In one of the strongest signals yet, that President Muhammadu Buhari and all the President’s men have decided to cut APC national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu down to size, Huhuonline.com has learnt that the president snubbed Tinubu and APC national chairman Adams Oshiomhole; refusing to grant them audience in London, while on a 10-day private visit. Rather, Buhari was quoted as telling Tinubu and his co-travelers, including Lagos governor-elect, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and others who had traveled to London, “to go back home and wait for him in Nigeria.”
The President’s humiliation of Tinubu was compounded by an unmistakable act of political temerity when Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai took the battle to Tinubu’s home turf, on Saturday in Ikoyi, Lagos, at an event organized by the Bridge Club tagged: “An evening with His Excellency Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State.” El-Rufai said he defeated and retired four political godfathers in Kaduna State, saying the feat could be replicated anywhere, including Lagos State. Although he did not mention Tinubu by name, no one in the audience doubted the veiled reference to Tinubu widely acclaimed as the political godfather of Lagos state. El-Rufai, who argued that godfathers existed only on paper or in the minds of the people, said the key to defeating them was in going directly to the people.
The Kaduna Governor, who is known to have the ear of the president, was believed to be reading out a script prepared for him by unseen hands in Aso Rock. In his speech, El-Rufai encouraged the club members, who are mostly businessmen, to answer the call to public service and leadership by running for public office, saying it was more important than making money as bad decisions by incompetent leaders leaves the whole country worse off, including businesses. El-Rufai attributed the socio-economic and political challenges facing Nigeria to failed leadership because competent people had distanced themselves from politics.
Buhari traveled to London after visiting Lagos state where he commissioned some uncompleted projects with the outgoing governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, during a high profile visit that was boycotted by Tinubu. Seven days into the President’s 10-day private visit with no public appearance in Britain save for his arrival into the country in the late hours of April 25. This has revived raging debates over concerns and secrecy of the president’s state of health.
For nearly 170 hours in a foreign land, the president has neither been seen nor heard from. As stated in the announcement by the presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, who termed the holiday a private visit, everything about Buhari’s trip since arriving Britain was shrouded in utmost secrecy. Maybe it was a twist of fate and coincidence that Tinubu, APC chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, and Lagos governor-elect, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and others were also in London on private visits; and decided to meet Mr. President but their request was rejected outright, much to the shock and chagrin of Tinubu.
Sources close to the president told Huhuonline.com that when Tinubu and his delegation arrived Abuja House, the president’s choice destination in London, they were surprised to notice that the premises has been devoid of its usual buzz whenever Buhari is around, signifying that the president opted for another location for his private visit. An official then made a phone call, probably to find out if the president wanted to meet with Tinubu and APC chairman, but was advised to tell Tinubu and co to go back home and wait for Buhari in Nigeria. “He [Buhari] is expected to return to Nigeria on May 5, and you should go and wait for him there,” the official said, giving no further details. Both Tinubu and Sanwo-Olu returned to the country and were seen at the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) induction for new and returning governors in Abuja.
Huhuonline.com also learnt from Abuja House sources that also significantly absent during Buhari’s last visit is the customary pilgrimage of Very Important Personalities (VIPs) and high-ranking government officials to London to see Buhari for photo-ops. Even the reception hosted for the president’s long-time friends like the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby did not take place.
Meanwhile, Buhari has denied reports that his London trip was to compile the list of ministers to be appointed during his second term which begins next May 29, 2019. Quizzed by reporters upon his return to Abuja after a 10-day private visit to London, the president quipped a non-denial denial saying: “I didn’t discuss with anybody. So, I don’t know how they knew about it. I didn’t discuss it with anybody.”
However, the standing view amongst insiders in Aso Rock is that the president’s private visit might have been due to the politics of the next cabinet, rather than insinuations of a health challenge. Sources told Huhuonline.com that the president wanted to avoid the repeat of 2015 mistake when he was held hostage by centrifugal forces and the country waited for six months for him to form his Change Cabinet.
A source at the Villa confided to Huhuonline.com that it was such scheming that made Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, rush to commission uncompleted projects with the president in attendance much against the wishes of Tinubu. “Ambode is racing against time to impress the president as the new ‘Mr. Infrastructure’ for the Next Level. That was why all the Southwest leaders were in attendance except Tinubu and Fashola.”
According to the source, the president has resolved to source seasoned technocrats as members of his new cabinet to help him actualize his agenda for the ‘Next Level,’ saying that part of the reasons he travelled to London was to avoid distraction by political jobbers, who have been mounting pressure on him. The word on the street is that the president is taking a break to restrategise for his second term and is compiling the list of those who would play active roles as cabinet members in the second-half of his administration, while possibly evading the distractions of Aso Rock regular callers of aides, politicians and close friends.
A peep into the last minute intrigues that may shape the next administration and possible actors played two week ago when a directive was issued for all ministers to submit progress reports of their various ministries, a pseudonym for handover notes, to the Permanent Secretaries in their respective ministries before April 30.
The president left the country on April 25 on a private visit to London in the United Kingdom. Buhari was criticized for embarking on his private visit without transmitting power to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said that “President Muhammadu Buhari’s private voyage out of the country without transmitting power, as required by the constitution, is an act of dereliction, which confirms that the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Buhari Presidency are not interested in governance but seeks to vacate our constitutional order and foist an authoritarian system on our country.”
However, the Special Assistant to the president on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said the president can work from anywhere and discharge his duties from any part of the world. According to him, Buhari would only be accused of not transmitting power if he stayed beyond the shore of the country for more than 21 days without doing so. Shehu said: “The president can exercise authority from wherever he is as he is currently doing. This is a relatively short absence. If you check Section 145 (1) and (2) of the Constitution, you will see that the law is only infringed upon when such absence extends to 21 days.”
At the time of his return on May 5,Buhari barely has three weeks left to the end of his first term in office, which has seen him spent a total of 409 days – a year and 44 days – travelling to 33 countries in four years of his first term in office. He spent so far 224 days in the UK, the country he visited the most, mostly on health grounds and meetings of Commonwealth Heads of State and Government.
At the Lagos event, El-Rufai took direct aim at Tinubu during the question and answer session. Dr. Muiz Banire, (SAN) and three-time commissioner in Lagos State, noted that “Godfatherism” was the bane of professionals and businessmen who want to go into politics. Responding, El-Rufai said: “Godfatherism. This is Lagos. Let me tell you something sir; you know, Kaduna State used to be like that. There were three or four politicians in Kaduna that you could not become anything unless you had them on your side. Those were the godfathers of Kaduna politics and you had to carry them along and you know, the three words, ‘carry them along’ mean paying them regularly. But we chose a different path and the long and short of it now is that after this election in 2019, we have retired all of them; we had to.”
El-Rufai said the fact that only one out of the six million registered voters in Lagos voted in the last general elections was an opportunity to end godfathership in the state. His words: “Here in Lagos, you have over six million registered voters, only about a million voted (in 2019 elections); five million did not vote. If I want to run for governor of Lagos, I will start now. I will commission a study to know why those five million registered voters did not vote; where do they go on Election Day? Then I will start visiting them for the next four years. I will try and get just two million of them to come and vote for me; I will defeat any godfather. The key is to go to the people. The card reader and the biometric register have given us the tools to connect directly with the people. I assure you if you do that for the next four years, connecting with the people; the tin godfather, you will retire him or her permanently. But it is hard work; it requires three to four years of hard work. So, if you want to run in 2023, you should start now.”
On the question of money, El-Rufai said it would require about N2bn to do the job, which he said the businessmen could provide. “With about N2bn; if you start, you see these guys with black ties, they will give you the N2bn. Many of the godfathers are either on paper or in the mind of people in politics. They are defeatable. We retired four of them in Kaduna State within a four-year time and they are gone. One of them boasted that he put me in the government house and he would take me out.”
Earlier in his lecture, El-Rufai said the difference between Nigeria and progressive nations of the world was because incompetent people were in charge in Nigeria. He said, “In most of the developed worlds, the best and the brightest are in politics and public service. I urge you to google the profiles of the captains of the USA, UK, Japan, China and Singapore over the last 10 years and compare their educational and experience profile with ours, you will understand why we are where we are.
“The UK has been run by graduates of Oxford most of the time; the US has been run by graduates of Harvard and Yale most of the time in the last 100 years. You go to China, Singapore, similar profiles. In Nigeria, we have people that never went to school in our National Assembly. We have people with questionable qualifications as state governors. We will go nowhere as long as our best and brightest, people that sit in rooms like this are not in politics or public service.”
The President of Bridge Club, Mr. AU Mustapha (SAN), who is El-Rufai’s private lawyer, said El-Rufai was invited so that he could tell the club members about himself, as opposed to the image being given him by the press. Among the dignitaries at the event were the President of the Nigerian Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick; the Managing Director, Bank of Industry, Waheed Olagunju; and MD, First City Monument Bank, Adam Nuru.
