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“It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.” – Voltaire
Voltaire’s timeless truth still unsettles tyrants: those who dare to be right in the face of entrenched wrongs are often condemned before they are celebrated. From Socrates to Galileo, from prophets to patriots, those who stood for truth were punished not for being wrong — but for being inconveniently right.
The Solitary Stream of Conviction
Bola Ahmed Tinubu never sailed his political boat in the mainstream. Against the frequent justification by defecting governors that they “wanted to be in the mainstream” or “part of the centre,” Tinubu stood apart. His eyes were on Lagos — his chosen theatre of reform — and he refused to let the distractions of federal politics derail his democratic convictions. While others chased proximity to power, he pursued the principles that outlast power itself. Let us peep into his antecedents.
The Senate Rebel of 1992
In 1992, under General Ibrahim Babangida’s military transition programme, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, representing Lagos West, rose as one of the few voices who refused to lend legitimacy to a charade masquerading as democracy. When the junta sought to manipulate the Senate into endorsing undemocratic decrees, Tinubu led a walkout — a symbolic rebellion against authoritarian interference.
That singular act marked him out among his peers as a man unafraid to confront power with principle. While others bowed to survival instincts, Tinubu chose to side with the spirit of democracy, not its shadow. It was this defiance that seeded his future role as one of the enduring architects of Nigeria’s democratic restoration.
The Lagos Resistance: Governor Against the Centre
From 1999 to 2007, Tinubu’s democratic credentials matured in the crucible of conflict. As Governor of Lagos State, he confronted the overbearing might of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration in defence of local government creation and autonomy.
Tinubu had established 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) to bring governance closer to the people — a noble vision rooted in federal principles. But the Obasanjo-led Federal Government declared them illegal and withheld Lagos State’s local government allocations for years.
Tinubu took the battle to the Supreme Court and won. The judgment became a landmark victory for federalism and constitutionalism. That triumph immortalized him as a defender of true devolution and grassroots democracy. It was one of the boldest confrontations with central tyranny since Nigeria’s return to civil rule.
The Paradox of Power
But as time tests all men, the story has changed. The man who once defied the centre to defend autonomy now presides over a political structure that stifles that same principle across states.
Local government elections in Lagos — his own bastion — have become political rituals devoid of competition. Rivers State, once a rival, now mirrors the same one-party dominance. And Osun State, under his political family, has turned local councils into administrative extensions of the ruling elite rather than expressions of the people’s will.
This is the paradox of power: the rebel who once fought for plurality now presides over conformity. The Ambassador of Minority Politics has become the god of Majority Rule — intolerant of dissent, suspicious of difference.
Legacy and the Verdict of Time
The Yoruba warn: “Gbogbo wa ò lè sùn ká kó orí síbì kan náà” — we cannot all sleep and turn our heads in the same direction. Diversity is the strength of democracy, not its weakness.
Tinubu’s legacy will not be measured by the number of elections he wins or the number of men who bow before him, but by whether he preserved the freedom he once fought for. His name was carved into the nation’s history by his courage to differ; that courage must not now be erased by the fear of opposition.
Human legacies thrive not on the power men wielded, but on the truth they stood for. Those who conquered power but lost principle were soon forgotten. Those who lost power but kept truth became immortal.
The test of this time is not of Nigeria alone — it is Tinubu’s personal trial before the tribunal of history.
Will he be remembered as the democrat who built bridges of freedom, or the monarch who demanded silence?
Will his truth be engraved in time, or fade with the noise of power?
Time, like truth, never forgets — and both are relentless judges.
Dr Bolaji O. Akinyemi, is an Apostle and a Nation Builder.
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