Last Tuesday, President Bola Tinubu hosted the first National Council of State meeting of his administration. The body comprising of former and current heads of the various organs of government, to wit, executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Federal Government is meant to provide the president with advice to guide him in the administration of the country.

Current state governors representing the component elements of the federation are also brought in to give the president the contemporary situation on ground across the country.

Remarkably, there is no constitutional schedule on the meetings, meaning that the president can summon the meeting at his pleasure.

It was nice sighting the two immediate past presidents, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari attending. The other surviving Heads of State joined virtually. However, conspicuously missing were President Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Babangida.

No reason was given for the absence of the two either physically or virtually. Mr Bayo Onanuga in an interview with a television station said that the absence of the two men did not devalue the significant turnout of the members of the body.

General Babangida is famously known to be physically limited in his movements, a development that has led to his decreasing visibility in the polity he once charmed with political spectacles.

President Obasanjo’s absence was, however, not surprising. Had he attended, his presence would have stolen the show given the lack of amity between him and the incumbent president.

The political antipathy between the former and incumbent presidents did not start recently. This correspondent reports that while Obasanjo was in office as president that Tinubu as governor of Lagos State had about the least personal attendance in Council of State meetings. In most cases, he sent his deputies to represent him at the meetings. It was generally assumed that that was because of a personal and political aversion to Obasanjo.

So, is Obasanjo paying back? Not necessarily so.  

Obasanjo’s disposition against the election of Tinubu was something that was very apparent in the approach to the 2023 presidential election. His preference for Peter Obi of the Labour Party as against his fellow Yoruba representing the All Progressives Congress, APC was interpreted by some as even more than their political and personal squabbles. Obasanjo truly in his heart believed that his support of Obi was for the common good of the citizenry.

Even with the emergence of Tinubu as president, Obasanjo has not withdrawn into his shell as he has repeatedly ventilated his feelings on issues affecting the nation.

In the absence of Obasanjo nonetheless, the National Council of State meeting brought together several political actors who this correspondent gathered told the president the hard truth concerning his government.

One of the unofficial things this correspondent gathered was that the president was told that many of his appointees were not helping him.

The president, it was gathered, was portrayed to have good intentions for the country. “The president means well for Nigeria but his aides are not helping him either because of incompetence or sycophancy,” appeared to be a recurring phrase from those who attended the meeting.

This is why Nigerians of all persuasions must look at the situation in the country beyond the prism of political prejudice or antipathy towards the APC.

Every effort must be made to make Tinubu to look beyond the illusions that his aides put before him to see the reality that is in the land.

This then puts forward the argument for more consultations by the president and other political actors.

It is unfortunate that successive regimes, particularly the present and immediate past Buhari administrations were in the deficit in such consultations. Obasanjo and Jonathan hosted more council of state meetings than the two APC administrations.

Even more ridiculous is the absence of consultations in the ruling party, APC.

The party has failed to host meetings of its National Executive Committee, NEC and these days policies and programmes are churned out without the requisite imprimatur of the NEC. That is regularly defended by claims that the NEC donated its powers to the National Working Committee, NWC.

The absence of political consultations in a democratic setting is what leads to the enthronement of a dictatorship where the wishes of one man turn to state policy.

Given the humility with which the president drew inspiration from those who attended the National Council of State meeting one expects him to brace himself to lift himself beyond the imagery of all is well that aides and surrogates may be painting for him.

The reason for this is that whatever becomes of his administration it would rest in the annals of history as the Bola Tinubu administration with all blames and successes accruing to him only.