Before he got really beat-up by sicknesses his UK doctors say bug 80-something-year-olds, President Muhammadu Buhari, 74, still attempted to act the tough old bird in his style of politics.
But from his cabinet choice and the soft spot many say he has for certain members of his party, critics believe Buhari, in some ways, is also a respecter of persons.
And, against his much touted bolt-straight principle, Buhari has limbered up and become something of a father figure to certain APC’s politicians. Unfortunately, they are now at the mercy of the elements since their tower of strength got shaken on January 19, and V.P. Yemi Osinbajo became acting president.
The most worried among them now, political observers say, will be Ondo Gov. Rotimi Akeredolu who spited his national leader Bola Tinubu, and, backed by Aso Rock, still won the state guber election last year. Many believe the southwest governor will have a hard time while his new-found love from the north is temporarily out of power, and Tinubu’s man, Ag. President Yemi Osinbajo, is now at the helms.
Ogun Gov. Ibikule Amosun, too, is a well known Buhari’s sweet-heart. The Ogun governor has been close to Buhari since the Petroleum Tax Development Fund days, when Buhari was chairman, and Amosun a consultant auditor. The ANPP brought them together again, as Amosun became the party stalwart in the southwest. He has maxed out all the goodies attached to being in the power loop since their path crossed in the APC.
All that may have changed now. At least between January 19 and the next 16 days when the constitution considers the president incapacitated to govern. And Buhari’s resignation can only turn out a mixed blessing for the most loyal of his men.
Up north, Borno Gov. Kashim Shettima and his Kaduna counterpart Nasir el Rufai are two members of the Nigeria Governors Forum that have Buhari’s ear. They too must be missing the president now, going by their closeness.
Akeredolu, the latest bride, was piggy-backed in to the power loop by the APC Chairman John Oyegun during the Ondo primary that pitted the two against their national leader Tinubu. As the rift between them deepened, Akeredolu was inching closer to Buhari. He dropped in on the president couple times after the guber election last year.
This emotional attachment between the president and these four, among others, definitely has its upside. For instance, the counter-terrorism campaign going on in the northeast is succeeding largely because Shettima and the centre are darlings—unlike he was when PDP’s ex-President Goodluck Jonathan initiated the military campaign in 2013.
Now Shettima is something of a godsend. “He is a man that can unite this country and take it beyond the heights that out able President Buhari is taking us to now,” Deputy Speaker of Borno House of Assembly, Danlami Kubo,said February 22.
El-Rufai was one of the many loyalists of former President Olusegun Obasanjo whom he served as FCT minister then. The author of Accidental Civil Servant, who former V.P. Atiku Abubakar likes to call a serial betrayal, has since shifted his allegiance to Buhari. And the relationship between the two has drawn speculations, even within the APC, that the Kaduna governor is eyeing the presidency against 2019. That’s if Buhari tires out.
Amosun too has ridden the crest of the waves of the alliance to make his own statement. His finance commissioner eventually became Buhari’s finance minister.
On the flip side, however, these godsons, especially the two in the southwest, have got somewhat hard-headed and defiant to the party’s godfather they used to look up to before Buhari became president.
Akeredolu’s nomination for the party’s guber race was the second instance the party men would thwart Tinubu’s decision. It was Amosun that beat him to it in the finance minister nomination which Buhari zoned to the southwest. Tinubu’s choice Wale Edun was dropped in favour of Amosun’s—Kemi Adeosun.
These and other incidents of power politics allegedly coordinated by some northern cabal made many believe Tinubu has lost his place in southwestern politics. And, to some, it was a big leadership problem for the region. “We in the southwest do not cry for or deride Tinubu,’ said Doyin Okupe, public affairs adviser to Jonathan lasy September. “We should on the two sides of the political divide, that is APC and PDP, pause and ponder on the emerging political leadership crisis in the Southwest.”
But the train of events now has caused a ripple within the party and the government it leads. Ag. President Osinbajo may not have openly told Nigerians he is loyal to Tinubu. His body language says a lot. For instance, he doesn’t warm up to those disrespecting Tinubu. Osinbajo was missing at the final rally of the party’s campaign Buhari graced in Ondo. He didn’t congratulate Aheredolu on the election victory either. He was not there during the governor’s inauguration few days ago.
The distance has political effect, certainly—especially as it relates to Nigeria’s centric government with crushing control over the federating states.
That should worry the Ondo governor and his Ogun counterpart.
And for Tinubu, observers say it could be a kind of rebound—or even more than that in case Buhari, by reason of his ailment, resigns, and Osinbajo becomes president.