For the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed
Tinubu (ABAT) LLC, these are trying times. These times are sour and very
discomforting. The times are painful and full of regrets. The “greatest
political strategist of our generation” as his employees and ardent
supporters would like to refer to him is reeling from debilitating
political injuries. There is gnashing of teeth and mopping of lips in
the ABAT LLC. Even, for those who are not fans of the mercantilist made
for profit political outfit called ABAT LLC, the garish groans oozing
out of Bourdillon has been eliciting pores of pity and chasms of
empathy.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu
The Chairman and the CEO of ABAT LLC is
no other person than Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu himself. He has been a
lonely man in recent days. No place could be lonelier than a wilderness,
especially political wilderness for someone who lives and breathes
politics. From the look of things, the “greatest political strategist of
our generation,” has strategized himself out of relevance and serious
contention in the political dynamics of the All Progressive Congress, a
political party that was his brainchild to a very great extent.
Through
overconfidence, carelessness, naivety, contempt of and for history,
disrespect of elders and odious knack for cold-blooded acts of political
perfidies, he has strategized himself into trouble waters. The trouble
waters do not seem to be ordinary, they are hot trouble waters. And
because they are hot trouble waters, they burn and hurt very badly. To
his credit, he is bearing his cross very silently and stoically. He is
taking the hand that fate has dealt him. He is licking his wounds in
secrecy while putting up appearances of a satisfied and satiated
political godfather. He is pretending that all is well when all is out
of sync. He has become emblematic of the good old saying, “Not all that
glitters is gold!”
The present administration led by President
Muhammadu Buhari would never have seen the light of the day if not for
Asiwaju Tinubu. His contributions in so many ways are public secrets. It
is not something one should dwell over again in this piece. One is just
giving this a mention because it is very telling when someone of
Tinubu’s caliber, a political godfather of no small means, one who has
made and unmade many political careers and ambitions, has been reduced
to political invalid. And from the feelers that are out there, like the
Americans would often say, “he ain’t seen nothing yet!” The extent of
humiliation that Asiwaju Tinubu has been subjected to by the Buhari
Presidency he empowered could only be fathomed when it is realized that
Tinubu could not boast of any candidate in the cabinet of President
Buhari.
From Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, one of the sworn enemies
of Tinubu was appointed to his chagrin. He could not stop it despite
all his efforts. In Ogun State, Anambra born Yoruba retired General
Olusegun Obasanjo – Onyejekwe, nominated the Minister of Finance, Mrs.
Kemi Adeosun. From Oyo State, President Buhari chose the gubernatorial
candidate of his political Party, CPC, in the previous election, Alhaji
Bayo Shitu as Minister. From Ekiti State, former Governor Kayode Fayemi,
the man with a conundrum of fraud allegations around his neck and
ankles, who was another beneficiary of Tinubu’s godfatherism went behind
him to ingratiate himself with Buhari to get a Ministerial appointment,
again to the chagrin of Tinubu.
In Osun State, when Raufu
Aregbesola’s second term election was on the ropes, Tinubu went to
prostrate to former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola to get support for his
protégé. The promise given to Oyinlola was to give him the Ministerial
slot of Osun State. And indeed his name was sent to Aso Rock. This was
until another powerful politician from Osun State who had stones to
grind with Oyinlola went there behind Tinubu to complain to President
Buhari. President Buhari then asked the powerful politician to bring in
substitution and the rest is history. Ondo State has never been under
the influence of Tinubu and he had no say whatsoever on who was
nominated. Mr. Claudius Daramola used his Northern connections from his
school days in Sokoto, Zaria and Jos to gain the confidence of President
Buhari.
The power base of Tinubu is supposedly the Southwest
States. For the untutored and the gullible, Tinubu is still the most
powerful politician in this hemisphere. But for those who understand the
dynamics of politics, Tinubu is fast becoming what the Yoruba calls
“agbunrin esi.” While things might still take a new turn, which
indicators are at variance with, it is evident that the once stronghold
of Tinubuism is fast dissipating if it has not already dissipated. What
is currently subsisting is a star that is gradually dimming as a result
of uncouth politicking inebriated with absence of etiquette and basic
values that civilized humanity has come to hold dear.
But this is not
an unexpected outcome for a for money/profit mercantilist organization
like ABAT LLC dubiously appareled in political garb. An organization
that is founded on the sole principle of money making through the
appropriation of political power for individual ends as opposed to the
peoples’ interests and the advancement of the society. The individualism
that forms the basic tenet of Tinubuism and the operational philosophy
of ABAT LLC is functionally related to the series of treacheries that
define its character and form the seeds of its destruction that is
presently unraveling.
The apogee of Tinubuism was 2012. In the years
leading to that point, Tinubuism was riding the waves. It had displaced
and replaced the original Afenifere leadership and branched out to
sponsor and control Afenifere Renewal Group. Tinubu had undercut the
Alliance of Democracy, betraying those who paved the path to Lagos
governorship victory for him and became the godfather of Action
Congress. He deceived the former Vice President Abubakar Atiku and
dangled the AC presidential ticket in his face only to sell him out at
the last minute. He repeated the same perfidy with Nuhu Ribadu who
became so frustrated he had to go and join PDP.
Before that time he
had faced down the political vampire called Olusegun Mathew Okikiola
Obasanjo-Onyejekwe. Tinubu fought Obasanjo-Onyejekwe to a standstill and
refused to be bullied. He was the lone survivor of all the AD governors
during the reelection of 2003. With his AC and control of Lagos, he had
strategically conquered Osun State, followed by Ekiti State. Oyo and
Ogun were later to be added to the price. The success was pulsating. He
imposed governors and senators across the land. He imposed members of
Federal House of Representatives. He disregarded the grassroots and the
feelings of the voters who did not seem to have a better alternative to
the PDP as he forced a lot of unpleasant candidates down the throats of
the Yoruba voters.
He began to feel his own sense of invulnerability.
He began to see himself as something other than ordinary. He felt and
began to act like a god. His confidence became imbued with ebullience to
the point that he publicly insulted all the Yoruba Obas calling them
unprintable names. He was walking in the clouds when he liked and walked
on water when he preferred. He was riding high beyond his own
expectations. He has found himself where he did not expect to be.
Tinubuism became the domineering philosophy on the political landscape
of Yorubaland with pockets of spineless opposition here and there.
When
Ondo State resisted the advance of Tinubuism with the help of Dr. Segun
“Iroko” Mimiko, in 2012, Tinubuism in the Southwest started receding
like a jaded and fading “Ankara cloth.” From that year, cracks in
Tinubuism began to show for those perspicacious enough. At that point in
time, the crises between him and Kayode Fayemi had begun to fester to
where Tinubu decided to raise a protest candidate against him for
re-election. The crisis led to the weakening of the APC that Governor
Ayodele Fayose came to exploit to kick the party out of Ekiti State.
Tinubu’s
woes became metastasized by Aregbesola’s messing up of Osun State to
the best of his ability. He did everything to please his godfather. He
even destroyed historical schools allegedly to pave way for the
ever-expanding business of his mentor in defiance to the crying and
wailing of the people of Osun State. Governor Abiola Ajimobi was glad to
be part of the ACN but did his best to maintain his independence. He
refused to lick the boots of Tinubu and was not enthused about paying
homage at Bourdillon. Governor Ibikunle Amosun also did not seem to
enjoy bootlicking. He maintained his dignified distance from Tinubuism
while working diplomatically with Tinubuists. Fashola was getting into
trouble in Lagos for trying to be his own man. It was the same thing
that got Fayemi into trouble in Ekiti.
This was the point at which
the need to get rid of the hapless President Goodluck Jonathan became
imperative. The “greatest political strategist of our generation” had
the legitimate ambition to become Vice President. He could not trust
former Vice President Abubakar Atiku as the flag bearer of the APC. The
fact that Tinubu had previously betrayed Atiku after Atiku had done him
the biggest favor of his career was scary to him. He was afraid of
payback. But Atiku was not and still is not that kind of a man. In spite
of all his failings, Atiku has a big heart. Regardless, the sinner
would always run when no one is in pursuit. So in Buhari lies Tinubu’s
alternative. Buhari too had some hard feelings. The hard feelings had
been about alleged act of treachery on the part of Tinubu. But Buhari
was willing to be patient to get what he wanted.
Tinubu schemed.
Buhari too schemed. As soon as Buhari got elected, he declared “he
belong to everybody and belong to nobody.” He courted all those who
disliked Tinubu and made them his close friends. He sidelined Tinubu and
turned him into a spectator as the administration took off. When Rotimi
Amaechi insulted Tinubu at one of their meetings, Buhari did not
dissuade him. He allowed him to do so without let or hindrance. Though
Nasir El-Rufai brought Amaechi to Lagos to prostrate and apologize to
Tinubu in Bourdillon, it was to ensure the Southwest votes and the
victory of Buhari.
Buhari, without engaging in a public fight with
Tinubu reduced Tinubu to a spectator without any influence in this
administration. Not only did Tinubuists lose the Senate Presidency, but
they also lost the Speakership of the Federal House of Representatives
along with some principal offices. The Tinubuists have no one in the
cabinet. The Vice President Yemi Osinbajo nominated by Tinubu has been
turned to an ordinary passenger by the Buhari handlers. He is an outside
insider in the administration. Osinbajo has been locked out of security
meetings and made to understand that he does not belong. Though, this
has been denied to save Osinbajo, and by implication, Tinubu his mentor,
any embarrassment. But the truth is Osinbajo was actually locked out.
When
Tinubu nominated Mr. Femi Falana for the position of Attorney General
of the Federation, there was a groundswell of opposition not just from
Tinubu’s enemies in the Southwest but also his detractors from across
other regions. This was not because Falana had so many enemies or was
unqualified, but it was simply because he was nominated by Tinubu. If
Falana had pursued that office on his own without the albatross called
Tinubu around his neck, he might have succeeded. Everything Tinubu
touched became ashes. Everyone he supported became a loser. It became a
big problem for ambitious politicians to identify publicly with Tinubu
at the national level. Everyone began to be diplomatic in the manner and
way they distance themselves from the God of Bourdillon.
Across the
Southwest, the only governor still faithful to Tinubu is the man called
Aregbesola. Yet he has more than anyone inflamed hatred for Tinubu in
Yorubaland because of his incompetence and mismanagement of Osun State.
Already, Governor Akin Ambode is complaining in private. Hopefully the
bubble would not burst into the open. A mention of Tinubu’s name now is
met with hisses. And some curses in most places. Now with the
existential crises facing Nigerians across the country, Buhari has
become unpopular. For every minute that Nigerians remain in darkness
because of lack of electricity they rain curses on Buhari. For every
additional naira they have to pay for petrol they rain curses on Buhari.
For every additional naira Nigerians have to pay for a “congo” of
gaari, rice, beans or dawa, they rain curses on Buhari. This is more
especially so when majority of Nigerian workers have not received
salaries for several months. As for the people of Southwest, every time
they rain curses on Buhari, they have never forgotten to rain curses on
Tinubu and all those who helped him to impose Buhari on Nigeria.
In
the crannies of Bourdillon, there is bounteous regrets and moping. There
is gnashing of teeth, mopping of lips and zapping of noses. There is
finger biting and sweat wiping. There is a nagging disbelief that all
this could happen. There is a lot of pinching to nudge themselves into
reality if this is a dream. But all this could have been prevented if
they had listened to advice; if they had taken history more seriously
and learnt from it. It is evident that the Tinubuists have
miscalculated. They have not only miscalculated, they have been
inflicted with double jeopardy. The first jeopardy is that they lost out
on everything and have no substantive post in this administration. The
second jeopardy is that Buhari is not performing and this has made
Tinubuists objects of passionate anger, deep disgust and rueful curses
from amongst the people.
Some have insisted that no one should grudge
all those who benefited from Tinubu only to betray him. They pointed
out that the old guard Afenifere who paved the path to Alausa government
house for Tinubu was betrayed by him too. It was noted that other than
the betrayal of the old guard Afenifere who have been subjected to
serious campaign of malice from Tinubuists, Tinubu also betrayed a lot
of others for his own personal benefit. Victims of Tinubu’s political
treachery were said to include former Vice President Abubakar Atiku,
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, President Goodluck Jonathan (from whom he allegedly
got so many sweet business deals), President Obasanjo-Onyejekwe (himself
a born-again traitor), and President Buhari himself among several
others. All these are being contextualized in the aphorism “He who lives
by the sword dies by the sword.” By implication, “He who lives by
treachery dies by treachery.”
“In the long history of the world, only
a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in
its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility – I
welcome it.”
- John F. Kennedy, in his Inaugural Address January 20, 1961
Source.
http://saharareporters.com/2016/03/18/bola-tinubu-pains-godfather-remi-oyeyemi
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