The timeline has been replete with both punchy and laborious takes on Rauf Aregbesola’s disloyalty to his estranged friend and mentor Bola Tinubu. I’ve been taken aback not by the action by its repeated linking to loyalty.
First of all, loyalty is a mighty expensive quality not to be expected from cheap people mighty and I do consider politicians some of the cheapest people around, regardless of their immense wealth, most of which is unexplained, by the way.
Politicians congregate simply for interest — not friendship, not loyalty and, of highest importance, not the public interest. Politicians flock around one another for their selfish, inordinate interests of self-enrichment, personal aggrandizement, power seizure and the preservation of their political futures. People encircling one another for these reasons cannot expect — neither can they give — loyalty. I do not consider Aregbesola Tinubu’s ‘friend’, neither do I rate Dino Melaye Bukola Sariki’s ‘friend’. They are all ‘interest mates’, and each of them can jump ship at the other’s expense. What Aregbesola has done to Tinubu is what Tinubu can do — has probably done — to Aregbesola.
Keep loyalty out of any conversation concerning Nigerian politicians!
