Why Tinubu shunned Buhari’s visit to Lagos

The one day working visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to Lagos on Wednesday seemingly exposed the latent disharmony of interest among political leaders in the state. The national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was conspicuously absent at the Airport to welcome the President into Lagos State, neither was he at the venues where the President commissioned some projects executed by Governor Akinwumi Ambode. National Daily investigation revealed that the APC national leader’s self-isolation from the visit of President Buhari to the state was not unconnected to the clandestine obsession to emasculate Governor Ambode who has been a victim of the obsession of hatred and rejection by the godfather and APC leaders in Lagos State since the 2019 general elections.

Findings by National Daily show that loyalists of Tinubu also boycotted the activities associated with the President’s visit. There were grumblings that Governor Ambode invited the President to Lagos to ‘steal the show’ of favour from the seat of power in Abuja. The visit of the President was perceived as a means Ambode was using to position himself or stamp his influence in the heart of President Buhari for his future political fortune after vacating office.

On a visit to the Lagos State House of Assembly during the hours the President was performing his commissioning of projects to capture the mood of the lawmakers, some of the legislators were also found not to be present at the events. Some of the legislators were heard complaining that the governor used the visit to establish and promote his personal interest in the Presidency in lieu of his exit from office on May 28, 2019. They were of the view that the visit was to create opportunity for the governor to be considered for by President Buhari for federal appointment at the end of his tenure.

However, neither the APC national leader, Tinubu, nor his loyalists or party leaders in the state have made official statement on the absence of the godfather of the Lagos politics from the presidential activities during Buhari’s visit on Wednesday; stakeholders in the state have been expressing concerns that it would appear that the house is no longer in order in Lagos State.

ALSO READ: 16 Ex-governors’ corruption suits troubling Buhari

While President Buhari was in Lagos, he was mostly surrounded by the governors of Oyo State, Abiola Ajimobi; Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu; Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi; and other prominent government officials in Lagos State who were with Governor Amobde to host the President.

The newly elected Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Sanwo-Olu, was, however, seen at the venue of the events. There was noticeable slight scuffle to discriminate the new governor among the dignitaries, even though Sanwo-Olu tried to give honour to Ambode in hosting the president by registering his presence.

After all entreaties, including intervention by President Buhari, Ambode was denied the APC ticket to seek re-election for a second term. The conflict that ensued from that decision spilled over into the elections in which Ambode was noticed to have played minimal role in the electioneering campaign of APC in Lagos, while at the same period, he made more appearance at the electioneering campaign of the President across the country. Since then, Ambode has been treated as a political outcast in the state; he no longer belongs to the family.

The governorship and House of Assembly electioneering campaigns were anchored on the political structures of Tinubu – the Mandate Group, and former Governor Babatunde Fashola’s political influence, including the Justice Group structure controlled by Alhaji Lanre Hamzat, to which Fashola seem to belong. The two power blocs were noticed to be instrumental to the stoppage of Ambode, and the brining up of Sanwo-Olu as successor. Obafemi Hamzat was given the deputy governor slot to pacify the Justice group as the Mandate group took the governor. The power sharing formula provided strong mechanism of balance of power between the two blocs in the horse trading for the 2019 elections in Lagos State.

Ambode is nowhere found in the new power equation which forced the Asiwaju and APC leaders to abandon the traditional reservation of the deputy governor ticket for a female party member. The tradition was established by Tinubu in 1999 to address the issue of gender sensitivity, but the political pressure from the Ambode challenge appeared to have compelled the suspension of the political tradition in Lagos.

Meanwhile, National Daily investigation also got knowledge of alleged grand plots to obstruct or frustrate the offer of federal appointment by President Buhari to Ambode. The details will be unveiled in subsequent reports.