Written by Obinna Akukwe
Bola Tinubu, the Jagaban of Lagos, must not be abandoned by
President Buhari and his cronies, if Nigeria will remain one by 2023. Bola
Tinubu, the erstwhile governor of Lagos State is also the godfather of Lagos
politics, having installed three governors in succession-Raji Fashola,
Akinwunmi Ambode and Sanwo Olu.
Tinubu was among the three governors who refused to do the
biddings of Ex-President Obasanjo
when the fear of the Ota farmer amongst governors was the beginning of
wisdom-Dariye, Aameseigha, and even to
an extent Ibori had tales to tell after collusion with the Obasanjo locomotive.
Tinubu was the godfather of Lagos who deployed high propaganda
machinery to deliver Buhari from the most vicious arsenal of media henchmen
assembled by Goodluck Jonathan and unleashed against him in 2014 including Femi
Fani Kayode, Olisa Metuh, Reno Omokri and Nnamdi Kanu among others. Buhari was labeled
a Boko Haram sponsor, Jihadist, Terrorist, Child Rapist whose aim is to
Islamize Nigeria on the order of Uthman Dan Fodio.
All manners of lies were peddled against the Buhari bid for presidency,
and some of us who supported the ex-general were alarmed at the levels of evil report
propagated by the opposition upon Buhari’s head.
Many of the strangers licking the presidential soup pot and
embezzling our collective wealth under different shades of political
appointments may not appreciate what
persons like Bola Tinubu put in to make the ouster of Jonathan possible.
I can name many of us who supported Buhari’s ascendancy to the
throne , including journalists, columnists, bloggers, activists and writers
from all walks of life, tribe and religion, who joined hands in defending the
tag of Buhari the Jihadists, and got international sympathy for him. I have no
regret supporting Buhari because the financial profligacy under Jonathan, if it
had continued, would have hoisted another ‘Argentine Economic Crisis’ on
Nigeria.
Boko Haram was throwing bombs inside Abuja, UN building was
bombed, Force Headquarters was bombed, Emab Plaza was bombed, Nyanya park has
not recovered from the deadly attack till two years ago when the place was
opened up for activities.
I remember that a contingent of soldiers were stationed permanently at Goshen headquarter annex
of Living Faith Church in Auta Balefi,
near Abuja where the popular Bishop Abioye is the overseer, to prevent
terrorist attacks on the facilities. Therefore, I have no regret supporting Buhari,
but those feasting on the new national cake should not make the mistake of Jonathan era.
Jonathan first mistake after defeating Buhari at the polls in 2011
was to drag Tinubu to the Code of Conduct Tribunal on the guise that he has a
foreign account. The details of how Tinubu escaped convinction from the CCB are
not the subject of this piece. Tinubu
abandoned Nuhu Ribadu, Presidential candidate of Action Congress, in a last
minute alliance with Jonathan. In a
write up in 2011 titled ‘How ACN Sold Ribadu To President Goodluck’, I
revealed that
“The ACN
leadership in response to the pact, refused to campaign for Ribadu Presidency.
They refused to mobilize both funds and supporters for the Ribadu project while
their counterpart PDP was campaigning for President Goodluck. The sweeping of
the South West votes by the PDP was the result of the negligence. President
Goodluck garnered 2,718,417 votes while ACN got 1,369,943 and CPC 321,609. The
South West votes were the true reflection of how a party sacrificed its
presidential candidate on the altar of expediency. This action secured the ACN
a rigging free election for the rest of the South West . The PDP used the
recent electoral malfeasance in Kogi and Adamawa States to remind the ACN that
the gentleman’s agreement and trade by barter entered during the presidential
election is over and the ruling party will not condone any encroachment on
their political birthright”.
I continued further that,
“The ACN
has not been particularly receptive to politicians of northern extraction . The
former Vice President under Atiku Abubakar ran to the ACN in the hey days of
his battles with Obasanjo and by the time he was tossed around by the party
leadership he had no option than to return back to the PDP on another failed
presidential project, this time around swallowed by incumbent President
Goodluck. Nuhu Ribadu could not have become President under the circumstances
but if the ACN had campaigned for him as expected, including release of
logistics, including the never ending security votes, the ACN would have got at
least 5 million votes around the country while the PDP vote would have reduced,
occasioning a run off. Secondly, the PDP would not have been able to get the
mandatory 25% votes in 2/3 states of the federation. A run off would have
ensued and the ACN could negotiate a major role in government in exchange for
their votes.”
Jonathan suffered for the attempt to use, dump and imprison Bola
Tinubu, and the Jagaban has no business supporting Jonathan’s second term bid,
when the first support earned a CCB probe.
Buhari’s men had hit Tinubu earlier. They schemed him out of
things, a year after Buhari’s ascendancy to Aso Rock throne, and pacified him again,
a year to the 2019 controversial election. Buhari’s men are about to dump
Tinubu again and I forsee danger.
After my writeup titled ‘Presidency 2023: As Tinubu Swallows Orji Kalu, Okorocha, Akpabio,
El-Rufai’….an APC stalwart boasted that they will soon swallow Tinubu, and
give him the Orji Uzor Kalu treatment. When the plot to remove Oshiomhole
failed I wrote another titled ‘Presidency
2023: Tinubu Swallows Fayemi, Amechi and Enemies of Oshiomhole ’ and the
same chieftain boasted that they will give him an upper court. I was
specifically told that soon Gaidom will be the National Chairman of APC. Though
I didn’t doubt this power broker, I wondered how a Deputy National Secretary
will become National Chairman, jumping all the lines of succession. When
Oshiomhole was removed, I understood better.
I want to advise President Buhari, Mamman Daura , Sabiu Tunde
Yusuf, Ibrahim Gambari, Boss Mustapha, Baba Gana Kingibe , and all the cabals
in Aso Rock that Tinubu is as dangerous as Tompolo of Niger Delta fame. I
warned Buhari and his men in private and public, with write up titled ‘Why Tompolo Must not be Arrested’ and
another one titled ‘Tompolo Boys Defy
Buhari , vow to Set Nigeria Ablaze’. I revealed emphatically what will
happen if the Tompolo manhunt continues. I stated that:
“The
dilemma is that if Tompolo surrenders, humiliation untold will accompany him.
Ibori may be better than him. If Tompolo fights back, the nation will burn but
Gbaramutu Kingdom will be another case of human rights violations in the hands
of security agencies. If Tompolo capitulates, the Niger Delta struggle will be
buried because this man has enough influence to marshal out formidable forces
more than the rest of the groups.
“Tompolo
have vowed to fight back. From what I gathered, has put his people on red alert
in such a manner that if anything untoward happens to him, hell will be let
loose on oil installations in such a manner that soldiers will be taken by
surprise. To the best of my knowledge, he is ready to wreck more havoc, and is
not ready to be humiliated like Nnamdi Kanu”
Government ignored my calls , and the blasting of oil pipelines,
shortage of oil revenue and the hardships it brought on Nigerians, before Vice
President Osinbajo’s tactful intervention salvaged the situation, is the result of
ignoring a warning that has all the insinuations of a security report.
I want to warn again that Tinubu can wreck Nigeria. He has worked
hard for a united Nigeria and knows where to wreck it. Tinubu can wreck APC and
make way for an Atiku presidency in PDP to be a reality. Tinubu can support
IPOB and make the breakup of Nigeria a fluidic exercise.
Tinubu has not run out of options yet. Moreover, I don’t believe
in somebody being used and dumped. I have never used and dumped anyone and I can
never support such. Buhari must not allow himself to be used to fight other
people’s proxy wars.
President Buhari should maintain his neutrality in the Tinubu
fight with cabals within the north, dissents within his own Yoruba camp, and
agitations for Igbo Presidency. The
Tinubu affair should be handled carefully, Let him not be abandoned by Buhari,
let other contenders for the 2023
presidency be given equal opportunity
without necessariy mocking and maligning the Jagaban or else the entity
called All Progressive Congress will explode.
Obinna Akukwe, columnist, profetobinna2@yahoo.com,
@obinnaakukwe
I
No comments:
Post a Comment
Post Your Comments Here