Indeed, these are not the best of times for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC. Senator Tinubu, former Governor of Lagos State popularly known as “The Jagaban”, is perhaps fighting the toughest battle of life.
A survivalist, considered by many as “a cat with nine lives” faced a similar situation when he confronted the federal might of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in the countdown to the 2003 General Elections.
The then ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, at the federal level, ahead of the 2003 polls had threatened to overrun the entire South West, the home of Obasanjo. Lagos State, where Tinubu held sway was to be captured at all costs in order to prove that Obasanjo had a home base. It was christened “Operation Capture The South West”.
The leadership of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, which controlled the South West then had entered into a sort of agreement with Obasanjo in order to back his second term ambition in the Presidential election while the AD governors were to be supported in the governorship polls.
Tinubu, a dogged fighter, warned his compatriots of a sinister plan by PDP but the leadership of the AD forced the agreement down the throats of the other governors. The others were Olusegun Osoba, Ogun; Bisi Akande, Osun; Niyi Adebayo, Ekiti; Late Lam Adesina, Oyo and Late Adebayo Adefarati, Ondo. While all of these were curiously worsted in the polls, despite their popularity in their areas, only Tinubu was able to ward off the federal might to win a second term. Since that victory, Tinubu had never looked back, romping from one victory to another just like the court overturning of the stoppage of Lagos State allocations by the Obasanjo administration and his botched trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Perhaps another big battle was the supplanting of the AD leaders in the South West. Streetwise Tinubu fought the PDP to a standstill and later took over control of the zone, using every strategy to achieve his aim.
But the greatest battle before now was the formation of a large opposition party with structures across all zones of the country to wrest power from the PDP behemoth which boasted it would rule the nation for the next 60 years.
In all these, Tinubu shone like a constant star, committing his time, money and resources and virtually everything he has into the schemes. It was thus no surprise that he eventually emerged a kingmaker.
But herein lies his dilemma: after installing the kings, enemies and foes rose against him from every angle — including those expected to be his greatest backers. In fact, from what is on the ground now, it’s like he used his resources to attract his own tribulations.
Some have even described Tinubu as politically naive in spite of his varied political experiences garnered over the years. Indeed, this time around, it is not a battle but a war waged on all fronts by friends-turned-foes, who feel threatened by the seeming larger-than-life image of the Asiwaju which they fear would swallow their own ambitions.
Most unexpectedly, the very first salvo came from the men of President Muhammadu Buhari, a president Tinubu had almost single-handedly brought into power. But the President and his men had other ideas, they didn’t want to share power with any kingmaker.
Besides, the Nigerian Presidency is a behemoth that can quickly consume and digest whatever or whoever stands in its way — kingmaker or peacemaker. On getting to power, some Buhari loyalists from the core North erected barricades around the President to keep “unwanted persons” at away. The attempt by Tinubu to have his candidates at the National Assembly emerge President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives was frustrated in the main by the President’s men, not just by the intransigence of Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara who emerged President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively, in spite of the party’s directive to the contrary.
This was a belly smacker for the Jagaban.
Insiders told The New Diplomat that the President’s men feared that if Tinubu should be allowed to have his way over who heads the National Assembly, the Assembly may be used to blackmail the President or even impeach him. Many who lost out during the party primary and elections proper out of vendatta and envy, joined hands in blocking him. So, stopping Tinubu became the sing-song.
A lot of his nominees for top jobs at the federal level were ignored not because they were not qualified but as a strategy of “disarming” him. One of them was Wale Edun, who was tipped as Finance Minister. Edun was dropped for Kemi Adeosun, who had once worked for Edun, obviously her senior in the field. Kemi was picked as a nominee of Governor Ibikunle Amosun who had fallen out with his mentor, the Asiwaju.
Indeed, at the moment, except for Lagos State Governor, Akinwumi Ambode, most of the APC governors in the South West are no longer on the same page with Tinubu just like his successor, Babatunde Raji Fashola now Minister of Works, Power and Housing as well as Kayode Fayemi, Minister of Solid Minerals.
The governors and the two ministers – all former close associates of Tinubu — have fallen out with him and have become the support group for the President’s men in the South West. The plan is to cage Tinubu and clip his wings so that he would not be a threat to them in the South West.
Many of the ministers also picked from the South West by Buhari were those from former parties like the All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP, and the Congress for Progressives Change, CPC. Governors Amosun and Abiola Ajimobi were with Buhari in ANPP while the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, was in the CPC. Most of these are working against Tinubu.
But insiders said Tinubu also committed some blunders. At the onset of this administration, he was said to have insisted on nominating people into key positions, especially from the South West. In the scenario, many of the governors as well as some key stakeholders who assisted the party in sacking the PDP from power felt sidelined. These included former President Olusegun Obasanjo and some traditional rulers. What actually irked some of these people was the fact that most of these nominees were picked by Tinubu from Lagos State as if some of the other states did not matter.
For instance, it was pointed out that the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, is from Lagos. Tinubu’s man for the position of Speaker, House of Representatives, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, is from Lagos as well as many others, including Babatunde Fowler, Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS. Also, Muiz Banire, who recently resigned as National Treasurer of the APC, is Tinubu’s nominee from Lagos It was learnt that all efforts to make Tinubu see reason proved futile.
But the worst was yet to come.
An opportunity to kick-start the real plot against Tinubu arose in the build-up to the December 2015 governorship election in Kogi State. The party’s candidate, Abubakar Audu, former governor of the state was Tinubu’s favourite. His running mate, Honourable Abiodun Faleke, a member of the House of Representatives from Lagos was a Tinubu acolyte. As the election got underway, Audu was already leading at the polls only for the election to be declared inconclusive.
Then Audu died suddenly. After a lot of rigmarole, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared that it would hold fresh elections in the affected areas and asked APC to field a fresh candidate. The logical thing expected was for the party to declare Faleke, the running mate as its candidate.
But because of the plot to stop Tinubu, Faleke was snubbed and Yahaya Bello, who had declared for PDP and even worked for the opposition during the polls, was picked as its candidate and eventually became the governor.
Indeed, it was the same scenario that played out in Ondo State last November where the President’s men muscled out Tinubu’s favourite, Segun Abrahams, to pave way for the former President of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Rotimi Akeredolu, to become the governor of the state.
The New Diplomat gathered that the President’s men in the South West moved in right from the primary stage in their plot against Tinubu, a development that irked the Jagaban to the point of attacking the national chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, a former ally of his.
It was Tinubu that ensured the emergence of Oyegun, a former governor of Edo State as chairman of the APC, above such people as Tom Ikimi, a former Foreign Affairs Minister and former Chairman of the defunct National Republican Convention, NRC.
The furore that the Ondo election generated is yet to abate as evidenced by the rancour that attended the APC leaders’ meeting in Ibadan in early January where Tinubu was said to have almost walked out of the meeting alongside Ambode following accusations and counter-accusations from various stakeholders that Tinubu was becoming too greedy and was the architect of his current travails.
It was further gathered that the Jagaban had to pipe down on seeing the depth of the people’s anger against him. He tendered an apology to anyone he might have offended in the past.
As part of the ongoing plan to demystify Tinubu, especially ahead of the planned National Convention of the party, his nominee for the position of National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, was snubbed.
Instead, Mallam Bolaji Abdulahi, an ally of Saraki was picked. The position became vacant since 2015 when the former occupier, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, a close ally of Tinubu, was nominated as minister.
It was generally assumed that Tinubu would nominate a replacement, but that was not to be. While Igbokwe has been the spokesperson of Lagos APC for a long and thus has much experience, Abdulahi was a former Minister of Sports.
In the build-up to the National Convention of the party billed for April, there are allegations of plots to ensure that his loyalists are blocked from taking positions of any importance, if at all.
The plot is said to be a gang-up against Tinubu by the camps of Oyegun, Atiku, Saraki and Buhari supporters ahead 2019 elections in order to frustrate him out of the party.
But Tinubu seems unperturbed as he recently said that despite all forms of harassment and intimidation, nobody can force him out of the party he helped build as a major stakeholder.
“In a series of tweets, Tinubu declared: “In our journey to national betterment, plans and policies will be made, then amended. Mistakes will occur and then be corrected. Achievements will be had and replicated. Through it all, I, Asiwaju, will remain true to the progressive ideals that fueled the creation of APC.
“I have devoted my political life to achieve what has been achieved. My heart is too much of the people and my mind too fixed on establishing a positive historic legacy rather than engage in destructive pettiness. This government, APC, is for the betterment of the people and the national purpose is bigger and more important than any individual’s desires. This is a party I laboured with others to build. We will not abandon it for another. Millions of Nigerians who voted are watching and praying.”
This came against speculations that he was part of the group behind the formation of a mega party preparatory to the 2019 elections.
All efforts to speak with Sunday Dare, Tinubu’s media aide on this development were unsuccessful as he neither picked his calls nor responded to text messages.
But it would be recalled that, elder statesman and leader of the Afenifere, Yoruba Apex Socio-Cultural group, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, had described the treatment being meted to Tinubu in recent times as targeted at the Yoruba by the Presidency.
According to him, it was the same treatment given to late Chief Obafemi Awolowo by the North in the First Republic which led to the crisis in the Western Region and the eventual collapse of the Republic and subsequent Civil War.
However, another Yoruba leader, Dr. Femi Okurounmu, Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee on the 2014 National Conference blamed Tinubu for not being a good student of history by teaming up with the North to bring the Fulani back to power.
In an interview with The New Diplomat, Okurounmu, a former Senator said Tinubu ought to have known that the Fulani had always nursed the ambition of perpetual domination of the country, especially the Yoruba, and would not want to share power with anybody, adding that Tinubu had it coming in spite of using Yoruba money and resources to bring the Fulani back to power.
According to him, Tinubu taxed most of the Yoruba states to source funds to ensure the success of Buhari in the party primaries in December 2014 held in Lagos as well as to fund his Presidential campaign noting that it was ironic that Buhari has turned around to hound him.
