TINUBU GOES M.I.A.
Nick Dazang
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, must be the butt of the coarsest and most cruel taunt.
More than seven days after he attended, with aplomb, a two-day World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth and Energy for Development in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which ended on Monday, 29th April 2024, the whereabouts of Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was unknown. He simply went Missing In Action(M.I.A.)!
Not even he, who was supposed to have been voted into office by his compatriots, nor his handlers whose remit it is to communicate the goings-on in the presidency, had the courtesy to tell Nigerians where he was. And to say that this happened in this voluble age of the information superhighway, with the internet and the social media, beggars belief and comprehension.
Speculations, ineluctably, became rife. Some newspapers reported that the President was sighted in London. Others said he had made a detour to France, where he had visited in a similar fashion for medicals.
If President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was not elected by Nigerians, and if we were not operating a democracy, he would have been perfectly entitled to privacy or even to be Absent Without Leave(AWOL). But he was sworn in some twelve months ago to uphold and dignify the office of the President and the Constitution.
Being president of the federal republic of Nigeria goes with enormous responsibilities. One of which is that the president reports to Nigerians who voted for him. He must also be transparent and accountable. And he is subject, at all times, to public scrutiny. He cannot therefore behave or carry himself on a whim. Neither can he take his citizens for granted. Even monarchies, which are foisted, and are not voted for, have come to appreciate the wisdom in being transparent and leveling with their subjects. This explains the recent disclosure of the health statuses of two of Britain’s royals.
That Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu could allow his whereabouts – and for the second time – to be the subject of speculations smacks of gross disrespect to the Nigerian people and a desecration of his exalted office. Perhaps the Chief, before he ascended the presidency, never appreciated its magnitude or its dignity. Or perhaps, after he had acquired the presidency, he had come to view it as a plaything and something to be treated with disdain or contempt.
If his comportment suggests an unfathomable superciliousness, it may yet provide an inkling to something untoward which the President may be hiding from his compatriots. This thesis is borne out, and supported, by the President’s chequered pedigree – a pedigree replete with several question marks. Never in our annals have we had a leader whose antecedent( from his age, place of birth, date of birth, and schools attended) has been a subject of profound doubt and controversy. Additionally, caginess and undue secrecy seem to define the President.
Compounding a near cloak-and-dagger secretiveness are the security concerns these sudden and inexplicable disappearances must raise and elicit. What happens to the President in the course of these disappearances, real or feigned? What if our enemies take advantage of these disappearances to, God forbid, visit harm on the President? What if our traducers use it to put the President in a situation where he has to compromise his country or be the subject of blackmail?
Assuming these disappearances are meant to serve as opportunities to rest, away from the pressures of his office, or to attend to his health, since it is a given that all humans are susceptible to stress or ill health, why can’t he do so in Nigeria?
Nigeria boasts of well appointed and discreet resorts, such as the Obudu Cattle Ranch or the Yankari Games Reserves, where leaders can retreat, reflect and strategize. It is on record that former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Umaru Yar’Adua had found recourse in the clement and calm ambience of the Obudu Cattle Ranch. So have many organizations and our Armed Forces. The Obudu Cattle Ranch has sumptuous conference and accommodation facilities that can rival that of any five-star hotel.
When our leaders patronize our resorts, they save hard currency and they give ringing endorsements to them. Besides, our resorts are secure and are less vulnerable to being bugged. Come to think of it: how does your assiduous canvassing and soliciting for Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) come across when, by your showing preference for foreign facilities, you have wittingly or unwittingly de-marketed or devalued yours?
Rather than surreptitiously patronize hospitals abroad, why can’t we put the State House Clinic, the National Hospital and our University Teaching Hospitals in fine fettle? Why can’t we put them in such good order, equip them with state-of-the-art facilities and motive their staff robustly so that we can be treated at home?
What our leaders do not realize is that even as they make a fetish of their health statuses and are content to surrender themselves to foreign medical personnel, the allegiance of these foreign health personnel is to their country first. Which is why at the height of the Cold War, the stools and urines of Soviet leaders, who visited the West, were promptly evacuated and repatriated to Moscow. This is because a cursory look at the stool and urine by a lab technician will betray a person’s likely health challenges and other vulnerabilities.
President Tinubu should show Nigerians a modicum of respect. He should level with us if he has any health challenge(s). After all, he is only human. Failing that, he should refrain from what seem to be juvenile disappearances.
The presidency, as I once argued, is hallowed and is a tough call. It is not a place for kids’ jokes. Neither is it a haven for games of hide and seek.
