Buhari’s speech Tinubu gives in trenches

On Tuesday, May 31, 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari uncharacteristically announced his stance on his relationship with the ruling party’s unofficial number two, Senator Bola Tinubu, and perhaps unwittingly, but surely, set the tone for what would define their association. possibly for the rest of their lives.

To be clear, the president and Tinubu had never been social buddies or business friends. What brought them together, first leading up to the 2011 presidential contest and later, in 2014, leading to the creation of their party, was political, or better yet, the desire to use each other’s electoral strengths to achieve lifelong aspirations . to be the democratically elected President of Nigeria.

On this basis alone, the president is morally obligated to support Tinubu’s ambition, as the former governor of Lagos had fulfilled his own part of the deal.

But on this Tuesday, the president didn’t mince words when he indicated he wasn’t ready to honor the gentlemen’s agreement to turn their backs on each other. In a punch to the governors elected on the platform of the party, Mr. Buhari said: “In line with the established internal policies of the party and as we approach the convention in a few days, I would therefore like to express the reciprocity and support from the Governors and other stakeholders in CHOOSING MY SUCCESSOR (emphasis mine), who would fly our party’s flag for election to the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

Present was the party’s national chairman Adamu Abdullahi and it was only eight days until the party’s presidential primaries.

Subsequent developments proved that neither Tinubu nor the South was favored by the president. But Tinubu made his way to the ticket, confirming in his victory lap on June 8, 2022 that he was not the president’s choice. “I didn’t expect to win, but I won. I must be intoxicated with the win,” he gushed. Two days earlier, Adamu, no doubt acting at Buhari’s behest, had revealed North and the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, as the combo choice of Aso Rock.

As suspicions began to grow that Aso Rock was unwilling to hand over power to the South, even Buhari’s taciturn sweetheart, Works and Housing Minister Tunde Fashola joined the chorus on a gentlemen’s deal in the founding phase of APC that it would be turning south after Buhari’s presidency. During the November 2020 press, he almost certainly said the deal was that it would be South West’s turn after Buhari, more in response to Ebonyi Governor Dave Umahi’s claim that he defected to APC because Aso had assured Rock that it it was South East’s turn to run for president.

Fashola had said, “The truth is that what makes an agreement spectacular is the honor with which it was made, whether it was written. If it was written, there would be no breach of contract lawsuits because it is a written and signed document that goes to court, but the private agreement you make with your brother and sister should not be violated. It must be honored.”

Between Fashola who was present at the formation of the feast and Umahi, a convert of the last days, who, to believe, will not and should not be a strenuous conversation.

Of course, Tinubu should be beaten for making an agreement with a race all about himself, when in the first Abeokuta statement he said that “it’s Yoruba’s turn and in Yorubaland, it’s my turn” (Yoruba lokan Ti a ba de ninile Yoruba, e mi lokan), but the president should not be spared, as he is not honorable enough to at least support the power shift to the south, even if he would not be final on its classification , between the three southern zones. Incidentally, all three southern zones had strong aspirants for the ticket, until the misalignment of the opportunistic Lawan entered the race in the equation.

Buhari’s decision and moves to retain power in the North through another Northern APC candidate after his eight years directly fueled Tinubu’s fears about him, before their political association, when he described him to US diplomats in 2003 as “an agent of destabilization, ethnic bigotry and religious fanatic”, as evidenced by the leak of US government documents. Yes, Tinubu spokesman Tunde Rahman denied on February 7, 2020, 17 years later, but it was more what Yoruba will call: “e je kape were lokoiyawoko le je kariona lo” (let’s joke a madman as the groom, to get easy passage.)

Buhari v Tinubu became a blockbuster from June 25, 2020 when the president “virtually” destroyed the party’s Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee, believed to be strongly pro-Tinubu and working towards his rise as the party’s presidential candidate and installed the Mai Mala Buni caretaker exco. The healthcare company is now the subject of multiple and multi-dimensional lawsuits and an albatross that has continually threatened the party’s candidates in all elections held since then, including all APC candidates for the 2023 poll. The Buni conundrum will continue, until the Supreme Court rules in the Ekiti Governorship Election appeal, in which Buni is now a party, in contrast to Ondo’s narrow escape for Akeredolu, in which Buni’s non-participation was the saving grace.

Since the ‘extraordinary’ replacement of Oshiomhole with Buni, Buhari and Tinubu have used different kinds of subterfuge to outsmart each other. So far, street smarts have given Tinubu an edge. Whenever the Villa’s heat gets too much, the ‘boy’ of Lagos will use subtle blackmail by dragging their case into the public arena, as he has done twice to get into Sodeke mode. He must also have discovered that the president likes to appear too decent for ijagboro (public brawl), and will always flinch at the sight of one. So, Tinubu will do what Yoruba will call ‘a tinapetepetenipopa, eniba ta silarakopele’ (splash the mud and beseech those who are drenched in dirt). Then he rocks off with victory.

Buhari seemed ready to sit out Tinubu’s campaign before the president was subtly blackmailed into following suit. Through OgaGarubaShehu, the presidency was also forced to deny that Buhari engaged in anti-party after Tinubu’s sympathizer, Tanko Yakasai, alleged Buhari’s disloyalty to Tinubu. Over the president, Tinubu has built up a huge moral advantage, constantly portraying Mr. knocks down who he normally would have to lend a hand, to come up as well. The influence works, at least at the party level, but probably won’t matter much in the general election.

For those who can read between the lines, Tinubu’s latest Abeokuta foray was to accomplish the dual purpose of calling out the president and his men, and distancing himself from the disastrous part of the Buhari legacy, by portraying himself as a victim of government mismanagement. Tinubu may have the code that unlocks Buhari, but Nigerians had long tied him to the president and his scorecard, before the latest episode of the regular pain the government inflicts on Nigerians, despite his claim to the BBC in December 2022, that he different from the Daura General.

But one good thing the latest outburst has done to Nigerians is the revelation that the current government is deliberately undermining Nigerians to settle political scores. That would be treason against the people. Mr. Tinubu can’t reverse this even when he tries to get the president’s person off the rope. Interesting times indeed.

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