At 70, twilight deepens on Bola Ahmed Ahmed Tinubu but his mettle attains the radiance of rebirth, like the proverbial patriot sculpted of spunk and spittle. Ornamented in self-creation, he suffers the muse of manic re-creators.

In the flora of imagination, he is a hero, a villain, a mentor, and a political godfather. He is a father, a husband, a brother, an uncle, and grandfather. He is also a patriot, a human.

In the estimation of friends and foes, the heart of his story is redacted and recast. Everybody defends or maligns Tinubu as politics and circumstances dictate – if this isn’t expedient belly magic, what is?

We have seen recipients of his benefactive politics hurl caution to the wind and pay it forward with malice. Some mutate as foes. “This must be witchcraft if not juju,” the acerbic millennial prowling Twitter would say.

Amid the clashing contrarieties triggered by his presidential ambition, only Tinubu’s deeds could validate him or otherwise. En route to the 2023 elections, many would rather see him decline in the shadows. Thus their wailing: “He mustn’t contest for the presidency;” “He should remain a kingmaker;” “What does he want again? He is too desperate;” “We need a youthful president;” “Is Tinubu what we need at this period?”

Such is the tenor of argument against Tinubu aka Asiwaju, and Jagaban Borgu. But while a handful of internet trolls caw and nibble to impair his worth,  many more are rooting – online and offline. Through their clapperclaw, Tinubu will become whatever was penned in his Qadar. If this includes “Mr. President,” so be it.

Facts don’t care about anyone’s feelings. The truth sprouts free of “stomach infrastructure.” Of the 2023 presidential aspirants, Asiwaju leads in stature and by his deeds. Nonetheless, he’s been frantically dismissed as infirm by parties threatened by his virtuosity and apparent bone strut.

There is no gainsaying Tinubu vies for the presidency in dire times. He must appreciate this moment for what it’s worth – when the neurotic tick-tock of midnight silences our whispers of dawn.

His cancellation of his annual colloquium to mourn victims of the Katari-Rijana train bombing by armed bandits suggests this much. About nine persons were reportedly killed by the terrorists on Monday night, while 25 others suffered gunshot wounds. More passengers have been declared missing.

Tinubu vies for the presidency amid our self-inflicted tragedies: terrorism, comatose oil refineries, substandard health and education, corporate banditry, and Yahoo Plus pandemic, to mention a few.

Critics of his ambition angrily crucify apologists of his candidacy irrespective of his merits. It’s that delicate. Many tales about him suffer enormous exclusions. In the foundry of political imagery, so much is excluded from Tinubu’s bust that we can feel his silhouette straining against the charged atmosphere, in combat with arbitrary sculpting.

Having bestrode the political scene, like a colossus for three decades, grooming leaders, his politics culminate in pursuit of his presidential ambition. Tinubu banks on his experience as Managing Auditor and Treasurer at Mobil, the oil company where he made his fortune, his professional training at American based-accounting firm, Arthur Anderson, then ‘Deloitte Haskins and Sells,’  General Motors, First National Bank of Chicago, Procter and Gamble, among others,

His re-engineering of Lagos’ fiscal regime, as the state governor, from a monthly internally generated revenue (IGR) of N600m to about N10 billion; and his exploits as a fiery warhorse, member, and financier of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), that fought the military to a standstill following the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election, are appreciable.

He has subsequently proved himself politically consistent as a  Senator on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the aborted Third Republic, the Alliance for Democracy (AD), and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was another attestation to his political savvy. He wooed the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) led by Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, the Congress for Political Change (CPC) led by Muhammadu Buhari, and his ACN, to form the APC thus thwarting the PDP’s boast to stay in power for at least 60 years.

In politics, Tinubu flaunts a quintessential stone architecture, but the random troll wants him to give it up for the use of a wily, lesser protege. Even if the latter suggests he isn’t man enough, playing ‘hide and seek’ with his presidential fantasy – thus lionising Tinubu and projecting himself as earthen ovule, manhood as quivering scorched egg.

Tinubu’s politics, honed through his lieutenants’ hostilities and betrayal, assumes tactical elegance – his principles of political sportsmanship are made more concrete. They serve him as you read. Ultimately, he is elevated or “reduced” to his essence. He is a blessing to those who truly know him and a role model to his closet and open detractors.

At 70, everyone wants a piece of Tinubu. Perhaps because he is the politician to beat despite the clamour for a younger candidate by segments of Nigeria’s youths. None of their whispered alternatives, however, is in his youth. Those who are could never win the 2023 elections.

None have shown the intellectual rigour, emotional maturity, stamina, discipline, native intelligence, and character displayed by Asiwaju.

Tinubu is ritualized personality, a streamlined pond, and a totem for sloganeering. He is detestable to his foes yet excitingly speckless to loyalists. The former committed to thwarting his ambition – why not project the glories of their super candidate rather than squander expensive time maligning Tinubu? Perhaps because their preferred candidate’s perfection is chiefly for display, not exploitable. He can only tickle their fancy from his social media balcony – his window of appearance.

If all politics thrive by a window of appearance, Tinubu’s face is the sun of consciousness rising over his professed horizon. The unrestrained malice of the anti-Tinubu campaigners, however, thrives by theft of morality. The same herd that condemned national heroes and ex-Super Eagles stars for celebrating with him has turned a blind eye to Timi Dakolo’s performance at serial presidential aspirant, Atiku Abubakar’s declaration launch- for the umpteenth time.

To his rivals and detractors, Tinubu is both exposed and enclosed, a torment and an idol. He is naked yet armoured, vilified yet ritually adored. Thus he must understand if, for instance, his democratic credentials are radically questioned by a news medium notorious for its tyrant disposition to staff, institutionalized bigotry, and double standards.

He’d appreciate why a TV station may hawk magazine slots, at millions of bribe naira, for anyone seeking to malign him; he’d appreciate why a Yahoo Boy (advance fee fraudster), a bitter rival, and the most acerbic cynic may write him off as anathema.

He must appreciate too why he must soak it all in like a garbage dump, knowing it’s a prerequisite for a patriot seeking to serve Nigerians of vast bigotries, intellect, and stripes. He must respond in truth, patience, competence, understanding, and love.

He must understand that his most bitter critics are essential to his pirouette to greater significance. If the presidency is divinely penned in his Qadar, no force in the world could thwart him.

Of all his names, I am in love with his oriki, Akanbi, manifestly because I answer to it. An Akanbi is an Akanda Eda – inured to the odds, forged to triumph through tumult.

Nigeria is in a state of war, a frigid blank zone under siege. It might take an Akanbi to liberate her.

Happy 70th anniversary to Asiwaju Tinubu.

This article by Olatunji Ololade was first published in the Nation Newspaper on the 31st day of March 2022