Where there is vision, there is development. This is the philosophy of Bello Matawalle, a staunch supporter of President Bola Tinubu. To him, Tinubu is a visionary leader endowed with courage and a plucky spirit to dare. He has been up and about selling Tinubu to Nigerians of all tongues.
He sees in Tinubu a leader gifted with the bravery to navigate the uncharted course, dare the odds, and stand victorious.
That, to Matawalle, is the leader Nigeria needs now.
Leadership, especially political leadership, is not populism. It is about taking tough decisions and executing them for the prosperity of the people. Think of America, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan. These nations at a point in their history suffered terrible economic downturn, some mixed with political turmoil. But leadership brought them out of the pit. It took President Franklin D. Roosevelt to pull America out of the Great Depression that stretched the US from 1929 to 1941. Lee Kuan Yew rebuilt a dejected Singapore from the ruins of war. What is common in all these cases is the intentional transformative leadership philosophy that wore the garment of activism without losing its touch of humanism.
Nigeria has been in the strait of economic depression. Like Vice President Kashim Shettima said, “Tinubu inherited a dead economy.” It will take a determined transformational leader like Tinubu to revamp such ‘dead’ economy. Matawalle believes that Tinubu is that leader and he wants him to continue the tough business of governance that will birth prosperity for all.
Recently, Matawalle launched the Tinubu Again movement, a political mobilisation initiative anchored on infrastructure, economy and security. As former governor of Zamfara state and currently the Minister of State (Defence), Matawalle has been around enough to understand the nuances and dialectics of Nigerian politics, especially northern politics. Ahead of the 2027 presidential election, he has scoured the north from north east to north central and north west, his own political zone. He has gazed into his crystal ball and his verdict is clear: The north will determine the outcome of 2027 presidential election. Indeed, Matawalle is right. The north is where the votes are. Every election year, Nigeria’s geo-political north shows up as the ace in the hole. Nigeria’s presidential electoral victory determinant.
The statistics tell the story. As recent as the 2023 presidential election, the 19 northern states of North West, North East, North Central and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) recorded 14,690,714 votes (61.1%) against the 9,336,016 votes (38.9%) of Southern Nigeria broken down into South West, South South and South East. A total of 24,026,730 votes out of which 24,025,940 were valid votes.
Let’s do a breakdown. North West had 6,690,622 valid votes, North Central 4,564,351, North East 3,435,741, South West 4,253,442, South South 2,857,640, South East 2,224,934. Total votes from the South South and South East were 5,082,574, which is 1,608,048 votes less than the 6,690,622 valid votes from just one northern zone, the north west. This has always been the pattern. It’s no brainer to say that the same political demographics will play out in 2027. This makes the north west the battle ground zone. Matawalle is from the north west and an experienced fox in Nigeria politics, especially Arewa politics. At every engagement with him, you encounter a man with the blueprint. And he minces no word about it. His political acuity is sharp. His binoculars see afar off, farther than the politically naïve and greenhorn could ever see.
Matawalle will tell you with exuberant certainty that the votes live in the north. And he’s quick to add that President Bola Tinubu will clear northern votes and still stamp undeniable footprints in the south. He sees the 2027 election as the easiest election Tinubu has ever participated in. To him, by 2pm on election day, the margin of Tinubu’s victory would have become so profound.
Matawalle is not grandstanding. Neither is he on a trip of political brinkmanship. He is truly in cruise control, holding the ground in the north for Tinubu. The #Tinubu Again movement is his ace of card, a pragmatic and tactical stratagem to mobilise nationwide grassroots followership for the president and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). As one of the most vociferous supporters of Tinubu, it was no surprise that Matawalle has taken his mission a step further.
The movement seeks to forge a common front for Nigerians from diverse ethnic backgrounds and regions. Its advocacy is not only to return Tinubu to office in 2027, it is rousing Nigerians especially the youth to a new political consciousness. Get involved is the message. Return Tinubu is the mission. Matawalle believes that retaining Tinubu as president will give stability to the political system and balance to governance. It will provide a sound premise to advance and bring the various reforms to a closure. He sees the endpoint of the reforms from the prism of shared prosperity.
He says the movement is primarily to ensure the re-election of President Tinubu in 2027. The #Tinubu Again also provides a veritable platform for Nigerians, collectively and individually, to renew their commitment to democracy. And he is positive about the efficacy of the political philosophy behind the movement which underpins the achievements of Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
Matawalle has an elephant-size confidence in President Tinubu. He believes that the ongoing reforms are achieving their intended objectives which is political stability, economic prosperity and internal security. Barely one month after the launch of the #TinubuAgain movement, it is already cutting deep and spreading across the political strongholds in both the north and south. The objectives are clear: Return Tinubu in 2027; market his achievements in infrastructure, internal security, economic re-engineering; social security interventions, education retooling and funding, food security promotion and support, increased revenue earnings and gradual but steady digitisation of governance.
Tinubu’s bullish road projects across the nation, rail transport revamp, gas pipelines outlays, decentralization of development commissions across geo-political zones form the marketing nuggets that would drive the grassroots mobilisation messages. Matawalle’s Tinubu Again message sits well with the received opinion among over 30 bi-partisan governors who want Tinubu to continue in office. These governors and the local government chairmen have been the biggest beneficiaries from the Tinubu economic restructuring. They have been receiving jumbo revenue allocations from the federation account.
In Delta state where Governor Sheriff Oborevwori is remodelling the state in a frenzy of urban renewal and rural modernisation, he attributes the remarkable infrastructure development to increased allocation from the federation account courtesy of Tinubu. Governors Abba Yusuf of Kano and Uba Sani of Kaduna, among others, echo the same sentiment. Governors are fulfilling their electoral promises on account of more revenue coming into their tills.
Three years of Tinubu has seen a revival of the economy, enhanced investor confidence in Nigeria, growing foreign direct investments, wider multi-lateral engagements, more decisive response to insecurity and its merchants and noticeable political stability typified by Executive-Legislative harmony that respects the independence of each other. This and many more are the reasons Matawalle wants a return of Tinubu in 2027.
· Abba writes from Abuja.
