Tinubu’s outburst steers confusion in Presidency

By DANLADI USMAN, Abuja

Since the outburst of the All Progressives Congress (APC) national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, against the national chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, in protest of the party leadership deviation from the foundational ideals of the party and partisanship in party administration, the Presidency, it was revealed, has been thrown into deep confusion over the faith of the party. The top institution of governance in the country was disclosed to have developed mix up over the consequences of the crisis that is gradually deepening.

Sources disclosed to National Daily that President Muhammadu Buhari was shocked by the support Tinubu received, over his protest of the manipulation of the Ondo State Governorship ticket, from most people he thought were behind him and his administration, as well as the momentum the impending conflict has been generating across the country.

These were said to have revealed to the President that the handwriting is very clear on the wall that the APC is facing high risk of being thrown into intractable conflict that may consume the party and government.

Surprisingly, Tinubu was at the book launch on Buhari, fortnight ago, in Abuja, where he celebrated the leadership qualities for the President. The inclusion of Tinubu in such public activities has not happened in a very long time. Thus, most stakeholders are of the view that the Presidency may have considered the need to draw Tinubu closer.

But a shocker broke out at the weekend when the Federal Government withdrew the forgery suit against the Senate leadership from the High Court. This was followed by the retaliatory outburst of APD Nationbal Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, describing Tinubu’s allegations against him as baseless and reckless.

National Daily gathered that managers of power in the Presidency have been weighing the conflict on the scale of balance of power over the political capital of the principal actors in relation to a tentative new agenda of power shift towards 2019.

Tinubu’s outburst, National Daily was told, came at a very right time when the Presidency was developing a new friendship network across the Niger down the Atlantic. Sources revealed that the President was beginning to develop fraternal interest in a new coalition across the Niger in which former President of the Senate, Ken Nnamani, is becoming a new bride. That political card was disclosed to be in the boardroom of the President’s strategists as a viable alternative to strengthen the existing alliance.

To the consternation of the President, Tinubu garnered unsolicited support from political quarters he probably least expected as the stakeholders who rose in support of the APC national leader’s demand for the resignation of the party’s national chairman were on different paths with him in the course of the transition.

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar chided the APC NWC for rejecting the recommendation of the appeal panel on the Ondo State governorship primary election and insisting on the Akeredolu ticket. Atiku had maintained that the NWC was expected to be an impartial umpire in administration of the party and arbitration of crisis among members in any given election.
The former vice president warned members of the NWC to promote the rule of law and due process than meddling in power contests by party members, in the administration of the party. He maintained that this is germane to the unity and stability of the party, adding that party leaders should stop breaking their own rules.

Atiku had insisted that it was imperative for the national leadership of the party to respect internal democracy and democratic tenets. He cautioned: “you cannot break your own rules without creating problems.”

Furthermore, an elder statesman from the North, Alhaji Salihu Tanko Yakassai, had also remarked that the conflict in the APC did not come as a surprise to keen political observers, adding that he had anticipated the crisis soon after the formation of the present administration.

Yakassai observed: “APC is an amalgamation of four to five political groups. After the formation of the government, only members of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) were being considered for political patronage, while members of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have been sidelined.”

Yakassai added that members of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) “are neither here nor there” except, the appointment of the erstwhile party’s national chairman, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, as minister.

Yakassai had declared: “The ACN leader, Asiwaju Tinubu, is totally out of the picture despite the fact that the vice president (Yemi Osinbajo) is his nominee. The appointment of Fashola to the jumbo ministry is considered personal, just like that of Amaechi. Bukola’s emergence as Senate president was largely due to his personal financial prowess and the support he received from the PDP members in the Senate.”

The elder statesman also remarked that prior to the financial crisis the country was plunged into, the vice president was “a mere onlooker”, as, according to him, “his (Osinbajo’s) new found relevance was made possible by his position as the chairman of the National Economic Council, which conferred on him the position of the chairman of the Economic Team of the government.”

The looming conflict began to take a dangerous dimension when Tinubu’s kinsmen also rose to the challenge.

Chief Ayo Adebanjo, one of the leaders of the Afenifere, a pan Yoruba group, had affirmed that the gang up against Tinubu was a strategy to divide and create confusion among Yoruba in order to give the North total control of the APC. He noted that although he and Tinubu have their differences but now is not the right time to mock him because the Yoruba race is under attack.

“Attack on Tinubu is not directly at him but an attack on Yorubaland. I am not short-sighted. They want to break us up and cause division so that they can take over our land,” Adebanjo was cited to have declared.

“He (Tinubu) has made his mistake and I hope he has learnt from it;” the elder statesman said, recalling that he cautioned Tinubu not to form the alliance that gave birth to APC but he (Tinubu) ignored his warning.

“When he went into the alliance, I warned him that they are a conglomeration of incompatibles but they chose to ignore. But I strongly believe that the gang up against him is a ploy to divide the Yoruba land so that these Northerners can take over. I can see that and nobody can convince me about that,” Adebanjo declared, reiterating that, “Tinubu may have his fault but he has not been treated well by his party.”

APC Governors, however, considered it of prime importance to intervene fast and propitiate Tinubu. Many of the governors were revealed to have been holding consultations with the APC national leader from the South West, seeking his understanding for the resolution of the impasse.

Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State made political diplomatic shuttle to Tinubu on the mandate of APC governors.

Tinubu, a fortnight ago, demanded the immediate resignation of John Odigie-Oyegun as APC national chairman. Oyegun was gathered to have gone to the President, seeking protection.

However, the increasing condemnation of his leadership by party members, in addition to mounting agitations from non-party members over the ill-treatment meted to Tinubu by the party-government since the victory of the APC in the 2015 general elections and the inauguration of the Buhari administration on May 29, 2015, were disclosed to have put the President under pressure to consider the option of certain adjustments and immediate resolution of the impasse.

Some APC stakeholders who spoke to National Daily on the condition of anonymity, were of the view that the risk will be high if the President choses to snub Tinubu after the former Lagos State Governor’s “investments” that ensure Buhari’s victory beginning with the APC National Convention In Lagos to the electioneering campaigns for the presidential election.

They remarked that Buhari had his most flamboyant and well-funded campaign in 2015 being financed by Tinubu and his team from the South. They insisted that such immense contributions cannot be easily ignored by the president, no matter the political pressure for primordial patronage or sectional favour.

The chronology of the ill-treatment of Tinubu preceded from the power tussle for the leadership of the two chambers of the National Assembly to the appointment of ministers in which none of Tinubu’s nominees was considered. Tinubu was widely observed to have swallowed the bitter pills silently and playing along with the party.

The Ondo State primary election for the APC governorship ticket won by Chief Rotimi Akeredolu SAN broke the Carmel’s back, forcing Tinubu to come out of his shell and declare war on the party leadership.

Tinubu and his supporters had demonstrated political sportsmanship, congratulating the winner of that primary election but suddenly discoveries were made on how the Ondo APC primary was manipulated by some party stakeholders identified to have grouped themselves in Abuja.

Petitions were sent to the party leaders in Abuja, who, in response, set up an appeal committee. The committee had recommended cancellation of the result and conduction of another primary election but the APC National Working Committee (NWC) rejected that recommendation, submitted Akeredolu’s name as APC’s candidate for the November 26 governorship election in Ondo State to the Independent national Electoral Commission (INEC). It was discovered that majority members of the NWC had voted to uphold the recommendation of the appeal petition committee but Oyegun purportedly used his veto power to upturn the NWC majority decision. It was obvious that the battle line has been drawn as the Abuja group showed desperation to overthrow the hegemony of Tinubu in the South West.

Tinubu, in reaction, accused Oyegun of sabotaging the will of democracy in Ondo State by overriding the decision of the appeal panel which asked for a fresh governorship primary following investigations that showed that the delegates’ list used for the exercise was tampered with.

Tinubu had contended that, “Oyegun’s comportment regarding the Ondo State primary will become the textbook definition of political treachery and malfeasance of the basest order.”