Is President Tinubu Our Own Niccolo Machiavelli? – By Bolanle Bolawole

(Published in the ON THE LORD’S DAY column in the Sunday Tribune newspaper edition of Sunday, 16 August 2026).

The dust raised by Archbishop John Onaiyekan over the closed-door meeting the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) had with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is yet to settle; thanks be to opposition politicians and other sundry Tinubu opponents who never miss any opportunity – real or imagined – to drag the president!

Responses to last week’s “Onaiyekan: Is Tinubu insensitive to Nigerians’ plight” have also come in torrents. As would be expected, opinion is divided – for and against. So also is the disagreement over the nature of the president’s meeting with the bishops: Was it closed door or not? Presidency officials insisted it was a closed door meeting while some responders said it was not.

Also, Presidency officials said contrary to the impression created by Bishop Onaiyekan, the president did not huff and scoff at the bishops’ graphic presentation of the hardship in the land but only explained that, while he is doing his best to tackle the menace, the impression should not be created that it is a new or novel phenomenon unknown before his coming into office.

The admission that they knew we were suffering gave me some respite because the streets are not smiling at all. I will keep encouraging them to try harder. “We, the people…” need more from them. May we soon smile! But that is a topic for another day!

Today, let’s focus attention on another controversial statement credited to Tinubu – that all is fair in politics! His words (as they were reported): “I asked for this job. I’m in it. Those who will take it from me will try. They will try. All is fair in politics, and it is equal opportunity… If political opponents are crying wolf, maybe they are afraid of their own shadows and the uncertainty in the companies they keep – not me.”

“I am ready, but I won’t give them a red carpet. I won’t offer them the leash to tie me and rope me. No, we wrestle each other to the finishing point.”

Power is not served a la carte

At first, I did not attach much meaning to the statement. I saw it as being factual, with the president speaking without diluting his words. But a closer look revealed the contentious sentence: All is fair in politics. It was then that Niccolo Machiavelli popped up – if I may call it that.

It is true that Tinubu asked for the job; in fact, not only did he ask, he fought tooth and nail for it. He moved mountains and overcame volcanoes. Few men would have survived as he did to land the job. True, then, are the words of those who say power is not served a la carte. Google even credits Tinubu as the author of this statement!

And once power is grabbed – again, Tinubu’s own aphorism – the grabber does not relinquish it except by force, to quote the great American leader for freedom, Frederick Douglass. “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will”, says Douglass. And the “demand” we talk about here is superior power, superior wisdom, superior strategy, and superior guts. No, not social media ranting!

When Tinubu said those who will take power from him will try, he means they will have to overwhelm him on all fronts before they can do so. He means he will not surrender power; he can only be forced to relinquish it by a superior power or force. He means he will not act like ex-President Goodluck Jonathan; that he will not run away from a fight. He has been a fighter all his political life – and even before that – and he has no intention of being someone else now. And that is his prerogative. It is logical. Now, do his opponents expect to just walk leisurely into office? Did Tinubu walk leisurely into it?

Contests are brutal. Ask wrestlers. Ask boxers. Ask even footballers. A Yoruba proverb says: Anyone who runs away from a fight (“I-cannot-come-and-die” person) cannot wear his royal family’s crown. Fela taught us to fight if we seek to partake in enjoying the good of the land. In 1 Corinthians 9: 24, the scripture tells us that while many run in a race, only one receives the prize – and that is the person who runs with the most panache, dedication and focus. “So run, that ye may obtain”, it adds.

Tinubu insists that those who will take his crown from him will try. For emphasis, he repeated the words “They will try!” Now, tell me, does anyone seek to take Tinubu’s crown without trying, and without crossing the seven rivers he crossed and overcoming the seven mountains he overcame? Then, they are not serious! They are not really ready!

Why are opposition politicians disjointed?

When Tinubu talked about his opponents crying wolf, of being afraid of their own shadows as well as being uncertain of the company they keep, my mind went to the inability of the opposition politicians to forge a common front. When I asked a top opposition politician this question, he told me that the opposition figures are even more afraid of one another than they are of Tinubu! Can you beat that? He added that, in the final analysis, they trust Tinubu better than they trust one another!

And these are the people who want to snatch power from the jaws of a lion? Didn’t they see what Tinubu, Buhari and the others did to snatch power: How the opposition political parties collapsed their structures into one single entity – the All Progressives Congress? Why are the opposition parties unable to do that now? Didn’t they see how Tinubu patiently waited for Buhari to exhaust his eight years before forcefully coming out to say “Emilokan”? Why can’t Obi wait for Atiku? Why can’t Kwankawaso join the queue? Tell me, is Tinubu to blame for that? Or has Tinubu afflicted them with “a-ja-n-tuka” (gather-to-scatter)?

Tinubu reportedly told the Bishops he was ready to do battle; unfortunately, the opposition politicians are still struggling to put their feet firmly on ground. Only last week, I read, again, that they were trying – or was it “would try” – to form an alliance again! They have been at this for ages. They always scatter but go their separate ways in the end. Personal ambition will not let them do the needful. APC has shown them the road to power – why is it difficult for them to walk it?

What politics is not

The contentious portion of Tinubu’s reported statement to the Bishops is “All is fair in politics…” Is everything fair in politics? The answer, unequivocally, is, “No, all is not fair in politics! Violence, the kind that has whacked the Osun state governorship election, is not fair in politics. If it is, we will soon relapse into the Hobbesian state of nature of the “war of all against all”, thus making life “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short (Thomas Hobbes, The Leviathan, 1651). Such a chaotic condition will not even permit anyone, Tinubu himself inclusive, to rule as president.

Vote-selling – and vote-buying – is not fair in politics: It is a cankerworm that stealthily erodes the health of our democracy. Undermining rules and regulations for free and fair elections is not fair in politics: It makes a mockery of democracy as government of the people by the people and for the people. Bribery and corruption is not fair in politics: It is an aggressive cancer that eats society as a whole from within, debasing morals and leading eventually to the collapse of values and virtues that sustain and mould society as a virile entity. Leveraging Federal might or incumbency factor at any level is not fair in politics: Only cheats do that because it denies level playing ground to other competitors for power.

If all is fair in politics, why do we have a Constitution; why the ground rule for all governmental actions? Why an Electoral law detailing elaborate rules and regulations guiding the conduct of elections? When Tinubu said himself and those angling to unseat him will “wrestle each other to the finishing line”, it is a tacit admission that there are rules and regulations laid down by the organisers, referees and judges of the contest. There are no contests without rules. If rules are flouted or are not enforced – that is another matter entirely.

Are politics and morality antithetical?

This is not to deny, however, the position of some scholars that conventional morality has no place in the practical application of politics. Often quoted in this way is the Italian philosopher, Niccolo Machiavelli. In his work, The Prince (1532), Machiavelli argues that traditional moral virtues can lead to a ruler’s downfall. Effective rulers must be willing to use deception, cruelty, and manipulation, if necessary, to maintain state stability, security, and power. The end, he posits, justifies the means applied.

Before Machiavelli had been philosophers like Thucydides, famous for the axiom that “the strong do what they have the power to do and the weak accept what they have to accept.” Hans Morgenthau after him posits that power has its own distinct sphere governed by the concept of national interest which, translated, means power. State relations, therefore, are determined by power relations and national interest – and not by morality.

Is there, then, a place for morality in politics? Yes! There is no human society devoid or decrepit of moral values, although these vary from place to place. The brickwall that some theorists erect between politics and morality is more academic than real. Morality in politics sets the standards for justice, human rights, and the common good. Our laws are shaped by moral principles. Those ethical frameworks are meant to check tyranny, abuse of power, corruption, and the descent into Hobbes’s state of nature.

I will be surprised if President Tinubu does not subscribe to these lofty ideals, which are safety nets for everyone – including himself. Otherwise, he would not have been where he is today! And he will also have no justification or backing at all – legal or moral – to arrest and try anyone attempting to overthrow him and cut short his constitutionally-guaranteed term of office!

What those quoting Tinubu’s “All is fair in politics” statement have neglected to do – and deliberately so, I presume – is to read it along with the other leg of the statement that follows it, in which he said, “and it is equal opportunity.” If everyone is given “equal opportunity”, whatever anyone makes of his or her own opportunity is fair enough! It is if anyone is denied equal opportunity or level playing ground that issues may justifiably be raised. But as per individual gifts and talents or capacities for action that differ – and what individuals make of them under the ambits of the law – fair is fair!

• Former editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-chief, BOLAWOLE was also the Managing Director/Editor-in-chief of The Westerner news magazine. He writes the ON THE LORD’S DAY column in the Sunday Tribune and TREASURES column in New Telegraph newspaper on Wednesdays. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.