To be alive is to know the fear of death, and to be human, fear of every kind. From the womb, we are conditioned and excited by it, ashamed of it, yet ultimately governed by it. This is why fear is the main tool of any dictatorship.
A sage once said, “It is not life that matters, but the courage you bring into it.” On the surface, this statement seems paradoxical; after all, the dead are incapable of courage, so how can courage be more important than life? But it is true. Any man or woman can live a life hidden in the darkness of fear, but every accomplishment in life demands courage, and courage demands self-sacrifice. To achieve success, one must risk failure. To win, you have to submit yourself to the possibility of defeat. Does this then mean that our lives matter only as much as goals and accomplishments or how much we have sacrificed? Of what value is the courage of a thief, a murderer or a dictator?
Once again, “it is not life that matters, but the courage you bring into it.” If your courage inspires fear in others, then the impact of your life is a negative one and it is the lives of others you have sacrificed for your own gain. If, on the other hand, you show courage, and your courage and self-sacrifice inspire the same in others, then your life is of great value. We know of men and women like this throughout history: Jesus, Joan of Arc, Mandela, Martin Luther King, people whose courage led them to great exploits, whose sacrifice etched their names in history, heroes for their just cause.
If Nigerian democracy is a just cause, then Bola Ahmed Tinubu is one of such heroes.
He was a chieftain in NADECO, resisting the Abacha regime, going into exile in order to provide logistical support for Radio Kudirat, then the mouthpiece of the opposition.
In his first term as Governor of Lagos, Tinubu warned his fellow party members in AD against cooperation with the PDP in 2003. His advice went unheeded and, as a consequence, he was the last of the AD governors left standing in the wake of the Obasanjo political tsunami.