Close Menu
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Trending
    • Lagos-Calabar, Sokoto-Badagry Projects: Tinubu Moves Surveyor-General’s Office To Aso Rock
    • Minister Goronyo Commissions ₦3.6bn Japanese-Donated Equipment For National Road Maintenance
    • Radio Station Closure Shows Abuse Of Power, Amnesty Tells Niger Governor
    • Yar’adua University Expels 57 Students Over Exam Malpractice
    • Marked By Culture, Judged By Society: Nigerians With Tribal Marks Speak Out On Stigma, Pride, Pain
    • NDLEA, FG To Begin Mandatory Drug Tests For 800,000 New Undergraduates From September
    • ‘Use Your Influence To Foster Unity, Not Division’, Tinubu Tells New Media Influencers
    • ‘I Don’t Belong There’, Kemi Badenoch Renounces Nigerian Identity, Says Britain Is Her Home
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    NEWS POINT NIGERIANEWS POINT NIGERIA
    UBA 720X90
    • HOME
    • NEWS

      Lagos-Calabar, Sokoto-Badagry Projects: Tinubu Moves Surveyor-General’s Office To Aso Rock

      August 2, 2025

      Minister Goronyo Commissions ₦3.6bn Japanese-Donated Equipment For National Road Maintenance

      August 2, 2025

      Radio Station Closure Shows Abuse Of Power, Amnesty Tells Niger Governor

      August 2, 2025

      Yar’adua University Expels 57 Students Over Exam Malpractice

      August 2, 2025

      Marked By Culture, Judged By Society: Nigerians With Tribal Marks Speak Out On Stigma, Pride, Pain

      August 2, 2025
    • COLUMN

      Super Falcons Deserve Every Kobo: Stop The Unnecessary Debate – By Jonathan Nda-Isaiah

      August 1, 2025

      Balkanisation, Push-Back: Can ADC Weather The Storm? – By Zainab Suleiman Okino

      July 31, 2025

      Buhari: May Our Subsequent Leaders Die At Home (2) – By Dr Hassan Gimba

      July 28, 2025

      New Wave Of Malnutrition And The Road To 2027 – By Dr Dakuku Peterside

      July 28, 2025

      Dignifying The Nigeria Police – By Kazeem Akintunde

      July 28, 2025
    • EDUCATION

      13 Countries Offering Free Or Low-Cost PhD Programmes For Non-Citizens

      January 25, 2025

      NECO: Abia, Imo Top Performing States In Two Years, Katsina, Zamfara Come Last

      October 3, 2024

      NBTE Accredits 17 Programmes At Federal Polytechnic Kabo

      August 20, 2024

      15 Most Expensive Universities In Nigeria

      May 19, 2024

      FULL LIST: Tinubu Appoints Former SGF Yayale, Ex-Governor Yuguda, Muhammad Abacha, Jega In Universities’ Governing Councils

      May 18, 2024
    • INTERNATIONAL

      ‘A Death Journey’: Palestinians Describe Aid Site Turmoil In Gaza

      August 1, 2025

      Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines In Row With Russia’s Putin

      August 1, 2025

      Palestinian Newborns Starving In Gaza As Infant Formula Runs Out

      August 1, 2025

      Microsoft Accuses Russia’s FSB Of Using Malware Against Foreign Embassies

      August 1, 2025

      Israel Starves More Palestinians To Death In Gaza As Attacks Continue

      July 31, 2025
    • JUDICIARY

      FULL LIST: Judicial Council Recommends Appointment Of 11 Supreme Court Justices

      December 6, 2023

      Supreme Court: Judicial Council Screens 22 Nominees, Candidates Face DSS, Others

      November 29, 2023

      FULL LIST: Judicial Commission Nominates 22 Justices For Elevation To Supreme Court

      November 16, 2023

      Seven Key Issues Resolved By Seven Supreme Court Judges

      October 26, 2023

      FULL LIST: CJN To Swear In Falana’s Wife, 57 Others As SANs November 27

      October 12, 2023
    • POLITICS

      What Peter Obi May Lose If He Joins Coalition As VP Candidate

      May 25, 2025

      Atiku Moves To Unseat Wike’s Damagum As PDP Chairman, Backs Suswam As Replacement

      April 15, 2024

      Edo’s Senator Matthew Uroghide, Others Defect To APC

      April 13, 2024

      Finally, Wike Opens Up On Rift With Peter Odili

      April 2, 2024

      El-Rufa’i’s Debt Burden: APC Suspends Women Leader For Criticising Kaduna Gov

      March 31, 2024
    • SPORTS

      Adamawa Governor Gifts Super Falcons’ Coach ₦50m, House For WAFCON Victory

      August 1, 2025

      Man United Plot Blockbuster Swoop For PSG’s Goalkeeper, Donnarumma

      August 1, 2025

      Super Eagles Forward, Osimhen Completes Transfer To Galatasaray In Record €75m Deal

      August 1, 2025

      AfroBasket 2025: Nigeria’s D’Tigress To Play Cameroon In Quarter-Final

      August 1, 2025

      Nigeria’s D’Tigress Await Angola, Cameroon As 2025 Afrobasket Enters Quarterfinals

      July 31, 2025
    • MORE
      • AFRICA
      • ANALYSIS
      • BUSINESS
      • ENTERTAINMENT
      • FEATURED
      • LENS SPEAK
      • INFO – TECH
      • INTERVIEW
      • NIGERIA DECIDES
      • OPINION
      • Personality Profile
      • Picture of the month
      • Science
      • Special Project
      • Videos
      • Weekend Sports
    NEWS POINT NIGERIANEWS POINT NIGERIA
    UBA 720X90
    Home - Tinubu, Abeokuta Declarations, Emi Lokan And Equity

    Tinubu, Abeokuta Declarations, Emi Lokan And Equity

    By Hassan GimbaFebruary 13, 2023
    38ADA110 B9E6 4B06 A279 90B6F3A2E749

    THERE is something about Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Jagaba of Borgu and the presidential candidate of the All Peoples Congress (APC), and Abeokuta.

    Whenever he feels threatened or that things are not going the way he wants them to, he goes to Abeokuta and delivers what we can term a declaration – in Yoruba. Appealing to the sentiments of the Yoruba, he plays the victim of a conspiracy. True or false, it somehow pays for him. Agreed declarations are not legally binding but they show certain aspirations.

    That he finds solace in making what we could term declarations in the town founded in 1830 by fleeing settlers may be symbolic. Shodeke, a hunter and leader of the Egba refugees who had fled from the disintegrating Oyo Empire, founded it that year.

    UBA

    Abeokuta, from the Yoruba phrase “Abé òkúta” means under the rocks or refuge among the rocks because of the presence of giant rocks, most notable being the Olumo Rock. It signifies the protection the Olumo Rock offered the refugees from potential attacks.

    Tinubu has always been the man to beat in the run-up to the APC presidential primary. And so it was that when he felt his party’s ticket may slip away from his grasp, with conflicting signals emerging and the national chairman of his party endorsing someone else, he went to Abeokuta a week before the primary election and sought the sanctuary the Olumo Rock could offer.

    WIDGET ADS

    There he declared it was “Emi lo kan,” meaning “it is my turn,” that is, it is now his turn to be president. Going down memory lane, he said, “If not for me that led the war front, Buhari won’t have emerged as president. He tried the first time, he failed, the second time, he failed, the third, he failed, he even wept on national television and vowed never to contest again but I went to meet him in Kaduna and told him he will run again, I will stand by you and you will win, but you must not joke with Yorubas and he agreed.”

    He then added that he had benefitted nothing from the Buhari government and, therefore, it is the turn of the Yoruba and even among the Yoruba, the turn is his: “Since he became the president, I have never got ministerial slots. I didn’t collect any contract. I have never begged for anything from him, not soup, not even fura. It is the turn of Yoruba. It is my turn.”

    Thomas Sankara African Leadership Prize

    Though a front-runner, that outburst helped by stifling plans against his ambition, assuming there were any, and he won with a very wide margin.

    Then came Wednesday 25th January, once more at a campaign rally in Abeokuta, where he played the victim of the long lingering fuel queue and the naira redesign with its attendant scarcity. He said, “Even if they said there is no fuel, we will trek to vote.

    Nigerian TAX Reform - Federal Goverment

    They have a lot of mischiefs; they could say there is no fuel. They have been scheming to create a fuel crisis, but forget about it.”

    Visibly angry during the rally, the APC presidential candidate declared that anti-party activities by a cabal at the presidency working secretly with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, is going on but that the Tinubu/Shettima combination will win the presidential election.

    Assuring the people, he said, “Relax, I, Asiwaju, have told you that the issue of fuel supply will be permanently addressed. Whoever wants to eat the honey embedded in a mountain won’t worry about the axe. Is that not so? And if you want to eat palm kernel, you would bring stone and use it to break it, then the kernel will come out.

    National Orientation Agency Page UP
    National Orientation Agency - Down

    “Let them increase the price of fuel and hoard it; let them hoard money, the naira. We will go and vote and we will win. Even if they change the ink on naira notes; whatever their plans, it will come to nought. We are going to win. Those in the PDP will lose (won ma lule).

    “I am a homeboy. I have come here. You will not be put to shame; we will take over the government from them, the traitors who wanted to contest with us. They had no experience,” Tinubu added.

    This raises the issue of equity and turns, which have become a vapid subject. Assuming it is a “turn by turn” affair between the North and South, then we can say the North “did” it for ten years and the South for fourteen. Then who is in deficit and, therefore, who ought to produce again?

    Conversely, if one insists on turns between divides, then if the presidency goes South, which of the geopolitical zones there has not tasted it? Is there fairness for a zone to be there twice while there is another in the same divide that has not? You see, there are many issues around this “turn by turn” thing, but equity must reign. We must be fair to ourselves and our nation because that is the only way we can get it right.

    But then, this world, or rather Nigeria and Nigerians, is most of the time not about justice or fairness. We place ourselves and our interests above all else. I now agree with Dale Carnegie who, over a hundred years ago, observed that “when dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity.”

    Dr Hassan Gimba is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Neptune Prime. His syndicated column appears on News Point Nigeria Medium on Mondays.

    Hassan Gimba’s Column Tinubu
    Share. Facebook Twitter WhatsApp LinkedIn Telegram Email

    Related Posts

    Lagos-Calabar, Sokoto-Badagry Projects: Tinubu Moves Surveyor-General’s Office To Aso Rock

    August 2, 2025

    ‘Use Your Influence To Foster Unity, Not Division’, Tinubu Tells New Media Influencers

    August 1, 2025

    Super Falcons Deserve Every Kobo: Stop The Unnecessary Debate – By Jonathan Nda-Isaiah

    August 1, 2025

    Two Years Of Tinubu: Kaduna Dialogue Signals A New Era For Northern Nigeria – By Dr. Musa Abdullahi Sufi

    August 1, 2025
    Add A Comment
    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    Latest Posts

    Lagos-Calabar, Sokoto-Badagry Projects: Tinubu Moves Surveyor-General’s Office To Aso Rock

    August 2, 2025

    Minister Goronyo Commissions ₦3.6bn Japanese-Donated Equipment For National Road Maintenance

    August 2, 2025

    Radio Station Closure Shows Abuse Of Power, Amnesty Tells Niger Governor

    August 2, 2025

    Yar’adua University Expels 57 Students Over Exam Malpractice

    August 2, 2025

    Marked By Culture, Judged By Society: Nigerians With Tribal Marks Speak Out On Stigma, Pride, Pain

    August 2, 2025
    Advertisement
    WIDGET ADS
    News Point NG
    © 2025 NEWS POINT NIGERIA Developed by ENGRMKS & CO.
    • Home
    • About us
    • Disclaimer
    • Our Advert Rates
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

    Join Us On WhatsApp