By Vincent G Uba

The social media space has been agog with comments credited to Bola Ahmed Tinubu about climate change, sparking up negative reactions and/or controversies as to the appropriateness of such comments. One thing some people do not know about Bola Tinubu is that he is full of wisdom and intellect, and throws people off guard in his choice and use of words.

In Igbo land, wise men are associated with the use of idioms, figurative expressions, metaphors and proverbs. When they dish out these wise words or comments, it takes the like minded wise people to understand the meaning and the messages they convey. In Igbo proverb, “If you are told something in proverbs and you expect it to be explained in literary words, the bride price paid on your mother is a waste”.

I have followed with kin interest, the person of Bola Tinubu in his use and choice of words over the years and have observed that he’s a man who very often uses metaphor and figurative expressions to drive home his points. This is one of the reasons I have fallen in love with him and his managerial style.

In the days of our Lord Jesus Christ, his teachings and comments were characterized with proverbs and parables, such that in some cases even his disciples were not able to understand him except when they came close to him to ask the meanings of such parables and he would gladly explain to them. Bola Tinubu metaphorically answered the question on climate change and hell was let loose with some people going overboard to say he was off point.

Church rat and holy communion are associated with church as climate and whether are associated with the environment. Preventing a church rat from eating poisoned holy communion is akin to finding solutions to prevent non-living things within the environment from worsening the case of living things in the same environment already affected by climate change.

The same goes when he said that El-Rufai has competency to turn rotten situations to bad ones. This is akin to his saying that El-Rufai has got the competency to turn worst situations to bad ones or unmanageable situations to manageable ones.

Elementary English language teaches bad, worse, worst just as it teaches good, better, best. In that case, moving from the worst situation to the bad one is an improvement and appreciable.

Those who do not have the capacity to match Tinubu in his choice and use of words should learn to keep quiet and stop exposing themselves as people who are not wise enough to understand the nighty gritty of metaphorism and idiomatic expressions. Did Jesus Christ not say, “Destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days”? Did this not cause a stare amongst the Jews that they sought to eliminate Him?

The same scenario is happening now with the Tinubu comments. Instead of aligning with the man who will use wisdom of age and experience to bring solutions to the numerous problems of the country, they are finding faults with his grammar.

Rather than put on their thinking caps to study and analyse the issues with a view to coming out with the best way to tackle the national challenges, people are busy digging into the ulterances of Tinubu. The same Tinubu whom they know is far more above them in terms of intelligence, wisdom and excellent track records performance, just to find faults to nail him.

One thing is certain, you cannot beat experience and you cannot beat Tinubu, hence there is no alternative to Tinubu in 2023, to take this country to eldorado.

Vincent G Uba
National Coordinator
No Alternative To Tinubu 2023