By Simbo Olorunfemi
It is one thing to dislike a player, it is another to constantly deride him. It is one thing to criticise, it is another for wannabe pundits, perched on the hill of self-exaggeration to summarily pronounce the end of a man whom they cannot even successfully read.
It is akin to playing God, when all you have in your hands is the derelict Ọ̀pẹ̀lẹ̀ that has consistently failed and continues to lead you astray. When you make projections on the basis of idle gossips, cheap conjectures and concocted correlations, you can only harvest disappointment.
This obsession with Tinubu by some of our people, is simply laughable. They think they know when they know not. They have concocted a game plan in their minds and they are now hearing all sorts of voices, even where everywhere is quiet.
Flights to Kano aborted because of inclement weather, it has to be because of Tinubu. It takes some drab sense of mischief to imagine or concoct some of these tales? So, the Governors did not pick up the hint before yesterday that Kano was a ‘No’ and they had to be forcefully stopped at the Abuja Airport? The Vice President, Ministers and other Dignitaries didn’t read the body language of Abuja and had to be forced back at the Airport?
The Colloquium, billed to be hybrid, was massively successful. Those who could not be there physically participated virtually. The President was on hand to chair the event. He and the Vice President, lead Organiser of the Colloquium, delivered their speeches remotely. The Governors who could not make the trip participated virtually from Abuja Airport.
What more can a man who has been out of office since 2007 ask for? People read what is not into what they do not understand. The man is many miles ahead of the idle conjectures fabricated and passed around here. The choice of Kano, strategic and symbolic. The reception, great. The event successful.
2023 is far, yet near. What will be will be. Transferring bitterness onto political analysis is a drawback to any meaningful projection. Remove yourself first so you can see clearly. Never say never. Never foreclose anything. You are not God. Throw away those outdated, derelict Ọ̀pẹ̀lẹs and study the game with an open mind. How can you understand a player you can’t read? How can you read a game you don’t know? Politics is not a game you read in haste.
-Simbo Olorunfemi, poet, writer and public affairs analyst, writes from Lagos