By Ikeddy ISIGUZO
FERVENT followers of Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu have nothing to tell him than that he is the next President of Nigeria. Tinubu and his 2023 presidential is the current handle for worshipping a man who for decades some have made their god, lapping up whatever position they suspect he promotes and throwing in their own contributions to sustain the myths about the man who they dub the father of modern Yoruba political emancipation, thought, thinking suffused in sagacity that issues from any cap he wears.
The most befitting crowning for that tag would be a Tinubu presidency which they started canvassing only months after President Muhammadu Buhari won his second term. At the heat of cracks in relations between the Tinubu camp and the President’s, going into the 2019 elections, there were suggestions that Tinubu should join the presidential race. Inferences were that Tinubu had not been treated fairly after his sacrifices that midwifed Buhari’s presidency. Contrary views are that Tinubu should be grateful for the deference that had been shown to him on many occasions.
It was therefore surprising that Tinubu on Sunday released a lengthy statement upbraiding those whose ambitions were at the verge of ruining the party. He was pitching a defence for the embattled National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Adams Oshiomole, whose own unconcealed ambitions to be everything in the party is unearthing unintended consequences.
He portrayed those already bidding for the 2023 as putting their ambition ahead of everyone. They were distracting the President from the enormous challenges the country faces. He admitted they had a right to aspire (he did not add like him) but asked them to quarantine their ambitions until the appropriate time.
Allusions to sowing and reaping were apt insinuations that 2023 was harvest time for those who have sown. Who would be better qualified than Tinubu?
The statement was Tinubu at his best. The less informed would think he was the benevolent politician acting for the common good. The more informed know that Tinubu had timed another effort to place himself above the gathering crowd of presidential contenders, including those who well know that they were pretenders in the race.
Oshiomole, who the statement supposedly was about, remains an effervescent embarrassment to APC. Whoever got him into the position would be in perpetual pains over what Oshiomole had made of APC.
Allegations of how Oshiomole manipulated APC primaries for personal gain filled the media in November 2019. He made incoherent explanations of them. Former Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha was strident about the National Chairman collecting money from him. Okorocha complained because Oshiomole did not keep to the terms of the deal.
APC’s misfortunes in Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Rivers, Zamfara, and most recently Bayelsa States, had been blamed on the National Chairman’s imposition of candidates for all cadres of the elections. Calls for his removal are based on these failings that shrunk APC’s dominance across the country.
Tinubu’s defence of Oshiomole was important. It needed to be made late enough to influence members of the National Executive Committee that were to meet the next day. Tinubu was playing the real party man who wanted to save APC, and not necessarily Oshiomole.
Outside Oshiomole, the 2023 presidential, what other national concerns disturb Tinubu? The Oshiomole message so important that it could not be recalled after the tragic gas explosion in Lagos that claimed many lives. It was an insensitive message, detached from the mood of the State in deep mourning. It was wrong day for that type of politics.
There is momentary relief for Oshiomole. The party’s NEC meeting has been deferred indefinitely. It would have been a strong platform to display angst against Oshiomole. A Court of Appeal order will help Oshiomole keep his seat with his dwindling powers.
Nowhere does Oshiomole contest power and relevance like in Edo State. He approaches the terrain with such trepidation that it is unbelievable that he was Governor of Edo State barely four years ago. He is battling to have a say in who becomes the next Governor of the State. The election is in August. His charging voice makes low impact in the din of local politics.
In linking Oshiomhole’s troubles to 2023 presidential ambitions, Tinubu skipped the present as is the practice with our politicians. While others have their ambitions for 2023, Oshiomhole’s is in the outcome of the governorship race in Edo State. Things are looking inexplicably bad for him.
Oshiomole was a convenient hangar for Tinubu’s message. He used Oshiomhole’s self-inflicted wounds to address his own issues and it was important he did to extricate himself from his long absences from important national concerns.
A measure of the seriousness of Tinubu’s abhorrence of the impatience of those beating the gun to 2023 would be a direct disclaimer of the numerous sprouting groups that are pressing the case for Tinubu in 2023. Anything short of that would be additional waffle to a political setting that is surfeit with words.
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