Only a few people are likely to be keener to see President Bola Tinubu succeed in whatever he does than Mr. Dele Alake. The two men are a mutual admiration society, who make no pretense about their strong, long-standing feelings of esteem for each other.
Long before President Tinubu became Governor of Lagos State, where he tapped up Alake to serve as his Commissioner for Information and Strategy, there was a Tinubu – a hotshot accountant with Mobil, and Alake, a firebrand editor at National Concord Newspapers.
It was natural that both men would be into each other because of their inclination for service and public interest. While President Tinubu left the safe, glamorous and highly rewarding private sector job for the treacherous world of politics to seek election into the Senate of the aborted third republic, Alake was a blinding journalism star and a torn in the flesh of military dictatorship. President Tinubu won his election into the Senate in 1992 to represent Lagos West, marking the start of political career in progressive politics and becoming a man of real horsepower in every defining moment in Nigerian politics since then.
He was at the centre of the victory of Chief MKO Abiola in the June 12, 1993 presidential election. He was, through his political activism, a major figure in the Senate of that era as well as in the pro-democracy movement birthed by the cruel annulment of the freest and fairest election ever held in Nigeria by the military administration of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.
The struggle for the de-annulment of the June 12 election was intense and draining. Every actor in the struggle paid a steep price. Editors and journalists joined forces with civil rights activists and political actors to wage an unrelenting battle against military dictatorship. Alake, as editor of National Concord Newspaper owned by Chief Abiola, was bang in the middle of the struggle. Prior to the annulment of the election, Alake had worked with President Tinubu and other leaders of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to mount a robust presidential campaign. When SDP was struggling with finding a niche and how to position itself, it was Dele Alake, a strategic thinker, who took charge and delivered the firecracker political advertising and public relations that made SDP a smash hit to Nigerians within a very short time.
This saw him bringing on board the late Mr. Sesan Ogunro, a top-shelf advertising professional and Chief Executive of Eminent Communications, to work on the SDP and Abiola as political brands, with Abiola positioned first as an aspirant and later, a candidate.
In the intervening period, the Tinubu-Alake relationship grew stronger. The struggle for the validation of June 12 became more ferocious when General Sani Abacha torpedoed the agreement he had with the progressive politicians and civil rights activists to handover power to the winner of the annulled election after the palace coup against the Interim National Government headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan on November 17, 1993.
While the exiled pro-democracy activists led by Chief Anthony Enahoro, General Alani Akinrinade, Professor Wole Soyinka, Commodore Dan Suleiman, Senator Bola Tinubu, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi and others mounted international campaigns against the Abacha regime that had become unhinged, the lot fell on journalists and other human rights activists back home to keep the flame burning. Alake ran a lot of special and covert operations for Chief Abiola, who was in detention, and President Tinubu, who operated from exile.
It was, therefore, not surprising that upon return of Nigeria to another political transition in 1998, Alake and other leaders within the pro-democracy fold and political leaders in the South West supported Senator Tinubu to become the Governor of Lagos State. When then Governor Tinubu formed his cabinet in Lagos State, it was natural to have Alake as his Commissioner for Information and Strategy.
For the eight years Tinubu was governor, Alake was a formidable manager of information and the media ecosystem. He deftly managed many of the public relations crises that threatened to consume the Tinubu administration. He batted back all the missiles hurled by the opposition to create a legitimacy crisis for the Tinubu administration, providing the necessary cover. The administration recorded tremendous success in Lagos across sectors, most importantly the re- engineering of the state finances. That enabled the state to flourish and fund its future development.
Since Tinubu’s tenure, Lagos has been breaking new grounds as the centre of excellence and viewed as a model of good governance. After leading the opposition for eight years, after which the All Progressives Congress won the presidential election in 2015 through President Muhammadu Buhari, it was obvious that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu would gun for the presidency after Buhari.
Towards the end of 2021, it was already clear that the long-awaited time had come. On January 10, 2022, after a visit to President Buhari, Asiwaju Tinubu addressed the State House Press Corps on the purpose of his visit and publicly declared his intention to run for the presidency. From that moment on, opposition within and outside his party kicked off a vicious campaign against his ambition. The bid for the APC presidential ticket was more bruising than a prize fight.
When it appeared the campaign was falling apart on the media and communication turf, Asiwaju mandated Alake to return home from the United States to take charge. On his return, Alake brought a new vision, energy, and verve into the campaign. This delivered a vigorous pushback of the opposition. The social media caught fire with his first round on TV interviews from New York in days leading to the APC party presidential primaries.
The interviews provided rich repertoire of contents that energized the Tinubu supporters on social media platforms, who used them to counter digital militias of the opposition.
Since President Tinubu assumed power, Mr. Alake has been a positive influence within the administration and a stabilizing factor. First as Special Adviser on Media, Communication and Strategy and later as the Minister of Solid Minerals. A day has not passed without Mr. Alake looking for the best interest of the Tinubu administration.
He has been the go-to-person for anyone who feels genuine concerns for how the government can perform better. Many Nigerians and supporters of President Tinubu believe and, for the right reason too, that he is best qualified and positioned to fundamentally change Nigeria for good because of his antecedents as an advocate of fiscal federalism, good governance and his demonstrable competence during his leadership of Lagos State.
For many aides, associates, cabinet colleagues, and friends of the President who feel that things can be better done, they go to Mr. Alake to pour out their minds, knowing that he has the ears of the President and will never shy from offering sound advice to the Commander-in-Chief. There is no doubt about the fact that President Tinubu and his minister, who he describes as his own brother, enjoy each other’s company. President Tinubu reportedly told someone that Mr. Alake earned his place with him and he will remain his soul mate for life.
● Temitope Ajayi is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media.
Source: ALAKE ON RESCUE MISSION, a publication of the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, MoSMD
