The death of former President Muhammadu Buhari and the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, just hours apart last Sunday, left many Nigerians grieving. These two prominent figures—one a political leader, the other a traditional ruler—meant different things to different people and their passage has elicited conversations about what each represented and will be remembered for. In assessing Buhari’s legacy, especially in a hypocritical society like ours where everybody becomes a saint in death, we must appreciate the complexity of human nature. It often encompasses both virtues and flaws. The late Awujale, of course, offers a more straightforward introspection so I begin with him.

In a tribute he personally signed, President Bola Tinubu described the late monarch as “a towering natural ruler who served his people with dignity, panache, class, and an unmistakable sense of duty.” But it is this line that resonates more with many: “In a time of national crisis and uncertainty, he stood firmly as a voice of reason.” As many of us still remember, during the dark days of the late General Sani Abacha’s regime when politicians and traditional rulers were being herded to Aso Rock to watch ‘coup videos’ of the late General Oladipo Diya and given hefty envelopes as their ‘popcorn’, Awujale stood apart. He rose in defence of his errant subject and against the tyranny that stalked our land.

Throughout his long reign, Awujale exhibited uncommon curiosity and was ever eager to challenge unproductive orthodoxy, including those shrouded in tradition. For him, customs are not static and should evolve from the people “according to their needs.” And he illustrated this very point in his highly revealing memoir, ‘AWUJALE: The Autobiography of Alaiyeluwa Oba S. K. Adetona Ogbagba II’, where he shared his own experience on the rites associated with the coronation of traditional rulers: “…As part of the coronation process, the Odis (aafin attendants) embarked on the various rituals that would lead to my installation as the Awujale of Ijebuland. Personally, I can say here that there is nothing about these rituals that could not be made public… All the secrecy that they maintained about the rituals was, therefore, as I saw it, simply a ploy to extort money from the public, just as their fathers did before them. They deliberately made the rituals look very mysterious.”

I am not surprised that a number of traditionalists were turned back from his burial on Monday. The late Awujale had scant regard for the kind of superstitions peddled by such men. “…at the Owa Stream, the Elese of Ilese carried me on his back across the stream as custom had it that my feet must not touch the water. Also, at Odo Esa, I passed an Iroko tree which, again by tradition, I was told I must never see again. Indeed, I was forbidden to ever pass that very road again or, according to tradition, I would die,” the late Awujale recounted about his 1959 coronation. “I did not believe any of this of course and I have since travelled that road and passed the Iroko tree on several occasions…So much for all these unnecessary taboos!”

I had the privilege of visiting the late Awujale a few times and we communicated on phone regularly until recently. He was a much-admired monarch who lived by worthy examples. At age 78 in 2012, for instance, he enrolled to study Law at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). “Age cannot be a barrier to learning for me. It is what I desire and I assure all of you that I will study very well and come out of the university in record time without fail,” said the late Awujale at the time as he joined 200 other students admitted for the 2012/2013 academic year at NOUN’s Awa Community Study Centre, in Ijebu North Local Government area of Ogun State. By that move, he sent a powerful message that learning should be a lifelong enterprise, and that it is never too late for anyone to set a goal for themselves. The revered Ijebu monarch will certainly be missed.

Now to Buhari. Examining his legacy requires a nuanced perspective that neither idolizes nor condemns, if we must be true to history. And journalists should not indulge in the kind of fantasy that moments like this elicit in Nigeria. For someone who ruled our country for 18 months as a military head of state and eight years as an elected president, we must seek to understand the full scope of his contributions and shortcomings. “We tend to lionize or demonize our presidents,” the Los Angeles Times editor wrote in the introduction to a report, ‘Mixed Legacies’, which ranked American presidents. “But even our greatest heroes occasionally failed, and the worst presidents could boast of some worthy accomplishments.”

The same, of course, goes for Nigeria. Even his most implacable foes would admit that Buhari emerged from a sterling military career during which he fought in the civil war and held command and political positions—including as Governor of the North-Eastern State (now Borno, Bauchi, Yobe, Adamawa and Taraba), Federal Commissioner for Petroleum and Natural Resources (now Minister), and Head of State—with his integrity intact. Almost two decades after he was toppled, Buhari also had the discipline to submit himself to the democratic process. Despite his modest financial means, he was able to attract huge followers of genuine supporters in a nation where political influence is often dictated by money. And Buhari will go down in history as the first man to defeat an incumbent president in Nigeria.

However, any commentary on Buhari must assess his presidential stewardship. For the moment, it is worth remembering that on 29th August 2015, just three months after he was sworn-in, Buhari disowned two ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign documents containing promises of what he would do in his first 100 days in office. But we were also informed of how Buhari’s ‘body language’ had become a moral compass within the polity at the time. “He didn’t put a Kobo to finance the power sector. Yet, reading his body language alone and knowing that there are things you cannot do and get away with under Buhari, electricity supply all over the country has risen to unprecedented heights,” his spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu gleefully told Nigerians.

While Buhari’s journey to the pinnacle of power in Nigeria was helped by a well-oiled propaganda machine that sold a myth, his handlers forgot that posterity records only concrete achievements. Unfortunately, the myth died long before the man who came to power with the promise to restore the economy, fight corruption and tackle general insecurity in the country. On corruption, there was no scandal around the person of Buhari hence no dent on his ‘Mai Gaskiya’ image, but he didn’t ‘fight corruption’ in the public space as promised. On the economic front, some of the choices made by his administration have left the nation in a quandary, even though the situation is now far worse under his successor. But it was on national security that Buhari disappointed the most.

A retired army General who arrived the presidency with a fearsome reputation, Buhari allowed a situation in which those who manned the security sector were not only bitter enemies but also fought openly to subvert one another and the system. And there was no record that he ever called any of them to order—not even after publicly admitting, as he did on 12 March 2018, that then Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, disobeyed his directive to relocate to Benue State. Such was the level of indiscipline that when Buhari nominated Ibrahim Magu for the chairmanship of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), his State Security Service (SSS) Director General, Lawal Daura, sent a damning report to the Senate, asking the lawmakers not to clear the presidential nominee. Mum was the word from the Villa.

On 21 November 2017, the in-fighting among security chiefs became a threat to public order, following a fierce street battle in Asokoro, Abuja that was reminiscent of gang wars between cult groups except that the combatants were state agents. In the attempts to arrest a former SSS Director General, Ita Ekpenyong and his National Intelligence Agency (NIA) counterpart, Ayo Oke, EFCC operatives were confronted by armed personnel from these sister agencies. Gunshots were fired by the opposing teams as residents scampered for safety. While the Senate intervened with an investigation, there was a deafening silence from the Villa.

The military thrives on hierarchy of command, yet Buhari appointed Mansur Dan-Ali, who had then just retired as a Brigadier General, as Defence Minister in his first term. This, despite Dan-Ali’s undistinguished military record. Instructively, then Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Yusuf Buratai started his cadet training on 1st January 1983 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on 17th December 1983. Meanwhile, Dan-Ali who was appointed to boss him and others started his cadet training on Short Service Commission on 5th March 1984! And his lack of experience and exposure was evident throughout his period in office. In January 2018, as many Nigerians would recall, Mansur Dan-Ali said: “Since the nation’s Independence, we know there used to be a route whereby the cattle rearers take because they are all over the nation. If those routes are blocked, what do you expect will happen?” Despite public uproar to what was clearly an irresponsible justification for the killings that were being attributed to herders at the time, Dan-Ali was not sanctioned. I can cite numerous other examples.

The consequence of such an aloof and distant disposition to leadership was that under Buhari, insurgents, bandits and sundry criminal cartels practically had free reign—even in his home state of Katsina. But as I said, there will be time to properly examine the legacy of Buhari, including his achievements in office. We must also be able to distinguish between the man whose virtues are being extolled by his army of supporters, and Buhari the leader who left a mixed legacy.

Meanwhile, it is remarkable that Buhari and Awujale passed the same day. I understand they were also friends. At the end, what the lives and times of these two iconic personages whisper to us is a sobering lesson: Legacies are not determined by myths or good intentions but rather by what individuals did with the opportunities they were given. In the words of that Christian hymn writer, Horatius Bonar (1808–1889), we are ‘only remembered by what we have done’. May the memories of the late President Buhari and Awujale of Ijebuland be both a witness and a warning. And may God comfort the families they left behind.

By sheer coincidence, three weeks before his 40th birthday in 2015, I wrote a column about Seyi Adekunle, known to most people by his business brand name, Vodi. My intervention was provoked by a mild altercation with my wife on what turned out to be the commencement of ‘The Entrepreneur (1): Vodi’s Big Dream’—a series I pledged to use in promoting entrepreneurship. Young people, as I wrote in the column, should be asking themselves such salient questions: What are my talents? What are the needs around me that I can deploy those talents to meet and make money? What am I passionate about that can become opportunities for self-actualisation?

As Seyi turns 50 on Saturday, I republish a slightly abridged version of the column as a reminder that indeed, there are many young men and women who started out with nothing but their dreams yet have become not only successful entrepreneurs in their chosen fields but also employers of labour. By all account, Seyi exemplifies that.

For almost one week in October last year (2014), my wife nagged me to give her N50,000 that she owed a tailor on my behalf. The problem is that without my asking, I receive different tailors in my house or office who come for measurement. The bit I don’t enjoy is having to pay for what I never demanded. However, when the money she said I owed this particular young man everybody called Vodi was becoming an issue, I told her to ask him to come to my office to collect it. Then she laughed and said: “Seyi should come to your office to collect his money?”

That baffled me. I am not a snub by any means, but we were talking about a tailor who had been in my house many times not only to take measurement but also to drop clothes. So, what would then be the big deal if he came to my office to collect his money? “It’s obvious you don’t know who Vodi is,” my wife replied. “Just because he comes here out of respect and likeness for you. I think you should take the money to his office yourself.”

Having been handed his office address, I was also curious to know more about this tailor. It took me another week, but I eventually found my way to 43/45 Madeira Street in Maitama, Abuja where I was amazed. With no fewer than about 60 staff comprising tailors, account staff, receptionists, artists etc., it was difficult to believe that the young man who usually prostrated to greet me is the owner of such a big outfit. I was even more surprised when he began to share with me his vision and the projects he was working on: A tailoring training school in Abuja for a thousand apprentices and a 24-hour service laundry mart. I found his story not only fascinating but also inspirational, especially for young people who are looking for role models.

A graduate of geology from the University of Maiduguri, Seyi Adekunle hails from Ile-Ife in Osun State. Upon completion of his degree programme in 1999, Seyi was posted to Akwa Ibom state for his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) assignment. It was while teaching Physics at Slawd Peters Technical Institute in Etinam Local Government as a corps member that he made friends with some young tailors in the town and started to learn the trade. With time, Seyi mastered the craft and saw an opportunity to make money to augment his NYSC monthly stipend. That was how he started making boxer shorts for his fellow corps members who became his first set of customers.

When he completed his NYSC, Seyi came to Abuja in search of a job. Although he kept thinking that he could venture into the tailoring business full time, he held back because he knew his parents would never approve such an idea. His father kept sending him contact details of people he should go to for job placements and he wrote several job examinations in the process. The turning point, however, came in 2002 when at the final interview session of his employment into NUB International Bank (one of the seven banks that would later merge to form Unity Bank during the banking consolidation exercise), the Managing Director asked about his passion, and he told a long story about his cloth making enterprise. With the session concluded, the Managing Director said: “Congratulations but if I were you, I wouldn’t take this job. From what I can see, your other creative talent can take you to the very top.”

With the banking job secured, Seyi collected his letter of appointment and reported at the training school. But he felt no fulfillment, especially with old acquaintances sending him messages to provide them with new boxers and shirts. Besides, the words of the bank MD kept ringing in his mind such that before the training exercise ended, he decided to quit in pursuit of what had become his passion. At that point, Seyi didn’t have a shop, he had just a bag with which he was going around but he found fulfillment in what he was doing. He would travel to Aba, buy the clothes, sow them and would come to Abuja to sell.

In choosing a company name, Seyi remembered a female Fulani friend in school whose name was Vodi which she said means beauty. He decided to adopt the name for his business. But it was tough at the beginning as Seyi was branded a stubborn and prodigal son by his parents who felt disappointed that he would leave a bank job and “loaf around” hence for two years he didn’t go home. But with tenacity of purpose and discipline, Seyi’s business was picking up and after a while, his dad learnt that he had bought a car. That told the old man that his son was serious, and he finally gave his blessing for Seyi to follow his dream.

When I spoke to Seyi last year, he had just started a five-year plan (2014 to 2019) with one of the projects (now almost completed) being an automated dry-cleaning outfit that runs 24 hours. The idea, according to him, is because “there are people especially politicians whose business meetings extend till late hours. We want to provide such people with the opportunity of getting these services provided to them round the clock.”

The second project is the training school for which Seyi has already acquired a big expanse of land in Jahi, Abuja. It will have capacity for a thousand tailoring students. “The idea is to train young Nigerians who have interest in fashion, and we will liaise with different state governments to give us people that we will train. My dream is for Nigeria to be the hub of fashion in Africa, because considering our manpower, money and population, we shouldn’t give such lead to Senegal; we are a more creative people. For instance, Vodi should be able to mass-produce uniforms for schools, the army and other institutions, and in a year or two, this project would have been completed by God’s grace.”

But what does it take to succeed? Two things, according to Seyi: Discipline and integrity. “You cannot survive the fashion industry without those two. Integrity in the sense that you must live up to your words and I try to uphold that; discipline because you cannot afford distractions. I come to work every day with the same zeal as I did the first time that I started this work, and I am usually the last to leave.”

The foregoing does not in any way tell the complete story of Vodi and the sacrifices that Seyi Adekunle has had to make along the way, especially in the days of small beginning. But the message I want to pass is simple: if you don’t dare, you don’t win. Seyi may have read geology thinking he would work in an oil industry, but he saw an opportunity in fashion and grabbed it with both hands…

ENDNOTE: All the things that Seyi Adekunle told me 11 years ago were in the pipelines, he has accomplished all of them and much more. Across West Africa today, Vodi is the go-to guy for most of the political and business leaders when it comes to fashion. As he therefore joins the Quinquagenarian Club on Saturday, I can only wish him more success, good health and long life.

•You can follow Segun Adeniyi on his X (formerly Twitter) handle, @Olusegunverdict and onwww.olusegunadeniyi.com