Following President Muhammdu Buhari and the APC NEC decision to toss the former party chairman Adams Oshiomhole, and dissolves the NWC, the party’s national leader Bola Tinubu marked his time.
He has now made his first public statement on the APC upward spiraling crisis, his 2023 ambition, and the hecklers troubling the party.
Tinubu is believed to be the major backer of the Oshiomhole-led NLC, what his critics described as his only controlling stake in the party hierarchy, in preparation for his ambition for the presidency in 2023.
“First Oshiomole is kicked out by the Court of Appeal. Then his preferred replacement, Ajimobi, falls into a coma. Then his arch rival, Giadom, is recognised by Buhari as National Chairman,” PDP operative Femi Fani-Kayode wrote in a most-knowing open letter on the weekend.
“Conclusion: it is over for Tinubu. He has been thrown under the bus and retired from politics!”
But as always, Tinubu denied it once again after the dissolution of the NWC.
“To those who have been actively bleating about how Buhari’s actions and the NEC meeting have ended my purported 2023 ambitions, I seek your pity,” he said in press statement on Saturday.
“Those who seek to cast themselves as political Nostradamus are free to so engage their energies.”
The high-octane criticism splashes to Oshiomhole, too. Many described him as an expendable—for Tinubu and Buhari. Neither of them could save the former chairman as the conspiracy to remove him from office thickened into an albatross that sank him.
Tinubu was said to be aware of Buhari’s plan on Thursday to sack the NWC, contrary to the conspiracy theories that the president just acted in order to snooker the former Lagos governor.
“They are in touch with one another,” the presidency said in statement on Saturday.
“Their relationship remains as strong as ever and between the two of them, only they know how they manage their enviable relationship.”
While it was apparent the NEC meeting put paid to the NWC leadership crisis, and Tinubu, a non-member, could not save his man, the former national chairman was not completely forgotten. At least by Tinubu.
“I believed and continue to believe that Comrade Oshiomhole tried his best,” he said.
“Mistakes were made and he must own them. “
Unlike Buhari, Tinubu appreciated Oshiomhole’s effort and charisma in the lead-up to the 2019 presidential election that brought Buhari back to power.
“Yet, we must remember also that he was an able and enthusiastic campaigner during the 2019 election. He is a man of considerable ability as are the rest of you who constituted the NWC.”
Aso Rock has yet to make any comment on the tenure and effort of Oshiomhole.