EXCITING NEWS: TNG WhatsApp Channel is LIVE…
Subscribe for FREE to get LIVE NEWS UPDATE. Click here to subscribe!
By Godwin Etakibuebu
On November 28, 2017, Ahmed Bola Tinubu; former governor of Lagos State and the presumed National Leader of the All Progressive Congress [APC] travelled with President Mohammadu Buhari to Abidjan in Cote d’Ivoire for EU/AU submit. The journey, which included two governors; Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State and Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi State, was highly publicized by the Media.
The high profile publicity given to that event, including pictures of Buhari and Tinubu sitting opposite each other with smiles from both politicians inside the presidential aircraft, spoke more of a “new-found love or friendship” between Buhari and Tinubu. The President was to pure uncommon encomium on Bola Tinubu on arriving Abidjan, saying that “he [Tinubu] is an astute Nigerian political leader that deserves respect”, before revealing that “the national leader gave me a very good information which I will read and work with when l get back to Nigeria”.
This was before he [President Buhari] gave him [Bola Tinubu] an assignment of reconciling the many battles amongst many undignified warlords in the APC. And surely before the wife of the National Leader, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, lamented heavily of how her husband was used by the APC and “dumped”. She painted a gloomy story of a strong scaffold used by builders in completing and bringing out the beauty of a high-rise edifice but was later discarded. According to Senator Remi Tinubu, the husband was that “strong scaffold” – used and discarded or dumped.
The memorable accolade of the President on Tinubu during that trip to Cote d’Ivoire and his subsequent appointment to reconcile the APC’s warring factions looked like a way of bringing the dead back to life from the grave; a type of miracle that only Jesus Christ performed when Lazarus, having been dead and buried for four days, was raised back to life, according to the Bible book of John 11:1-45. We should not forget in hurry that Bola Tinubu, having helped in putting the Party [APC] together and chasing both President Goodluck Jonathan and the People Democratic Party [PDP] from power in 2015, was consigned to “political grave”, so to say, by those he made.
How did it happen that a man of Bola Tinubu’s political prowess and understanding could easily be jettisoned and railroad into such political oblivion by a Political Party that came into existence through his political wizardry/acumen and the people he hand-picked for
political offices’ occupation in the same Party? Answer to this question maybe a needed factor in helping to decode the political game-play that is presently going on in the APC, understanding diversified role-function of individual personae dramatis within the Party as regards the crisis created/sustained by these individuals, the future of Ahmed Bola Tinubu in the Party and the likely future of the APC as a major determinant Political Party in the Nigerian political terrain.
The political downward slope graphic of Bola Tinubu had been on the drawing board many nights [decision about peoples’ lives are taken at dangerous hours of the night by Principalities and Powers – and there are few Nigerian politicians that belong to this class of Principalities and powers] before the dawn of June 9, 2015, the day the 8th National Assembly was inaugurated.
As the day [June 9, 2015] broke, the “downward slope graphic” of the National Leader; Bola Tinubu, written and sealed a few nights back was made known to Nigerians in a dramatic and most bizarre manner. It remains yet the greatest civilian coup d tat planned and executed in the annals of our history. The planning and execution had hands of a few but highly placed collaborators as the events of that day and subsequent happening would later prove. Let us see what happened that day.
While most Senators-elect [as they were then] of the ruling political party {APC] gathered at the International Conference Centre in Abuja for a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, slated for 10am [according to the text message that summoned the meeting] the inauguration of the National Assembly was taking place at the same time of 10am. By the time, the APC Senators-elect knew what was happening while waiting at the International Conference Centre, two things had happened.
One, while these APC Senetors-elect were waiting, the inauguration of the National Assembly, with particular regards to the Senate, had taken place and Dr Bukola Saraki had emerged as President of the 8th Senate and already sworn-in. Two, the wait for President Buhari by these Senators-elect for “a special meeting” proved to be exercise in futility as the President did not meet with them.
That was how Bukola Saraki, in connivance with his loyalists’ APC Senators-elect [those that did not “honour” the Presidential summons to the International Conference Centre] in agreement with all Senators-elect of the dethroned Political Party [PDP] became the Senate President – placing him as Number 3 most powerful Man in Nigeria, at least for now. His emergence as President of the Senate ran against the dynamic of Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s game play as the National Leader had slated that position for Ahmed Lawal from Yobe State, North/East Nigerian.
Before that date of inaugurating the National Assembly, Bola Tinubu did not only allocate the position of the Senate presidency to the North/East by nominating Ahmed Lawal for that lucrative office but had also anointed one of his favourites from the South/West in the person of Femi Gbajabiamila as Honourable Speaker of the House of Representatives. He [Bola Tinubu] consolidated on his “absolute power of sharing” over the Party [APC] by ensuring that those he anointed for offices became the Party’s official candidates for those positions as a letter signed by the National Chairman of the Party; John Odigie Oyegun, to the National Assembly so directed.
However, at the House of Representative where the drama of electing the Honourable Speaker wore a seeming garment of democracy, as votes were cast and counted, the result returned Yakubu Dogara as the Speaker, against Bola Tinubu’s anointed – Femi Gbajabiamila. This was the very day that Bola Tinubu’s authority and influence over APC noose-dived to the very bottom – it was a major crash from the top-roof of the building.
It naturally followed from that day that the power to nominate and crown candidates to major political offices, including gubernatorial candidates, in the APC, has left Bola Tinubu as the case of Ondo State later proved. In that case, which featured Rotimi Akeredolu; a contestant who dared Bola Tinubu in running against the latter’s preferred candidate, events showed that it is not only power that had left the Asiwaju but the Party’s National Chairman [a man anointed and crowned to be Chairman by Bola Tinubu] had equally departed from him.
With this further fall of the Asiwaju in the Ondo State governorship matter there was no more hiding of facts that some political Principalities and Powers have moved against this man who was once the Boss of bosses in king-making affairs of the APC. The question that needs serious attention at this point of this exercise is this: Who are those that demystified Bola Tinubu and reduced his influence and powers in the APC? Why did they move against him at the time they did? What impact would the “political downfall” of Bola Tinubu have in the APC politics? How far will the APC go within the Nigerian political terrain with Bola Tinubu on the sideline?
In answering these questions, we shall attempt looking at the larger role-play of some individuals in this unfolding scenario because what is at stake for now is not limited to the APC but the Nigerian Enterprise. If the APC; as the ruling Political Party, within its political interplay, does well, Nigeria will be better off for it. If, in the other hand, the Party; through its manipulative interplay of things, fails woefully, the Nigerian State and its people will remain the colossal casualties or will bear the vicarious liability of its misrule for years to come.
Ipso facto, this exercise is not about “Bola Tinubu and them” per se, but it is all about wither blows the wind of “these people’s misadventures” in Nigeria. Nigeria has not known peace in any form of human’s endeavor since the APC has taken over reins of government from PDP in 2015. This is the major reason why we should be concerned with the politics and politricks of the APC.
Next week, we shall delve into the role-function of the Presidency, Bola Tinubu, Bukola Saraki, the Aso Rock Cabal, the Fulani Elite Agenda, the Sokoto Caliphate, the Kanuri Empire and the Kaduna Mafia, in shaping the destiny of Nigeria through the making and marring of the APC.
Then this: Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State may just be as wicked against the people of Amuwo Odofin Local Government as wickedness can be defined. The link bridge connecting Festac Town [a major urban area in Amuwo Odofin Local Government] to Apo junction and into Lagos proper has been partly closed down by the Executive Governor since December last year, ostensibly for a minor repair because of fire incident on the foot of the bridge.
This Governor has withdrawn workers from the place since January, thereby leaving millions in that community in daily terrifying traffic-jam. It takes sometimes two to three hours to cross from Festac to Apo Junction. Why will a governor wants to be this wicked to his own people? The answer, according to the grapevine, is that Amuwo Odofin people did not vote for APC during the 2015 General Elections, otherwise one Emma Oghene-Egoh wouldn’t have become a honourable member of the House of Representative under the banner of PDP.
Will that be enough reason to punish everyone in that area, including the teaming members of APC that would always be willing to do everything for the Party? Mr Governor, allow your human conscience judge you in this matter, knowing fully that you are coming back to this same people in a few months’ time for their votes in 2019.
Godwin Etakibuebu, a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.
*234-8139114368 [SMS only please].