By Bimbo Daramola
I just stumbled on the AI embedded campaign mobile app developed ostensibly under the aegis of the City Boy support group being coordinated by Seyi Tinubu, the son of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR.
In the short clip, I saw Seyi demonstrating the capabilities of the mobile app to the former Honourable Minister for Finance, Mr Wale Edun, my first twin reaction were a wry smile and short comment to myself, “Bobo yi sha” i.e this guy sha!
I noticed this because I alongside my team was the first to have a political campaign mobile app though not AI embedded back in 2018 when I was an aspirant seeking the seat of Governor of Ekiti State.
The sole objective then was to make my campaign more youth centric and friendly, knowing that the attention span of the younger elements, the GenZs was short and many were disinterested in politics.
So i wanted something that my campaign wil easilyl ride on with convenience for this demographic that incidentally has the numbers and they are not limited by primordial barriers of party loyalty.
These young people are more likely to gravitate in the direction of someone they feel comfortable with, someone in whose corner they can find accomondation, someone who speaks the new dialect of information communication technology.
Until then i had not seen any political campaign with a mobile app in Nigeria!
I worked with @Femi and Deoye Martins to come up with a very robust mobile app for my Gubernatorial campaign that offered with ease all the information about me, my community actions, my activities before getting into politics and my legislative activism as a member of the the 7th House of Representatives,[2011-2015] and all my modest constituency impact and relations.
It yielded good results and than earned me a good placement and connections that has endured till this day among my young friends and supporters, for which I will forever be grateful to my young friends, my primary constituents across Ekiti State.❤️
About four weeks ago or a little longer, Femi one of the developers that worked with me to deliver that political campaign mobile app back in 2018, who now lives and work in Europe asked what i was doing for the Asiwaju campaigns, i responded that i am doing my regular personal mobilisation and that i have no role in the campaign council.
He then asked if we could do an upgrade of my mobile app for the Asiwaju campaigns, i said that will be nice but I don’t have a good plug in the council that I can pitch it to, but I said he should start, I gave the outline and framework and asked him to start the structural flow with AI features.
So when i saw the one that Seyi delivered , I sent it straight to Femi and he sent me a surprise emoji 😮.
This is what has prompted this write up.
In Nigeria today, among the most visible personalities across all the spectrum is this young man in his forties named Mr Seyi Tinubu, a.k.a ST, a lawyer by training, an entrepreneur businessman by choice and practice, son of the President of Nigeria by circumstance of birth or providence.
If there is anything that distinguishes Mr Seyi Tinubu, it’s the intensity of his intentionality about his father and his unbridled decision to see his father succeed, first, to emerge as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress [APC] even when the political horizon was bleak and dreary.
The roles of Seyi was unmistakable and undisguised.
Upon his father’s emergence as the candidate from that presidential primary that was fraught with high wired intrigues between the party, the establishment and the President, the activities of Seyi were uncompromisingly upfront.
In many ways, he was deeply involved and steeped in the process, when he is not standing by his father’s side, he would have gone ahead like a striker, such that when and where necessity demands, he fall back to the defence line like a good footballer to prevent conceding goals in a crucial football match getting close to the end of the extra minutes after a tension soaked 90mins of full time play.. that is how I would capture the roles played by Seyi Tinubu in the run up to his father’s emergence as candidate and ultimately his election as the number 16th Head of State and 7th civillian President of Nigeria.
With the President now in the saddle, Seyi did not let up, he began his subtle activities for his father’s second term early with the energisation of the City Boy support group.
He began to develop and resource political structures nationwide, courting old friends and engaging new ones, some hitherto apolitical, he facilitated the appointment of many young people into his father’s government, being a young man of means, he deepened his reach with plethora of good works, across Nigeria, which I heard has been his forte since his days in law school anyway.
I heard that all those regular Nigerians who serviced him during his days in law school ever before his father got into a Presidential race, Seyi had impacted their lives in ways that got their lives transformed permanently. .
Seyi who hitherto was relatively not an in your face person, almost unknown, he was in the shadows of his father, for all of the years that I have been around his father, from No.13 Sunday Adigun, Ikeja to the bourdillon residence of Asiwaju since 1998, i am not sure i met him.
Today he has now matured into an enigmatic political figure in some kind of way on the political firmament of Nigeria, that I think in the years to come, he would not only have have carved a place of relevance for himself politically, he would be a force of contention to reckon with not only in Lagos but nationally.
If there is anyone who has dealt a huge blow on the Obedient movement and the woo the young population, Seyi Tinubu will take a huge credit for that by his steady and relentless efforts if not unrelenting roles to widen the support base for his father and by extension understanding for the Bola Tinubu administration.
If there is anyone who has introduced the young blood and tonic to our political space in such a sweeping way as never seen in the last forty years it will be Seyi Tinubu, who most of his ardent followers revere if not venerate.
He has obviously learnt a lot from his father’s skills of consciously raising and grooming a new political tribe of people across Nigeria, and today, I will be surprised if there is any State that Seyi does not have pool of friends and allies from, that was a vintage Bola Tinubu trademark.
He has learnt how to be present and maintain relevance in the lives of his followers and so had earned the trust and respect of many.
I think he has overtime studied the above mentioned parts of the human psychology that his father has mastered and deployed to his advantage, part of the factors that lubricated his path to the height he has reached today, Seyi is following that construct so well and in the years to come, i have no doubts that the results will be self evident wherever this path will lead him and there will be no stopping him.
If Seyi were to be a Hausa man, his nickname would have been “KHALIFA” i.e Heir Apparent
In our recent past, the only person who featured in his father’s political trajectory in such a noticeable way, is Kola Abiola, he was always around his father, but maybe the circumstances surrounding what became of June 12 made him lose traction among other factors, but there is a world of difference between the political capital of Kola Abiola and Seyi Tinubu regardless of the circumstances that befell the great Basorun MKO Abiola.
Seyi Tinubu before his father emerged as candidate had more hands on roles in many areas of the campaign that he deliberately crafted for himself ingeniously or by default and this he has successfully kept, widen and built upon till this day and he is not letting up this spring board to significance and relevance.
I am therefore not surprised that his father who had openly rebuked him when he was seated in council chamber which was almost an over reach, was also the same man who openly commended his son in flowery words for the far reaching roles he has been playing when the City boys met with the President penultimate Monday at the Presidential Villa, no other son of any President before now had worked his fingers to bones in the manner that Seyi Tinubu had done.
On the average the wide acceptance of Seyi is not just by the “ST tribesmen” a.k.a City Boys, Seyi had also succeeded in making good inroads to the hearts of many older people by his demure and respectful countenance and demeanour, because he does not seem to ride roughshod or throw himself around in an overbearing swashbuckling manner, that the providence had placed him as a President’s son and all that that can offer or attract.
To a very large extent , Seyi would almost pass for a shy person, and one who also listens to other opinions, when his father’s long standing associate, Professor Wole Soyinka, the Nobel laureate threw a jab at Seyi on the account of the armed contingent who follows him around, just like he took his father’s rebuke calmly when he was told never to show up at Council meetings, Seyi also took the observation of the Nobel Laureate well, no hesitation, no arguments, no trading of words directly or by proxies who are ever waiting in the wings to do proxy battle, Seyi took these observations well in both instances and corrected himself.
These manifestations of being well brought up as a son,who has respect and regard for the young and respect for elders and one who is tolerant of disenting opinions have etched the image of a well cultured and well brought up son and not a self conscious spoilt brat President’s son in the hearts of many elders, thereby giving Seyi good inroads into the hearts of elders and have earned him a good place with many, respect is a currency that is tenable, accepted and a legal tender regardless of society, clime, jurisdiction or region, Seyi had deployed that so well.
Today the book of the latter part of President Bola Tinubu’s political journey cannot be written without Seyi Tinubu taking a couple of chapters as worthy son.
I dare say if President Bola Tinubu were to be a farmer and Seyi still comes from his loins, Seyi would have been as relevant to him as he is today because of his level of undisguised intentionality as a person first and foremost.
I say this because we have had Presidents, Governors, Businessman etc whose offsprings have done little or nothing to complement their parents journey in life, in their life pursuits as Seyi has done and been to his father.
In Yoruba land and I think in many other places across regions in life, Parents want sons and daughters who would do them proud by earning their worth and doing them proud not only when they are gone but in their lifetime, Seyi Tinubu has become the hallmark of that.
Have we not seen many in this country who also had privileged background wether in business, politics or any human endeavour, whose estates crumbled right in their life time and not just after their departure.
Seyi Tinubu’s placement in our political firmament will continually challenge many going forward, no matter where he decides to cast his net in future, Seyi will not suffer a recall or recognition challenge, he had surmounted that so well, contrary to what we have seen with the sons and daughters of hitherto well place and heeled persons not only in politics, but other human endeavours. To many of them Seyi have triggered the journey into rediscovery and recovery.
Today, i celebrate this very unconventional, uncompromisingly intentional young man who has rediscovered himself and broke barriers to step out of the shadows of his father to carve an endearing and enduring identity for himself.
I have no doubts many Yoruba fathers are telling their sons and praying that “Omo bi Seyi” is what God should bless them with, one who validates the pristine identity of the Yorubas known as “omoluabi” that all parents wish for, Seyi has become a beacon of this desire.
Congressman Bimbo Daramola
