As Tinubu tangoes with toadies

In the 16th and 17th centuries, in monarchical and aristocratic societies, toads were deemed poisonous meats not fit to eat by humans. In that season of life, charlatan merchants were accompanied by servants who pretended to eat poisonous toads, faked near-death experiences, and then jumped back to life, wildly claiming that their masters cured them of the venom from the toads to portray their bosses as superhuman.

There are plenty of toadies around the world. You find them in royalties, churches, and business organisations near you. They are unrepentant sycophants and pretentious loyal workers. They are drenched in obsequious behaviours and frequently flatter their masters for personal gain and curry favour with men in power and authority. They will deny Jesus at crucial times and embrace only those who and what will help bloat their lean pockets and massage their frail egos. For toadies, it’s about me, myself and I; and nobody else. My friends, around President Bola Tinubu, President and Nigeria’s Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger and Commander in Chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces, are teeming toadies.

There is a metastatic and ballooning genuflection around Tinubu. In their mammoth numbers, opposition politicians are organising a frenzied fiesta to announce their switch to APC, the President’s party. Massive waves are blowing state executives into the ruling party at the centre. Past and present opposition party apparatchiks are singing unending praises of an assemblage they once called the enemy of the people and a president they once branded as unfit. From the woodworks, politicians are flooding and flocking to Tinubu without bridle and kowtowing recklessly without hindrance.

Just a few years ago, ugly stories were told about this president. They called him a dealer in this and a dealer in that. They spoke ill of him during the campaign. They lynched him in private and public with weighty, weird words. And they accused him of many things, from drug dealing to much worse. “Baba wey no well” became his brand name, and it was their bandied talks around town that Asiwaju would die in a matter of weeks. Despite his verified academic laurels in Chicago and stellar career paths in accounting, they branded him a forger of certificates and an illiterate man from Iragbiji. He was betrayed by friends and jettisoned by party members. But today, as a sitting president, antagonist political parties in 2023 are collapsing their structures and folding their tents to be with this mysterious man.

In swarming, teeming, and pullulating numbers, they keep flooding his camp as opposition Party barons are genuflecting before him, and their foot soldiers are tearing up their party membership and signing on with this president. Avowed enemies who once gave cringing testaments about him on TV and radio are now grinning before this man who doesn’t talk much publicly. Do these people really love Tinubu, or are they just Fairweather friends who will soon become foes when the seasons change? ‘Toadyism’ is nothing but excessive flattery, brown-nosing, and ingratiation to build relationships and to gain favour with one’s superior.

Out of the 36 state governors, Tinubu’s APC now controls about 32. At least 91 senators out of 105 are in the President’s camp. A major wave of defections in April 2026 increased APC’s strength in the House of Representatives to about 280 out of 360 seats, giving it overwhelming control of the chamber. A man without a known biological father, no known biological mother, no known elementary or secondary school classmates, and Nothing naturally known that is known about him has suddenly become the toast of political powerhouses who now want to be known with him! And without putting a gun to anybody’s head, they are flooding to Tinubu in their millions. Do these newfound lovebirds really love this President or the country? Are their sworn oaths of allegiance real? Do they believe in his Renewed Hope agenda or sold out to his political principles? I don’t think so. They are toadies!

I recently expressed my concern about this blistering sycophancy and transuding toadyism around Tinubu’s presidency to a friend in the president’s orbit. In a hee-haw, he chuckled up and expressed surprise at my concern.

“Do you think Asiwaju doesn’t know who his true friends are? Even his enemies who have become friends overnight know the tenuous trust Asiwaju has in them,” he said.

My friend, however, concluded that even sycophants have their God-given roles and assignments in the Renewed Hope agenda. He believes they should be embraced. Toadyism is nothing but excessive flattery, brown-nosing, and ingratiation to build relationships and to gain favour with one’s superior. A toady’s endgame is to get rich, remain a permanent dweller in the purlieu of power, and pursue do-or-die selfish goals with unhindered aggression. These spatiotemporal dynamics of these commingling, frivolous, frolicking men and women with filthy, fiery and furious monodirectional bottom-line may not be helpful to our democracy and this president.

We have seen and experienced the historical accomplishment of this President without the toadies. Over 440 road projects and 2,700 km of superhighways are under construction nationwide. Roads that will last the next twenty years are being built and revamped. States can now pay workers’ salaries, and economic reforms, infrastructure expansion, governance restructuring, and social-sector improvements are quietly reengineering the system. The long-standing governance challenge of full autonomy for local governments is now in place.

The passage of four landmark tax bills and the establishment of five new regional development commissions to stimulate development in underserved regions are adjudged by Nigerians as a step in the right direction.