WHAT politicians crave most is the endorsement of people or groups who matter to their ambitions. They know the importance of such endorsement because of its accruing benefits. The benefits are a given once the endorsement is pronounced. But it must be properly pronounced.
Proper in the sense that the personality issuing the blessing must be the right person. Once it is done by the wrong person, it is not an endorsement but an encumbrance. Those who know the implication of this get jittery when the endorser is a man of authority and power. Why? They know that the blessing is signed, sealed and delivered.
A father’s blessing cannot be bought. Those who acquired it through such means never ended up well. A father’s blessing comes from the depths of the heart and is reserved for a beloved son. Every father desires a son that will run with the legacy of the family or their race while he is still alive or even dead. This was the message that was put across in Akure, the Ondo State capital, on October 30.
That historic day, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, the undisputed leader of Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-cultural and political group in the Southwest as well as Kogi and Kwara states, received the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in his Akure country home. For Tinubu, it was homecoming – a son coming to see his father. The visit was to keep his promise to come back after he wins the APC presidential ticket.
Kwara states, received the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in his Akure country home. For Tinubu, it was homecoming – a son coming to see his father. The visit was to keep his promise to come back after he wins the APC presidential ticket.
Tinubu has always been a process person. He does his things by following protocols so that he would not be accused of not according respect to whom respect is due when the chips are down. Before the APC primary, he came to Fasoranti to seek his blessing. He got it and he won the ticket. He came back to say ‘thank you father, your prayer for me has been answered’. So, the Presidency is as good as won now that he has got the leader’s blessing for the February 25, 2023 election!
In African culture, there is something about being grateful and that gratitude Tinubu came to express that day in order to receive more. As the Yoruba will say, if a child expresses gratitude for past favours, he gets more. It was a full house as Tinubu and his entourage arrived to a rousing welcome in Fasoranti’s home.
The sitting room brimmed with the leading lights in Yorubaland. From one elder to the other, Tinubu bowed in respect as he inched towards Fasoranti. He prostrated for the leader, who without wasting time, placed his hands on Tinubu’s head after the candidate sat beside him, in the well known way of blessing people. As he prayed for Tinubu, others in the room chorused: ‘amen’.
Someone then whispered: Eyi te wi, aro aran mo, meaning ‘all what you have said will come to pass’. What did Fasoranti say? He said Tinubu would become president and that it would be in his lifetime. The 96-year-old Asiwaju Yoruba prayed from the heart for the 70-year-old Asiwaju Eko. But some people are not comfortable with the development because they feel they have the sole right to anoint who should become president in 2023, on behalf of Afenifere.
Culled from:The Nation Newspaper.
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