Tinubu and his energy.

• Published date: 13 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

But for this campaign, we would not have known how strong and energetic Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been. At his age, he did knee cap replacement and within three months, he started going about as if nothing had happened. He works at least 18 hours of the day, attending to the challenges of his campaign, people, interests and scenarios. Just late in December, he was in London, left London on the 30th, to Saudi Arabia for lesser hajj, returned to Nigeria on Monday, 2nd January, proceeded to Kano for campaigns. After the Kano campaigns, he proceeded to Edo State, from there to Abuja to attend the youths summit, then proceeded to Ondo state for campaign, then entered into Lagos to received endorsement of the Arewas in Lagos on aspiration. From there he hosted the business community and private sector operators, then proceeded to Adamawa for campaigns. All within 8 days, yet someone will tell me Asiwaju Tinubu is not strong? How else do you define strength, energy and capacity to stand your own and cope with the pressure of office, if not this way. Aside from coping with the pressure of campaigns, Tinubu stays late into the early hours of the morning attending to people and planning his next strategy with associates, like-minds and lieutenants.

The first time I was to have a discussion with Asiwaju Tinubu, he gave me a 2am appointment. I wondered aloud, and asked from my end, if he meant to say 2pm, he answered with a chuckle, 'I said 2am. I thought you people said I am not strong, so why should a 2am appointment be strange to you'. I managed to break my communication with the goddess of sleep, to honour the appointment looking forward to be disappointed by his timing. Getting to Asiwaju's house, I saw a busy environment with over 20 persons still waiting to catch space with him. I waited for about few minutes, and he came out, looking like someone who was just starting his day, appearing so refreshed. He beckoned on me and off we settled down for discussion. For the next one hour, Asiwaju was upbeat, answering my interrogative questions and offering very rich insight into the rationale for his contest. He spoke so frankly and pointedly that I was left wondering the source of those negative news against him. Well this is politics where all manner of falsehood and orchestrated reportage are churned out to pollute the atmosphere without repercussions. By 3.05am, I was in a hurry to round off my discussion, but Asiwaju was still ready to push our talk further...