seem to be in clear competition with the government owned ones and are often quick to orchestrate their rating by just any group or individual, they have been strident in making persistent calls to get some share of the TETFUND funding, which statutorily should go only to universities, polytechnics and colleges of education owned by the federal and state governments. For them, the little commonwealth dedicated to public schools must still accrue to the schools owned by the rich class, which was never compelled to establish any university.

As such, beyond The Explainer, the regular newspapers and other media houses published the same story and never had to retract it, as a result of any form of denial. Indeed, for many who don’t have access to The Explainer, it was the regular media that broke the news. Then came further reinforcement of this at the inauguration of the newly constituted councils of the federal universities. So, the truism of the unity of bias and preference of the political class no longer takes time to manifest? And, the philosophical approach to governance by OBJ and Tinubu is the same after all? So, the interest of the people may never matter in our dear country? 

So, the people’s triumph over and above the machinations of Obasanjo’s education minister, Oby Ezekwesili, was only temporary? Is this how Nigeria will keep defeating its own people, like another columnist once posited?  When you begin to heave some sighs of relief in Nigeria is when the political class signal to you that uhuru remains a saddening mirage. This is what the plan to bring in foreign investors to come and exploit supposed beneficiaries of our national heritage portends unmistakably. It particularly smacks of lazy thinking that appropriates no gain to the sacrifices made by some past, heroic Nigerians. If anyone is in doubt, what spectacular good have the DisCos impacted on electricity distribution in the country?

The Obasanjo government convened a presidential summit on education in Abuja. Contrary to the usual practice, the late Sultan Maccido who was specially invited to that meeting, was made to fly in a commercial aircraft to the event in Abuja. The summit over, the Sultan never made it back home. The commercial aircraft he used crashed and the story ended there.

Soon afterwards, the Education Minister announced that they had perfected the policy to sell off all the Unity Schools, otherwise known as Federal Government Colleges. Pronto, they summoned the principals of the Unity Schools. They read out the plan they had formulated for the principal to go and implement. The NUC facility used for the frustrating meeting became dead silent as soon as Ezekwesili’s address was over. 

One of the school principals at the meeting stood up to reconfirm their status as the marketing officers of the new policy to sell off the schools to new investors, which would mean increases in fees payable by the pupils, as well as the commercialist reconceptualisation of the employment terms of the staff.  He wondered why the ‘big bosses’ never deemed it fit to get them involved in the process of the formulation of the new, anti-people policy.

Unlike some leaders with unenviable political trajectories, President Tinubu is still perceived as one that should be guided by history, especially with his obvious and not so obvious radical background dating back to the anti-military struggle years.

Within me on that day, the feeling was that of extreme bitterness against the Nigerian state. As the Special Assistant to the Minister of State in that Ministry, late Dr Sayyadi Abba Ruma (of blessed memory), that morning was the first time I also got to know about the sinister plan. Incidentally, I was just grooming my son to enroll at King’s College in Lagos. The new policy however seemed hell-bent on forestalling my son’s dream school. 

But the prayers of poor Nigerians were answered with the intense public outcry against the obnoxious agenda. Eventually, the admission was stalled for a year or so. When it was clear that the sadists’ plan could no longer take off, the admission process into those schools was reopened, thus clearing the road for my son, who is now a COREN-accredited engineer.

But we have always had this thought that the Tinubu government would never be in want of ideas before taking off. The journey so far, however, has not been quite reassuring, with avoidable errors in a number of situations. It needs be clearly stated here that the commencement of the loan scheme for students may not be sufficient to stem the chaos that the investors may likely generate, with possible profiteering like their counterparts in the power sector are slapping on Nigerians. Must this government do back-and-forth like it did in the banking sector, announcing a policy and withdrawing it within hours? Must we wait till we have to confront a replay of the political storm raging in Kenya?

Unlike some leaders with unenviable political trajectories, President Tinubu is still perceived as one that should be guided by history, especially with his obvious and not so obvious radical background dating back to the anti-military struggle years.

If the planned sale of the unity schools failed, why would anyone think that the euphemism of bringing in investors into the management of our grand commonwealth in the education sector would not fail? Will TETFUND be scrapped? Is the newly introduced loan scheme intended to subtly undermine the overall public interest? Nigerians will always stand up to protect their commonwealth, it is certain, especially as also encouraged by President Tinubu, who is renowned for his support for this.

As was the case with the Lagos local governments funds withheld by the OBJ government, so shall Nigerians triumph on the imminent avoidable crisis in the public universities.

Tunde Akanni is an associate professor of journalism at the Lagos State University. Follow him on X via @AkintundeAkanni.