Ministers: Tinubu Fulfilling Prediction Of Tanko Yakassai

Kano-based elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, had spoken to journalists about the consequences of electing Bola Tinubu as president of Nigeria shortly after the latter emerged as the presidential flagbearer of the All Progressive Congress in 2022.

He said if Tinubu was elected as president of the country, it would “signify the complete and total break away from military influence in our polity.”

On Monday when Tinubu inaugurated a 45-man cabinet, there was no ex-military man among the ministers, inadvertently confirming Yakassai’s political prognosis.

Tinubu, against all expectations, also appointed as ministers for the Ministry of Defence two former civilian governors without any military background. Mohammed Abubakar Badaru, who governed Jigawa State from 2015-2023, as the senior minister while ex-Zamfara governor, Bello Matawalle, as the minister of state.

Tinubu also broke with tradition when he appointed Nuru Ribadu, a retired assistant inspector general of police, as Nigeria’s first non-military National Security Adviser on June 19.

 He had earlier appointed him special adviser to the president on security, giving room to speculations that he would appoint an ex-military man as NSA.

In his statement of  June 9, 2022, Yakassai had stated that: “The election of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the APC Presidential Bearer is indeed an important political development in our country. This transition will lead us to a full-fledged democracy, a milestone of an acclaimed figure and political juggernaut of the APC National Leader to a National Leader of Nigeria.

“When Asiwaju, a sage, is eventually elected as the President of the country in the forthcoming Presidential Elections, history shall be made in our contemporary political development for a number of reasons.

“Paramount and if elected as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju’s election victory will signify the complete and total break away from military influence in our polity which will bring about the return of the country to a full pledge democratic tradition and practice for the first time since the return of civilian rule in 1999.

“It will also constitute a stamp of validation of the 1914 amalgamation of the people of Northern and Southern protectorates by the entire people of Nigeria of their own free will.

“It is gratifying to note that this is the first time the major Political Parties are fielding non-military actors as their Presidential standard-bearers.

“Therefore, it is important to appeal to all candidates vying for various political positions in the country to commit themselves to the principles of playing politics according to the rule of the game, eschew politics of bitterness, violence and do away with the culture of thuggery in our political activism and return the country to the path of civility in the conduct of partisan politics.”

When THE WHISTLER asked Yakassai on Monday why he said what he said, he said he only looked at the political history of Tinubu to give his opinion.

Yakassai said during a telephone interview that Nigerians are still trying to “build democracy” and that “there’s nowhere in the Nigerian Constitution which says military men must be included in the cabinet.”

He said, “No I didn’t know his mind. But if we’re talking about democracy, is there any military man in the government of the United Kingdom? Why must everyone be made to include a military man in the government?

“If you say a military man must be there, then the architect will also say they must be there, doctors and others too will demand same thing in the cabinet. How many countries in the world are obliged to include a military man in their cabinet?

“Certainly, it’s the beginning of a new dawn. Tinubu, after Shehu Shagari, is the only full-fledged politician to be elected president of Nigeria. He started politics as a member of a political party, then went on to become senator, then a governor and now he’s been elected president. He’s like Tafa Balewa and Shagari who started out as party men until they were given the leadership of the country.”