It is difficult to resist the temptation to conclude that the current APC government isn’t really concerned about how it is perceived in the country. The feelers out there appear to hint that the APC couldn’t care less about how Nigerians perceive it. With crucial elections drawing closer with each passing day, the APC is casting anxious glances over its shoulders.

On May 8, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu embarked on a historic visit to Anambra State. The visit, the first since Goodluck Jonathan visited the state, was at the instance of then Governor Peter Obi. Incredibly, the visit which saw the commission, was to be the last in a while, especially as the PDP soon proceeded to lose the 2015 general elections.

Despite the loss, a hammer blow to the PDP and its self-acclaimed legacy of ruling Nigeria for the next 60 years, President Muhammadu Buhari, the winner, was left in no doubt about the disposition of the Southeast towards him.  It was in the state that he suffered his heaviest loss in the region, a humiliation he never forgave or forgot.

His pointed comments at the beginning of his presidency that those who did not support him should not expect equality with those who did stunned many, setting the tone for the role of outlier the region and the state played during the eight years he was president.

If Anambra State has generally remained suspicious of the government at the center and especially the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), President Tinubu’s visit sought to warm relations between the presidency, his political party and the  people of the state.

For all his flaws, and there are many, none less his membership of the much loathed APC, President Tinubu has remained a master strategist in politics, one who builds political bridges. He doesn’t build  emergency political bridges that collapse under slight pressure from political currents and undercurrents, but strong bridges fashioned out of the conviction that bridges have more political value than walls.

He has shown by his appointments and willingness to work with those from outside his immediate political circle that he knows that politics more than being a pilgrimage of power is a homage to people.

While in Anambra State, the home state of Mr. Peter Obi who is today his most formidable opponent, President Tinubu was draped in his charm offensive. He was in a relaxed mood throughout as he received a  chieftaincy title, joked about retiring to the state after his time in office, before commissioning the Emeka Anyaoku Center.

In a single visit to Anambra State, President Tinubu has held out both hands to the state and the entire Southeast for longer than his predecessor ever held out a single finger.

Where his predecessor sought to exclude, President Tinubu has embraced; where his predecessor sought to asphyxiate, he has sought only to amplify.

The president’s next itinerary in the Southeast appears certain to take him to  Abia State, where Governor Alex Otti is conjuring up pure political and economic sorcery to challenge and reverse decades of underdevelopment and neglect.

The minds of the electorate in the Southeast may be made up about the APC but everyone who knows a thing about politics and political participation knows that they are not at all averse to dynamic change.

In taking steps his predecessor never dreamt or dared to take, President Tinubu is showing himself not a perfect president but a pragmatic, and crucially, a prudent one.

Ike Willie-Nwobu,

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