I grew up in all-white schools, so I know white people, and let me tell you one thing they do not respect: Black people who do not respect themselves and spend their lives trying to be white.
Deny your own culture, suck up to them, kiss their asses, and behave as though they are better than you, and sooner or later they will turn on you.
The Americans have a name for Black people who behave like this: Uncle Toms.
The first time I really watched Bola Tinubu at Chatham House, with that yasa masa look on his face whenever he interacted with the British moderator, my alarm bells went off.
I thought to myself: this one is a bloody Uncle Tom. This so-called Jagaban thinks the white man is better than him.
It has taken a long time for some Nigerians to see what I saw. Still, photographs of Macron holding Tinubu’s hand, taken in Paris, have gone viral on Nigerian social media, and they are annoying proud Nigerians and Africans like me.
Yes, presidents hold hands. Yes, politicians make diplomatic gestures. But I am talking about the image our president projects, because I have seen this behaviour before.
I saw it in Turkey. I saw the same sort of thing at Windsor Castle. And now I am seeing it again in Paris.
I am tired of watching the President of Nigeria appear to fawn around foreign leaders as though Nigeria is some little country begging to be noticed.
Nigeria is not anybody’s servant.
And then we had the American military strike in Sokoto. The Nigerian government says Tinubu approved and cooperated with that operation. Fine. But I still have every right as a Nigerian and Pan-Africanist to question the sight of a Nigerian government celebrating a foreign military operation carried out on Nigerian soil.
Where is our pride?
Where is our sovereignty?
Where is our self-respect?
This is the same Tinubu who, as ECOWAS chairman, threatened military intervention in Niger. Africans potentially fighting Africans while foreign powers watched from the sidelines.
It sickened me then, and it sickens me now.
I am a Pan-African militant. I believe Africa must stand on its own two feet. I do not want an African president behaving as though Macron, Trump, the British prime minister, or anybody else is his master.
They are his equals.
Tinubu is the President of Nigeria, not Cameroon, not France, not Britain and not America.
Whatever anybody thinks about his age or the rumours surrounding his health, I will not present rumours as established medical facts. I don’t need them to make my argument.
My argument is simple.
If Bola Tinubu is too old, too frail, or otherwise unable to stand on his own and carry out the enormous physical and constitutional responsibilities of being President of Nigeria, then he should consider whether he can continue doing the job.
Nigeria needs healthy, strong and proud leadership.
We do not need leaders who look frightened of foreign power.
We do not need leaders who appear desperate for foreign approval.
We do not need leaders who sell African interests cheaply just to be accepted in Paris, London or Washington.
I grew up amongst white people. I know something about them.
They respect you when you respect yourself.
Stand up straight.
Know who you are.
Know where you come from.
Never believe another race is superior to you.
And never forget that when you are President of Nigeria, you are carrying more than 200 million Nigerians and the dignity of Africa on your shoulders.
Nigeria must stand tall. Africa must stand tall. And our President must stand tall with it.
