By The Editorial Board
What was Chief Bola Tinubu trying to accomplish in Chatham House?
Was he there to rollout his manifesto on how to rescue the nation from the precipice of ruin? Or was he there to legitimize himself to the international community as the self-anointed “presumptive president” of Nigeria? Or to introduce his pseudo cabinet to the world?
Whatever his aim, the outcome was indisputably a fiasco. He failed on all counts.
Almost everything that could go wrong did. And very fast. The APC Emperor exposed his nakedness to the world in full view. The sight was pitifully embarrassing.
Agree with his politics or not, any objective observer of the Chatham House circus cannot help but wonder about the competence, mental acuity and honesty of the man who wants to lead Nigeria.
For someone who doesn’t naturally ooze charisma, social intelligence, and communication skills, you would expect Tinubu to be well prepared to deliver the speech of his political life – a simple, honest, impactful and memorable speech that answers the question: What are you going to do to solve the wicked problems facing the nation?
He didn’t. He couldn’t. Because this was a self-congratulatory speech. It was all about announcing to the world that he is the “presumptive president” he arrogates to himself. Nigeria’s problems be damned!
In fact, the speech’s brevity (about 25 minutes) may well have been its best attribute. However, the speech was kept brief because Tinubu can’t stand reading, especially from the teleprompter, for long without feeling disoriented and confused, according to an insider who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Another plus was his stand against election violence when he said, “I stand firmly against all forms of electoral violence and intimidation.” Even so, he failed to declare his opposition to electoral fraud – INEC corruption, election manipulation, vote rigging, vote buying, ballot box stuffing, etc.
But these few pluses cannot make up for the speech’s absolute bungling incomprehensibility. It was cringeworthy.
As Tinubu drifted incoherently from word to word and took awkward pauses, he garbled and mispronounced words, and skipped lines. You can feel his nervousness in his slightly shaky voice. This fumbling made it difficult to understand what he was saying.
The bigger question is whether it was just speech anxiety that caused the fumbling and incoherence or something else that should concern Nigerians about Mr. Tinubu’s health, and his physical and emotional readiness to lead.
What Tinubu omitted in his speech is telling. As Nigerians struggle with a 48 percent unemployment rate, 21% inflation rate, high levels of poverty, insecurity, corruption, lawlessness, and ethnoreligious conflicts, Tinubu chose not to even mention these problems for political expediency – to appease the Buhari administration and the APC.
Of course, these problems are political toxins for Tinubu and the APC in this election and therefore self-incriminating and untouchable.
But by ignoring problems faced by millions of Nigerians, Tinubu’s address seemed irrelevant to the economic and social experience of long-suffering citizens. For this reason alone, the speech felt foreign, hollow and dishonest to Nigerians and the international community.
Then the-Emperor-has-no-clothes moment arrived during the question-and-answer (Q&A) session. The bait-and-switch was in full view. Nigerians wanted to hear directly from the man who wants their vote to be president, but what they got was mediocrity in full display – a bunch of Tinubu’s godchildren and surrogates rambling incoherently, trying to placate their godfather.
In fact, the Q&A session was a blatant con job, an organized swindle. As a presidential candidate, Tinubu owes a duty to the Nigerian people to directly address their concerns rather than abdicating the duty to his mediocre team. The Nigerian people have good reason to be concerned if this “team” is Tinubu’s pseudo cabinet, should he be elected.
Even a question on his biography could not be answered directly and honestly. He could be seen reading from a prepared cheat sheet. Everything felt canned. You had a feeling Tinubu was not honest, that you were being taken.
Sadly, Tinubu wasted a tremendous opportunity to showcase his preparedness to lead Nigeria and solve the people’s problems, if elected. In fact, whatever credibility and legitimacy he had before the Chatham House debacle, was severely eroded.
For Nigerians and international observers who watched the train wreck, Tinubu unclothe was a sight of utter embarrassment and disgrace. It will be difficult for Tinubu to recover from this self-inflicted wound, if ever.
How bad was the fiasco? So bad that even Tinubu’s ardent supporters who had gathered to watch the event were petrified and in a state of shock and utter silence. Several hid their faces in their hands, unable to watch the oratorical car crash unfolding before their eyes.
One watcher eloquently summarized his reaction, “Why did he even show up? We are not voting for El Rufai or any of the godchildren he brought to this event. Tinubu is the presidential candidate. If he can’t answer questions about the issues facing the country, he shouldn’t be president. I will never vote for a person who is unsure of himself and lacks the courage and self-confidence to answer questions openly.”
An international diplomat summarized the embarrassment when he asked, “Is this man the best Nigeria can put forward for president?”
Through this charade the world saw the APC Emperor naked and exposed, insensitive to the mass suffering of Nigerians; clueless and unqualified to solve the numerous problems facing the country.
Nigerians are finally beginning to speak the obvious truth and ask the most salient question: Is Tinubu fit to be president?
Claiming to be the “presumptive president” is self-delusional and a recipe for disaster, as the fiasco in Chatham House exemplified. We have no such classification in the Constitution. Tinubu should humble himself to the people who have the power of the ballot to elect who will be the next president of Nigeria.
How It All Happened
After dodging the Nigerian press since he declared his candidacy, Tinubu was very proud of the invitation to speak at the Chatham House. His propaganda machine hyped the event and sold it as if it was a stamp of approval from 10 Downing Street and the international community.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Tinubu would go to Chatham House prepared to deliver the speech of his life and directly answer questions (which he had dodged at home) about his vision, character, competence and commitment to be president, and his plans to deliver benefits to millions of long-suffering Nigerians.
No, this was Tinubu’s triumphant crowning as the presumptive president he claims. So, he brought a plane-load of his godchildren and handlers to London to celebrate his crowning. But left the problems facing Nigerian voters at home.
According to our sources, Tinubu’s handlers had assured him that the audience was preselected and therefore friendly; and that Chatham House agreed to his unusual request to have his godchildren answer questions directed to him. Tinubu was the sole architect of the bait and switch con.
This abdication of duty, we understand, was to shield Tinubu from public embarrassment given his well-known inability to think on his feet. Tinubu and his handlers must have realized that having him answer novel questions in public was too high a risk for the campaign.
The Bizarre Q&A Session
When the questions arrived, Tinubu decided to con the world and insult everyone who watched the debacle. Like a godfather, he summoned his godchildren and bootlickers to do his dirty bidding, to stand up and ramble unintelligibly. And ramble they did.
It was obvious that majority of the questions were “planted” (assigned to supporters ahead of the event) and the answers canned. But even that didn’t help. The chosen responders still bungled the answers.
For example, a salient question on national security was redirected to Gov. Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai.
Recall that El-Rufai is the current governor of Kaduna State — one of the most dangerous places in Nigeria (for evidence talk to state residents and read the state’s Annual Security Report). He is an ardent supporter and personal adviser to President Buhari. Under Buhari, Nigeria is a failed state driven by systemic insecurity – insurgency, religious conflicts, banditry, kidnaping, armed robbery and murder-for-hire, to name a few.
If El-Rufai is Tinubu’s go-to man on issues of national security, then the country is screwed. Nasir El-Rufai as Tinubu’s security expert is anathema to the security solution Nigeria urgently needs to protect life and property.
The other godchildren who “answered” questions were no better. We won’t waste time and space on them.
If this “Tinubu Team” circus is a dress rehearsal for his cabinet if he wins, then Nigeria is doomed. In this sense, the Tinubu administration will be worse than Buhari’s. At least Buhari had a few good men and women. What we saw in Chatham House is a cabal and a potential cabinet of mediocrity and incompetence.
Global Reaction Is Overwhelmingly Negative
Of course, viewer and media reactions to the fiasco in Chatham House ranged from the shocked to the furious.
For Nigerians who watched the event in viewing parties, majority felt conned and insulted by Tinubu’s refusal to answer key questions directly.
A Nigerian observer commented: “any politician who refuses to answer questions or avoids the topic on insecurity and the economy by deferring to his handlers doesn’t deserve to be elected president.”
A veteran Nigerian political expert who has analyzed Chatham House appearances concluded that, “Tinubu’s presence must go down as the worst of them all.”
Others wondered aloud how the Emperor and his handlers didn’t notice his nakedness before matching into Chatham House. Or more importantly, they question when will Nigerians become aware that the APC Emperor has no clothes?
Many were deeply disappointed with Chatham House, especially Dr. Alex Vines for running a “goat rodeo” as one observer put it. He lost control of the event and seemed complicit in the fiasco that unfolded by accepting to allow Tinubu to redirect to others important national security, economic and corruption (oil theft) questions that were directed to him as the presidential candidate.
There Is a Lesson Here
If Tinubu had honed his speaking and Q&A skills with the media in Nigeria ahead of the Chatham House event, he could have been better prepared for the international stage.
As in The Wizard of OZ, “there’s no place like home” Dorothy says at the end. Tinubu should go home and join Nigerians in town halls to answer their vexing questions, honestly. He should do interviews with the press and debate his opponents. He can’t hide any longer. Nigerians want to hear from him live. But will he?
Tinubu has already unleashed his army of spin doctors to normalize this fiasco as a success. His godchildren are flooding the airwaves, TV and social media with fantastical claims like: “asking his team to answer questions is a best practice.” Nonsense.
Well, seeing is believing. We saw the disaster unfold before us and no amount of propaganda will change the reality that the APC Emperor is totally naked. It will go down as one of the worst in Nigerian political history. Nigerians will remember this fiasco when they vote.
Final lesson: Claiming to be the “presumptive president” is self-delusional and a recipe for disaster, as the fiasco in Chatham House exemplified. We have no such classification in the Constitution. Tinubu should humble himself to the people who have the power of the ballot to select who will be the next president of Nigeria.
