Learning, patience and grabbing the opportunity is at the core of politics that serves as the heart, blood and vain in politics working together to achieve a common goal. Tinubu has adopted and adapted to this core value as can be seen through his entire political life; he operates on the belief that when the time is right he will attain the desired throne.

At a glance, one is gripped by the charisma that runs in the vein of this man, an undeniable commitment to the people, the passion to add value to whichever environment he finds himself and uplifting the lives he finds around without withholding his hands.

Bruce Lee once said “Patience is not passive; on the contrary, it is concentrated strength” Tinubu understands this and adopted it as a core value for driving his political success. Without an atom of doubt, Tinubu is a man born and bestowed with the quality of leadership but this has to be in order of progression before the position could be achieved, because hopping without looking could serve as a death trap for his political career.

This patience could be traced back to when Hamzat’s father pulled him out of corporate world and into political sphere which he turned out be a good mentee to the man and his time with MKO Abiola when he was often sighted beside him.

Nigerian Politicians often concentrate their mind on the erroneous belief that whoever is in front of the line is leading the pack, which is often not true as Tinubu has demonstrated over the years.

Nigerian politicians lack patience, do not possess the ability to put others before them and most especially they do not recognize the cues that signal the right time and this is why many of them that eventually get to the position often leave a void only filled with nothing, no legacy to show.

Aspiring leader who has the intention to add value to his country and not the intention of impregnating himself and his storex tank with public money will not rush because it requires a calculated effort and move which will result in the right time to strike. This is evident from Tinubu’s action to step down at various times in his political career.

The purpose of conveying this message out there is to reprogram the mind of Nigerian politicians especially as we are stepping into the dawn election. Our politicians’ mind has been frozen with the belief that they must always be the one leading and trying all means possible to attain the post without the intention to serve as a servant to the people. The current season can be seen as a season of political virus where people are easily infected.

A fitting example of political patience is Obafemi Hamzat, he was extracted from JP morgan as a replacement for Fashola, unfortunately it wasn’t successful as the party had other plans, he stayed patient, same happened when the party picked Sanwo-Olu, he came the Deputy governor, and now he has been endorsed to be the next man to contest for the governorship of Lagos state.

Example of how patience is the blood of politics can be seen in a young, brilliant and handsome politician in Lagos due to lack of patience, he left the fold of APC in 2023 because he knew APC won’t give him the governorship ticket at that time, long story short, he decamped to PDP where he put a knife in the neck of his political career before coming back to APC. For this man, he has not learned anything from the Asiwaju. Alhaji Tejumade had Conversation with Tinubu when he pushed Buhari forward for presidency, he told him your arsenal is filled with tools of a leader, why not you? His response was always “the time is not right”.

His calculations is beyond what any politician can fathom, he knows the presidency must surely come to the south as at that time and he knows so well that he is the heart of APC to get a party ticket is like a reflex action which the body doesn’t even knows it’s happening coupled with years of planning and strategic placement of his mentee in various key position.

As BAT-IG convener I have been observing the politics of Nigeria, this curiosity led me to Ibadan where I noticed Senator Teslim who is the oyo state leader ever since Ajumobi passed, has also put the right foot in the position of the left foot. I’ve always told people around me that Teslim who contested back then in 2003 shouldn’t have, although he is a man with great ambition and ready to spend his money for the betterment of his people. His mistake then was that he contested against a sitting governor whose bucket of achievement is filled to the brim instead of giving the “loosing ticket” to another person and lead from behind as the party leader or even relax for the right time to strike. Teslim would have been the perfect candidate now if he had leant form Asiwaju.

Patience is the core vale in any political environment, it has given birth to a mountain of successes which Tinubu is sitting upon now.

‎
Bamidele Atoyebi is the Convener of BAT Ideological Group, National Coordinator of Accountability and Policy Monitoring and a publisher at Unfiltered and Mining Reporting