TINUBU’S NATIVE INTELLIGENCE

Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the former Lagos State governor and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, took the ‘hot seat’ opposite journalists recently. That was after he visited the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to notify him of his decision to contest for the highest office in the land. Certainly, fellow journalists would make the most of this opportunity by asking the former governor all the questions they had in mind. So I was keen to see how the presidential hopeful would respond, not the politics that was core to the interaction.
This isn’t the first time I’ve written on how public figures conduct themselves during interviews, press briefings and personal interactions. I have a long list: cabinet ministers, diplomats, government spokespersons, judges of the International Court at the Hague, academics, etc. The last one was the interview the Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning, Zainab Ahmed, gave the BBC (“BBC 0, Nigeria 4”, July 8, 2021). People may concentrate on what public figures say and the obvious issues they address. I concentrate on the manner they say things, the mentality behind what they say as well as what they don’t say, checking how they come across in the process.
I do this because I enjoy reading people beyond the surface, linking their words and gestures to what they can do or not do. I also link the past to the present, recalling other personalities and issues that are similar or dissimilar, while mentally processing occurrences in the course of an interview at those different levels stated. This goes on even as I manage to follow what the personality before me is saying. I have severally noted such situations on this page but there’s a specific example I like to restate here.
After I completed my doctorate programme, I wrote a piece about my experiences regarding my political science professors. There was one in particular who was very quiet. When he talked, the person two seats away from him might not hear so I learnt early to pay full attention and listen closely to every word he uttered, digesting it carefully. This professor never showed emotion as most people do but based on my past experiences I could place him in a category. I sensed what would be manifested by a professor who was infinitely calm. Later, I discovered to my surprise that my colleagues didn’t notice what I noticed. They didn’t read the mind behind the man as I did. They weren’t matching the disposition of the professor in question to what he potentially could do or not do.
This surprised me the more for the simple reason that most of my colleagues had their first and second degrees in the same department. Yet, I came in for this peak of an academic programme but saw and linked what they never did with this professor. They never read him beyond what he said in class. There was this particular occasion when we were seated around the table with the professor I refer to. He commented on some issues. As he did, I digested what he was saying beyond the setting in which we were. I thought about the mentality behind it and what this professor could do, even as I managed to keep my mind on what he continued to say.
Days later, my colleagues raised the issues discussed during the previous encounter. They were saying something different from what the professor said. I found this shocking. How could all of us have listened and everyone else didn’t hear him right? I stated what the professor said. My colleagues disagreed and said they would persuade the professor to change his mind even if I was right. I said from what I read of the man he would be firm and nothing would make him change his mind. I left them, insisting I wouldn’t go with them to be part of an effort in futility. Later, I was informed that the professor told them that what I said was exactly what he had said. As for changing his mind over the issue in contention, he didn’t. I was certain he wouldn’t; quiet, calm people aren’t stupid, they have their strengths too. Whoever rates them low does so at his own peril.
As I watched the former Lagos State governor in the course of his interaction with journalists, his careful selection of words and calm response indicated to me that he was well aware that journalists had come with a barrage of questions. He was aware that they would raise issues that, if not carefully navigated, might be presented later in a sensational and misrepresented manner. We know what such colourful headlines would look like. That time, I noticed that Tinubu was prepared for tricky questions in a manner a Yoruba elder, who plays the ayo board game, would prepare ahead for a clever younger player. The politician deployed all the native intelligence tactics he had in his arsenal. I thought it was the best way he could go about that interview without hitches. For we all know the public speculations that have trailed his next political move. So, if fellow journalists didn’t ask all the questions, I would have pointed it out here. But they did and the politician they confronted, to me, appeared prepared to outmanoeuvre them on their own turf.
You transformed Lagos, do same for Nigeria, Niger gov tells Tinubu
That interview session was one that could get any politician enmeshed in more controversies. It could have raised more questions than answers. But the manner Tinubu went about it somewhat calmed nerves, laid pertinent questions to rest, and the political space has become less restive thereafter. This was to the credit of the man at the centre of the issue at hand. He didn’t get involved in the semantics that some questions could generate and neither did he respond to delicate questions at the sometimes shallow argumentative level from which some other less experienced politician might.
Tinubu took each question in the manner I’ve always advocated public figures should, i.e. no question from a journalist is stupid, rather responding to it in a polished manner is an opportunity to persuasively rubbish the arguments of critics. That time, Tinubu went to the root of what he needed to provide responses to. That’s informed by wisdom, the native intelligence that tactful elderly Africans often deploy whenever clever young men face them. I’ve witnessed such in my interactions with many elders, so I recognised that Tinubu deployed it at the time he took questions from journalists.
How did Tinubu display native intelligence at that time? He started by informing the president of what he planned to do. That’s a masterstroke; the right place to start. It’s the right place to start for the huge publicity it attracted, for the many birds killed with just one stone, the multi-layered questions the visit to the president subtly provided answers to. As I watched him speak, I thought of the level of wisdom that made him conclude that he needed to start the consultations for his next political move at the highest seat of government. I also thought about the grand strategy, which informed his outings generally, and I came to the conclusion that we’re talking about a seasoned political strategist who happens to be contesting for the highest seat in the land himself.
Among the questions he was asked, I found the one about a kingmaker wanting to become king interesting. His response to it was for me the signature display of Tinubu’s native intelligence; it’s akin to a deft move in an ayo board contest that would easily have silenced the most voluble and skilful opponent. Offering just any kind of response that time would have led to an unending round of questions, creating more controversy. But he said he had never seen the cap of a kingmaker. He never saw any rule book where it was stated that a kingmaker-politician should not become king. I’m impressed when people respond to questions this way. In the process, he laid to rest a debate that’s neither here nor there where politicking and the rights of any Nigerian to contest for political office are concerned. I like to exercise native intelligence like Tinubu did when I grew up.