Why can’t Tinubu make his son a governor?

Should Seyi Tinubu harbour a governorship ambition to be the next governor of Lagos State, it’s within his constitutional and inalienable right to harbour such ambition. That his father is the president of Nigeria doesn’t preclude or foreclose him from having any political ambition in life.

Seyi Tinubu’s eminent father, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had since at least 1999 made many political leaders across the country, particularly in the southwest region. This writer may not be enamoured with the economic policies of the current government at all levels. However, one good attribute that rational minds cannot argue about the president is that he’s not greedy for political offices, unlike many politicians.

Tinubu left office as Lagos State governor in 2007. Since then, he has been out of political offices until 2023, when he became the president of Nigeria. Many of his contemporaries, especially the class of 1999 governors, have become this and that after 2007, when their tenures expired. But for Tinubu, he gave others the opportunities to thrive.

Since 2007, Tinubu had the opportunity of hijacking any of the senatorial districts in Lagos or even the entire Southwest. He could have negotiated his way to return to the Senate and be elected the Senate president. He could have insisted on becoming vice president under Buhari’s regime. But he allowed others to thrive.

Read also: Is Seyi Tinubu a national burden?

On the particular position of a governor of a state. Tinubu had made so many people governors—from the North to the South, East, and West. Why can’t he make his own son a governor if his son is qualified?

Seyi Tinubu is reportedly 39 years old. By the next round of elections, he should be over 40 years old. Is he too young to be a governor? In this Fourth Republic democratic dispensation, we have had governors who were as young as 37. For example, Saminu Turaki of Jigawa and Donald Duke of Cross Rivers states were said to be within that age bracket when they were elected as governors in 1999. Jim Nwobodo, Orji Uzor Kalu, Chimaroke Nnamani, and many others claimed that they were 39 years old when they were elected as governors of their various states. Therefore, by age qualification, Seyi is overqualified after Yakubu Gowon reportedly ruled Nigeria from the age of 32.

On the issue of education, Seyi’s academic qualification is not in doubt. At least he’s a young man, and all the schools he attended can be easily verified.

It bears repeating that Tinubu is the president of Nigeria and doesn’t foreclose the ambitions of his children. That shouldn’t be the case. In America, the Bush family had produced two presidents of America and governors.

Even in Nigeria, Obasanjo was the president when his daughter was a commissioner in Ogun State. She later became a senator. Late Senator Olusola Saraki was senate leader in the second republic. After he made a few people governor of Kwara State, in 2003 he installed his own son as the governor while his daughter was a senator at the same time. His son, Bukola Saraki, later became president of the Senate in 2015.

Considering how Tinubu had given opportunities to many people in the southwest, particularly Lagos State, his own son will not be committing any crime if he harbours the ambition of governing Lagos State come 2027.

Maduako writes from Owerri via [email protected] (08061562735).