By Abdullahi O Haruna Haruspice
In the fog of Nigeria’s ever-churning political theatre, only a few ever grasp the long game. Most react. Some plot. But a rare few—like Bola Ahmed Tinubu—execute. Not merely for the day’s applause, but for the echoes of future triumph. The recent strategic surfacing of Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda into Nigeria’s national conversation is no coincidence. It is a deliberate move—a Plateau gambit—played by a man whose style of power politics echoes the ancient tacticians of empire: calculated, subtle, and precise.
To understand Tinubu is to accept that he operates more like a chess grandmaster than a democratic populist. He moves pieces far in advance. Like Niccolò Machiavelli’s “Prince,” Tinubu’s actions are rarely romantic, but always rational. And in Nigeria’s turbulent political terrain, where loyalty is fleeting and identity politics trumps ideology, rationality is a rare—and dangerous—weapon.