Presidency 2023:  Tinubu, Osinbajo draw battle line

The national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo SAN, have drawn the battle line in the 2023 presidential contest. Curiously, both Tinubu and Osinbajo are from the State APC, Lagos, and had worked together 1999 to 2007 when Tinubu was Governor of Lagos State and Osinbajo was Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice.

Majority of political actors in Lagos hold Tinubu as their political godfather to whom they all owe loyalty. For this reason, when Osinbajo formally declared last Monday to contest the 2023 presidential election on the APC platform after Tinubu had disclosed that he has notified President Muhammadu Buhari of his presidential ambition, there was a sort of outrage of the godfather being challenged.  Tinubu had declared that his presidential ambition is a life ambition.

Since the formal announcement of the Vice President to contest for the APC presidential ticket, Tinubu, who is yet to make official declaration had been intensifying his activities to counter and frustrate every move of Osinbajo.

Lagos State APC has not yet made any official statement on the two presidential aspirants springing from the unit. However, Tinubu is known to have firm control of the state party structure.

Osinbajo had gone ahead to hold consultation meeting with APC governors on Sunday before his declaration of the presidential race on Monday.  This compelled Tinubu to trail behind and holding an emergency meeting with some APC governors on Monday.

Both have also held similar meetings with the members of the two chambers of the National Assembly beside their nationwide consultations.

Tinubu leading the Mandate Group in Lagos politics, has strong structure to prosecute his contest with Osinbajo. He also has a deep pocket. His control of the southwest politics had over the years been diminishing marginally.  Invariably, there is still open space for Osinbajo to contest

The southwest with Tinubu.

Vice President Osinbajo has the federal might in his advantage, currently working with President Buhari. This provides him whatever political facility he requires to prosecute his campaign within the party for the APC presidential ticket.

Osinbajo, representing the Christian faith, may be taking advantage of the anticipated power shift to the south in 2023, providing a southern Christian presidential candidate for the APC, while the north would then provide a Muslim vice president to balance the north/south dichotomy in the power equation of Nigeria. Tinubu, a southern Muslim, may be requiring a norther Christian for vice to balance his presidential candidacy in the 2023 election. Muslim/Muslim joint presidential ticket, just like the other religion, has not been encouraged or at best resisted in the contemporary dispensation.

In all, the ultimate power show is the decision of President Buhari. Many APC stakeholders expect the President to endorse an aspirant who many other APC members should support. There was pressure on the president to make a similar decision when there were controversies over the election of a national convention in the preparations for the party’s national convention. President Buhari’s intervention and endorsement led to the emergence of Senator Abdulahi Adamu as APC national chairman, and the outcome minimized internal rivalries in the party.

Who wins the hearts of the APC national chairman and the President may end up winning the party’s presidential ticket for the 2023 elections.