My post mortem analysis and commentary on President Tinubu’s Inaugural Speech By Wumi Akintide.

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I urge you to first and foremost google the speech and read
It from beginning to the end before you read my commentary.

I disagree that President Tinubu’s inaugural Address is way off the mark and disappointing or below expectation as argued by some of his critics and political competitors and enemies.

That speech is clearly above my expectation of him based on my well known criticism of him as a bland and uncharimatic speaker who needs a lot of coaching to get him up to speed before taking his oath of office as President of the Giant of Africa and arguably one of the greatest Black Nations next to South Africa and Egypt, if you ask me.

I would have hesitated in expressing this opinion, if late Chinua Achebe or Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka and amazing orators like Professor PLO Lumumba or Professor Yemi Osinbajo or Professor Yadudu or Caliphate Lamido Sanusi or late Chuba Okadigbo or Professor Akinyemi or my good friend Ibrahim Agboola Gambari were among those criticizing the speech as “infra dignitate” but they are not.

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I therefore feel free to express my opinion on it without much reservation.

It was a good speech in my judgment, and it covered all of the basics I had expected him to touch upon as a former speech writer myself in my Civil Service days when I served my pupillage under the best batch of top notch Permanent Secretaries and Administrators the Nigerian Federal Civil Service has ever produced and I am proud of it.

They include the great Ejueyiche, the great Abdul Azeez Attah, the great Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo Solomon Akenzua, the great Allison Ayida , the great Philip Asiodu, the unflappable Ahmed Joda, the fearless E.M.E. Ebong, the late Kabiyesi the Osemawe of Ondo Osungbedenola Oba Festus Adedinsewo Adesanoye, the late Grey Eronmosele Longe of Sabongida Ora, the erudite Mr. M. A. Soneye, the Director General of ASCON, the bright and competent, late Francesca Yetunde Emanuel nee Perreira of Lagos, the late Yusuf Gobir of Ilorin, the highly brilliant and talented Samuel Oluyemi Falae now Kabiyesi the Oluabo of Akure and the fearless and brilliant Festus Sunday Awoniyi, the High Chief Aro of Mopa to mention a few.

I served under most of these individuals and I drafted speeches for some of them while they were my Permanent Secretaries.

So I know a good speech when I see one. I have written a few myself in my prime.

Tinubu’s inaugural speech is excellent given his limitations as an intellectual giant but a low key speaker with little or no charisma that can easily fire the imagination and enthusiasm of his listeners.

There might have been a need for improvement in his choice of words and paragraphing and his syntax and Grammar, but more so his delivery, but I thought whoever had drafted that speech for him, had done a good in all fairness.

I also see some imprimatur and imprints of Bola Tinubu in that speech because I have grown familiar with his verbiage over the years.

The guy has made History and we all, in good conscience, must acknowledge that fact whether or not we voted for him.

His delivery in reading that speech was vintage Tinubu as he quibbled and stalled, a few times but he got himself together and he managed to read the speech to the very end without breaking down or committing a major gaffe in so doing.

With coaching and more and more practice, he can only improve from now on if his Alzheimer does not escalate now that his medical treatment and bills have become the responsibility of the whole nation.

I strongly believe the President will be just fine.

I am encouraged in that belief because his First Lady who is very eloquent and sharp would be readily available to coach her husband at home and to bring him up to speed in due course.

President Buhari was much worse when he first assumed the Presidency as a civilian President.

The observation is nothing to be overtly concerned about, if you are of the same mindset with me.

We can expect the same of President Tinubu as time goes by.

So far so good. President Tinubu has acquitted himself creditably today all things considered and Nigerians need not be overtly concerned that he is going to let us down.
I reject that notion and so should all of us.

The new President needs our prayers for his renewed hope doctrine which was the central theme of his campaign for the Presidency and for his powerful inaugural speech of today which I support and totally welcome

The guy might surprise the nation as a political maverick and strategist with an iron determination to make the best of a bad situation and to lead Nigeria to the promised land, if Nigerians by majority consensus give him the chance.

A peaceful transfer of power like we have witnessed now for one week in Nigeria and in the Nation’s Capital and today at the Eagle Plaza in Abuja are the hallmarks of a true and stable
Democracy we all can be proud of.

Nigerians should be proud and happy to congratulate ourselves, the outgoing and the incoming President for a job well done as we consolidate our democratic credentials and gains as one of the most stable third world n
Countries in the World second only to India, I might add.

I rest my case.