*Photo: President Bola Tinubu*
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 72 years on mother earth have provided invaluable insights into the true meaning of vision, foresight, focus, tenacity and grace. In politics, these virtues are often reflected in the use of language.
Today, in the context of the President’s birthday on 29 March, 2024, this column examines his template of presidential rhetoric. This is important, given the tendency for commentators to claim that the President has not been reputed to be gifted in oratory, irrespective of his remarkably witty and profound use of language.
President Tinubu is a man of immense grassroots appeal who holds the common people in high esteem, touches base with them constantly and bends to their will on critical matters. In a widely reported 2 October, 2018 speech to journalists, in Lagos, he himself explains, as follows, why he bows to the wishes of his followers: “It’s only if you have followers that you’re a leader in democracy. If I look back and I don’t find them again; if I don’t respond to them, if I fail to accede to their request, I would have failed the leadership test. … For you to become an influential person, you have to respond to the yearnings of the people. This is politics; democracy, one man, one vote.”
In consonance with this common touch, he speaks the language of the people. For example, at the 29 March 2018 Bola Tinubu Colloquium in Lagos, in his reaction to the criticism that the All Progressives Congress (APC) government of President Muhammadu Buhari was harping on the failure of the preceding People’s Democratic Party (PDP) government of President Goodluck Jonathan rather than embarking on its own meaningful governance, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu said: “Ah! They say don’t talk about it. Enhn? What should we talk about? … And if we’re not talking about it, then what is the lesson to all Nigerians? Forget those batches. They won’t come back. No nation without its challenges. Even America is facing challenges. … We didn’t say we will not be challenged. But we have to report to millions of Nigerians who voted for us that this is what we found. And we’re not going to take it off the ground no matter how twisting the mind of PDP and their supporters may be. We’ll keep talking about it: ‘You looted. You wasted our resources …’ Yoruba says, ‘Àì tètè m’ólè, olè ń sá lọ.’”
In this excerpt, he uses common speech fragments (i.e., “Ah!”, “Enhn?”) to infuse his speech with a dose of cynicism, and he uses street lingo (i.e., “They won’t come back.”). “They won’t come back” is a Lagos street idiom which is a literal English translation of the Yoruba expression “Wọn ò níí wá mọ́.” The idiomatic equivalent of this expression in English is “Good riddance to bad rubbish”. He also varies the content of the standard Yoruba proverb “Àì tètè m’ólè, olè ń m’ólóko.” (‘Not catching the thief fast enough makes the thief to catch the farmer.’). This proverb is the equivalent of the English proverb, “Thief cries ‘Catch thief.’” To create folk humour, he rendered the proverb in parodied form as, “Àì tètè m’ólè, olè ń sá lọ.” (‘Not catching the thief fast enough makes the thief to run away.’)
President Tinubu also undertook the rhetorical variation of the standard Yoruba proverb “Ọmọ ẹni kò sè’dí bẹ̀bẹ̀rẹ̀ ká f’ìlẹ̀kẹ̀ sí t’ọmọ ẹlòmíràn.” (‘When your own child is sufficiently endowed, you don’t adorn the buttocks of somebody else’s with beads.’) On 28 March, 2024, the President appealed to Nigerian religious leaders as follows: “Pray for our country. … You don’t condemn your own nation. I’m a Yoruba man, and our fathers would say, no matter how slippery the bottom of your child, leave the bead there; leave the bead there. This is your country. Don’t condemn it in sermons. Don’t abuse the nation. … Don’t curse Nigeria. It’s a beautiful land; land of prosperity.” The proverb’s witty variation, complemented with repetition and lexical variation, is a solemn admonition to religious leaders to remain patriotic, whatever they may think the limitations of the country may be.
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu also spoke the language of the people at the earlier-mentioned 29 March, 2018 Bola Tinubu Colloquium in Lagos in his allusion to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s penchant for writing condemnatory open letters against his successors in office. Specifically, Asiwaju stated: “I remember my grandmother used to send me to a letter writer in the post office of those days and near the magistrate court. So, somebody who is writing letters these days, a letter of politics. As if they’ve never been [in government] before. Bad belle letters.” Here, he uses the pidgin expression, “Bad belle letters” (i.e., ‘Mischievous letters’), along with innuendo (or the indirect reference to former President Obasanjo) in order to show intense disapproval.
In his famous Èmilókàn speech delivered on 3 June, 2022, in Abeokuta, Ogun State, as an aspirant in the presidential primaries of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu further identified with the common people in the remarkable way he formed one of his words. Reviewing the past Vice-Presidential candidates President Muhammadu Buhari had chosen prior to 2015, Asiwaju Tinubu, mentioned Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, and described him as, “Okadigbo – flamboyant, faaji-loving Catholic”. The endearing compound word “faaji-loving” is attention-grabbing with respect to its unique composition. The first word “fàájì” is a Yoruba word and means ‘fun’, while the second one “loving” is an English word. The compound word “faaji-loving” is therefore an instance of strategic, creative code-mixing or language alternation, and is more striking than the fully-English synonym “fun-loving”.
In the Èmilókàn declaration – a speech in which he seemed to be fighting with his back against the wall – Asiwaju Tinubu did what in Yoruba Language is referred to in the expression “Ó fọ́’gbá yánga.” (Literally, ‘He smashed the calabash of inanities’, or idiomatically, ‘He went for broke.’) He was, in a sense, “speaking softly, but carrying a big stick”.
A historical article in the National Geographic on the 26th President of the United States stated as follows: “On September 2, 1901, United States Vice President Theodore Roosevelt outlined his ideal foreign policy in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair in Falcon Heights, Minnesota: ‘Speak softly, and carry a big stick.’ Two weeks later, Roosevelt became president and ‘Big Stick diplomacy’ defined his leadership.” A quizlet on this concept elucidates it this way: “Big stick ideology, big stick diplomacy, or big stick policy refers to U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt’s foreign policy: ‘speak softly, and carry a big stick.’ A proverb advising the tactic of caution and non-aggression, backed up by the ability to do violence if required.”
As a whole, the Èmilókàn speech seemed to have been a salvo fired to presage a fierce internecine political battle in which no prisoners would be taken. Graciously, key stakeholders read the Èmilókàn code accurately, and within 24 hours of the delivery of the Èmilókàn treatise, the tide changed in Asiwaju’s favour. 11 APC Northern Governors declared their support for the party’s presidential candidate to come from the South.
The code had served its purpose. In political communication, there are times when silence is golden; there are times for “speaking softly and carrying a big stick”; and there are times in which the appropriate thing is to growl. President Tinubu has shown an amazing grasp of these facts.
In the Èmilókàn speech, Asiwaju presented himself as an at least triply ‘sinned against’ political benefactor. The key message of the speech is: “I wiped off the tears of President Muhammadu Buhari, I saved the neck of Prince Dapo Abiodun, and I gave national visibility to Professor Yemi Osinbajo, but they seem to have been biting the fingers that fed them or at least conniving at the efforts to do me in.” The speech was therefore in essence an appeal to the sense of moral rectitude in which one good turn deserved another.
Of all of his witty expressions of his displeasure at what was perceived as treachery or lack of reciprocity by those whose backs he had had, the most strikingly brutal put down was in referring to the Executive Governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun, as Eléyí (‘This one’). In this reference, he seemed to have denuded the Governor of all of his resplendent trappings of office, and he coupled it with referring to him only by his first name, “Dapo”. Even with respect to body language (or non-verbal language), Asiwaju did not turn to look in the direction of the Governor, but only gestured backward, demeaningly and dismissively, at the Governor who was sitting right behind him. Regarding some of the other people he believed had not treated him right, he wittily deployed repetition, rhythm, metaphor and proverbs to make his point.
Remarkably, the Èmilókàn speech threw up its own set of proverbs. Some of Asiwaju’s critics claimed that, in the speech, he had displayed an “entitlement mentality” and an uncharitable recount of the political favours he had done others. In his defence, some of his supporters cited the following strikingly mitigating or euphemistic Yoruba proverb: “Nítorí àìgbọràn là ṣe dá àtẹnumọ́; nítorí àìmore là ṣe dá ìrègún.” (‘Stubbornness is the reason for incessant repetition; and ingratitude is the reason for recounting favours dispensed.’)
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu also demonstrated amazing wit by literalising a metaphorical expression in an observation made by a journalist on 11 April, 2022. Earlier that day, the incumbent Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, had declared his interest to join the APC presidential election primaries, which Tinubu had himself joined since 10 January, 2022.
The journalist drew Asiwaju’s attention to the development as follows: “Your son has just declared, sir.” Asiwaju’s response was, “I have no son grown enough to declare.” Here, the allusion to Professor Yemi Osinbajo metaphorically as Tinubu’s ‘political son’ by the journalist attracted Asiwaju’s indirect Osinbajo-repudiating, sarcastic literalisation of the word ‘son’ as Tinubu’s biological offspring.
More than anything else, 3 words that would patently mark the Tinubu Presidency are “Subsidy is gone.” The simple sentence they form is curtly and peremptory, and has been instantaneously far-reaching in effect. Words may be used to entertain or change the course of history. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu may not make a captivating compere, or an engaging standup comedian. He may not win the trophy for rhapsodising oratory. He seems to live rather by the English proverb, “Talk is cheap.”
So, in place of rapturous oratory, which incites momentary emotions with expressions which may be largely forgotten shortly after delivery, he deploys calm wit marked by the choice of simple, memorable words which have profound, remarkably more long-lasting impact. He doesn’t mesmerise with his words, he jolts with his actions.
Happy birthday, Mr. President!