Before the campaign for the 2007 presidential election, Mrs. Atiku gave me aso ebi for her mother’s burial and asked me to deliver it to Baba Adedibu. When I got to his house, Baba looked at me and said, “Wole, Wole, Wole, how many times did I call you?” I replied respectfully, “Three times, sir.” He then said, “Go and tell Atiku that my heart is for Atiku, but my face is for Obasanjo.”
At that time, I did not fully understand the meaning of that statement until many years later, when I read Senator Babafemi Ojudu’s rejoinder to the book written by Mr. Omole on Muhammadu Buhari’s selfless service to the nation.
If it is true that Buhari supported Osinbajo’s candidacy before the election, then what Baba Adedibu told me in 2006 is nothing but the law of politics. We must borrow a leaf from it and understand the game clearly.
In politics, you only see my face; you do not know what is truly in my mind. The late Alaafin of Oyo once had a special prayer for politicians: “Bá a ṣe ń fẹ́ bẹ́ẹ̀ lọ́lọ́run má jẹ́ kó rí.” (The way we want it shall come to pass.) Everyone would say “Amen” without knowing what Kabiyesi truly had in mind. That is politics for you—deep, strategic, and often deceptive. Politics is not your mate; if you joke with it, it will humble you.
Mogaji Wole Arisekola, Publisher of the Streetjournal Newspaper, writes from Ibadan.
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