Even as the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) continues to make the case for Senator Ahmed Lawan to be the next Senate President, rumblings within the Southwest APC caucus heightened the intra-party intrigues around the choice of the vice-president of Nigeria’s 9th Senate, amid a well-orchestrated campaign by APC National Leader, Bola Tinubu, to install his wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu as deputy senate president in the yet-to-be constituted 9th Senate that will take off in June. Sen Tinubu, who represents Lagos Central, expressed her desire to contest the post of Deputy Senate President shortly after her reelection for a third term in the February 23 general elections.
But her ambition has already become the source of much controversy and anger; stirring some serious concerns among other possible contenders and stakeholders in the zone. The standing view amongst Southwest APC power brokers is that Senator Tinubu’s tall ambition might cause the zone a similar fate that deprived it of getting principal positions in the 8th National Assembly in 2015. Some within the Southwest APC zone have been quick to point out that Tinubu’s wife is from Delta State and it will be a great political heist if she is allowed to represent the Southwest Yoruba nation. The important question will then be: will she be representing the Southwest or South-south region?
Huhuonline.com has learnt that Senator Dino Melaye of Kogi State has already initiated moves to thwart Tinubu’s ambition by mobilizing PDP senators and some of his APC colleagues ahead of the election of senate principal officers. Bola Tinubu faces a clear choice – impose his wife on the Southwest zone and face the backlash of “O to ge” against his hegemony in the entire Yorubaland. The inordinate ambition of Tinubu and his wife and the over bearing influence of the former Lagos State governor has left some observers wondering for how long a sophisticated region like Southwest would continue to be run like the Tinubu family business.
Gbajabiamila: A spanner in the works
There is also serious concern that if Tinubu and his wife continue with their self-centered politics, the Southwest may eventually be used and dumped by the North as the political permutations of 2023 starts to play out. Huhuonline.com gathered that most Southwest APC members would prefer the zone getting the position of Speaker rather than Deputy Senate President, especially as the incumbent House Majority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, who currently represents Surulere Federal Constituency 1, seems tailored-made to be the next House Speaker. Already, about 100 House members across party lines have rallied support for Gbajabiamila who for the second time is attempting to become speaker. The Director General of Gbajabiamila’s campaign organization, Abdulmumini Jibrin, stressed the need to adhere to APC dictates on the choice of Gbajabiamila, to avert the mistakes of 2011 and 2015 when opposition members influenced the election of principal officers of the legislature. Jibrin warned detractors against mudslinging and blackmail, saying Gbajabiamila’s emergence is in line with global best practices.
But a source close to APC Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole told Huhuonline.com that Tinubu has already traded off Ggbajabiamila’s speakership ambition in the interest of his wife that is why she was quick to announce her interest in the deputy senate president’s position without any due consultations with other stakeholders in the zone. Huhuonline.com further learnt that, Tinubu has embarked on a well-orchestrated campaign of blackmail against Ggbajabiamila, who’s been accused of being too stingy and ignoring the “stomach infrastructure” of his constituents; reasons why his reelection to the House was allegedly padded. The majority leader is also painted as someone who does not have the backing of the Governor Advisory Council (GAC) in Lagos.
The concern is that her ambition will not be in the interest of Southwest since the same zone cannot produce the Speaker and Deputy Senate President when it already has the vice presidency. If at all the two positions are eventually conceded to the zone, it may not be ideal for Lagos State, and particularly Lagos Central Senatorial district alone, where Tinubu and Ggbajabiamila hail, to occupy both offices at the expense of other states in the geo-political zone. Irked by the development, some stakeholders have said unless Tinubu manages her expectations by placing the interest of the Yoruba nation ahead of her personal ambition, she and Ggbajabiamila may end up losing, just like the incumbent majority leader lost out in the 2015 speakership battle to the incumbent Speaker, Yakubu Dogara.
Besides, Huhuonline.com also learned that if push came to shove and Tinubu succeeds in sacrificing the Speaker’s position for the deputy senate presidency, Tinubu’s wife will be challenged by other ranking senators from the Southwest APC; who are also qualified for the position. Amongst those mentioned are Senator Ajayi Boroffice from Ondo State, who is also a third term lawmaker like Mrs. Tinubu; Olubunmi Ajetunmbi from Ekiti; Folarin Teslim from Oyo; Olamilekan Solomon Adeola and Senator-elect, Opeyemi Bamidele of Ekiti, who are said to be no strangers to legislative business. Huhuonline.com understands that Sen. Boroffice currently enjoys the support of the presidency and some Northern cabal; evidence by the fact that, despite surreptitious moves by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu to frustrate Boroffice’s third term return to the Senate, the lawmaker overcame the governor’s onslaught as a result of the backings of external forces.
To stop Boroffice’s 3rd term return to the Senate in the last general election, Gov. Akeredolu supported and financed the candidate of Action Alliance (AA), Dr. Tunji Abayomi, but Aso Rock read the riot act to the governor, who has now been charged with anti-party activities. Considering this X-factor, Boroffice stands a better chance to win the backing of northern senators than Mrs. Tinubu. The only issue that can militate against Boroffice is the fact that he was first elected to the Senate in 2011 on the platform of Labor Party (LP) before he decamped to APC. But it remains to be seen whether Boroffice will have the courage to contest against Mrs. Tinubu, aware that such a confrontation is a direct affront to the APC national leader.
Sen. Olubunmi Ajetunmbi is also another factor to reckon with. He was elected on the platform of defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), now APC, in 2011 to 2015 but lost reelection to Duro Faseyi of the PDP in 2015. He was reelected on APC platform in the Feb 23 general elections. He is not a novice to legislative business just as Folarin of Oyo State. Folarin was in the senate in 2003 to 2011 when he was elected Senate Majority Leader under PDP. He contested the Oyo State governorship ticket under PDP and lost. He re-contested for the senate in 2015 under the PDP but lost before he finally defected to APC and won. By virtue of experience, Folarin is also a third term senator and erstwhile majority leader. Like the outgoing Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Folarin can leverage the tailcoats of his PDP connections and APC family to bring home the goods for the zone; something Mrs. Tinubu doesn’t have.
Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu: An ambition taken too far
Some members of the APC in Lagos described Mrs. Tinubu’s desire as an ambition taken too far and expressed too early with political recklessness. There is a palpable sense of apprehension that Mrs. Tinubu’s ambition might as well compromise some of the federal cabinet appointments already conceded to Lagos. For instance, Lagos, among the Southwest states, currently has Minister of Works, Housing and Power, Babatunde Fashola; Senior Special Adviser (SSA) on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa; Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Babatunde Fowler; Secretary of Transportation, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Kayode Opeifa; Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), Adefulire Orelope; Chairman, Governing Board of Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Muiz Banire and others in federal appointments.
It remains to be seen whether Southwest APC leaders would bend over backwards or unite in resistance in the face of the vanities, intrigues, self-deification, personality cult, abusive patronage and clientelism politics of the Tinubu dynasty. A source close to the APC national leader told Huhuonline.com that when it comes to the 9th Legislature, Tinubu is playing the long game – always a step ahead of his opponents.
The source disclosed that Tinubu set out to pave the way for his wife’s ambition way back during the primaries when he thwarted Senator Gbenga Ashafa’s third term ambition and replaced him with lame duck, Bayo Osinowo through the tailored APC direct primaries in October 2018, while his wife easily sailed through the process. According to the source, if Ashafa had returned to the senate, representing Lagos East senatorial district, he would have been the preferred choice for deputy senate president, over Mrs. Tinubu considering his achievements, as Senate Committee chair on Land Transportation.
It is not by accident, the source noted that, for the first time, Mrs. Tinubu’s 2019 election campaign posters were pasted beyond Lagos Central Senatorial District unlike in the past. And no sooner after winning reelection, she erected “Thank You” billboards in almost every strategic area of high visibility across the state. The strategy obviously is to raise her visibility and public profile to buttress her Deputy Senate President credentials, as well as her much orchestrated future governorship ambition in Lagos state. Already, there are growing subtle disgruntlement among members of Lagos APC that Mrs. Tinubu is wielding overbearing political influence over her husband to the extent that the new Governor-elect of Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, is believed to have been her choice candidate.
In positioning his wife to vie for the deputy senate president’s position, Tinubu knows there can only be one winner in an election. Surely, he would save himself the embarrassment of his wife losing, if he is circumspect to understand that foisting his wife’s ambition on the Yoruba nation risks provoking a backlash from Southwest APC leaders who more disposed towards a change from elite-driven, top-down politics, characterized by systemic corruption and imposition of candidates, to one where the people are treated as the real owners and primary stakeholders of the political process.
A source close to Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ife, told Huhuonline.com that the positions of senate president and deputy senate president as democratic offices are shared not only along political but tribal lines in a nation in diversity. The source, who claims to speak the mind of the Osun traditional ruler said Mrs. Tinubu has neither the requisite caliber to represent the Southwest for the position, nor the qualified experience for such an office; her senatorial ranking status notwithstanding.
Tinubus: the “Clintons” of Nigerian Politics
But the source close to the APC national leader dismissed such apprehensions; saying Tinubu and his wife understand that in Nigerian politics, everything or everybody has an exchange value. Beyond survival of the fittest, the power couple, euphemistically described as the “Clintons of Nigerian Politics” have shown an impervious desire to articulate an alternative conception of power and politics that accommodate those higher ideals and values of democracy and governance. When the Tinubus go into battle, they take no prisoners; they are in it to win it, because in their world view of politics, the end justifies the means.
The constitution of APC clearly defines the party organs and the party leadership. There is no provision for anyone to be named as the Party Leader. Tinubu, having paraded himself both at home and abroad as the national leader of the APC; it will be difficult, if not impossible to get him off the fictitious throne. Informed whispers in the inner circles of the APC have it that, having positioned himself as the party leader, Tinubu has access to the most lucrative income sources of the party – he is recipient and dispenser of bags and bags of cash and he is the beneficiary of most of the lucrative contracts in all the APC-controlled states in the Southwest, without exception.
Some APC supporters told Huhuonline.com that Tinubu’s power and influence have been overblown for propaganda purposes. Allegations about Tinubu hijacking the APC for his selfish personal interests are neither comforting nor satisfactory, but they argue that it is hard to fathom how Tinubu alone can wield so much power in the APC; and if indeed he does, then the blame should be on President Buhari, for his naivety and timidity, because as president, he is supposed to be the undisputed leader of the APC; on whose platform he contested and won the presidency.
“Detractors can say what they want, but for all his weaknesses, Tinubu is amongst the few Nigerians who have made enormous sacrifices for the democracy we all enjoy today. If, in the process, he wields power and influence in the APC; then so be it – no pain, no gain! Taking out Tinubu from the APC equation is like trying to build a roof without first building the house; it is like preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ without the crucifixion,” quipped one source.
Keep your friends close…your enemies closer
If, as it has been said; the morning tells the day, then the Southwest APC leaders backing Gbajabiamila bid for the House Speakership have put themselves on a collision course with the APC national leader. With the clouds gathering, Huhuonline.com learnt that Tinubu is playing his cards close to his chest. The Asiwaju is believed to have fired his first warning shot across the bow, which saw the Southeast zone of the Conference of APC State Publicity Secretaries (CAPS), coming out forcefully to flex its muscles and urging Gbajabiamila to drop his Speaker bid.
In a joint statement that had all the hallmarks of a Tinubu operation, the group comprising publicity secretaries; Nwoba Chika Nwoba (Ebonyi); Kate Ofo (Enugu); Benedict Godson (Abia); and Okelo Madukaife (Anambra) stated that: “It is our view that the southwest geopolitical zone cannot take the office of vice president and speaker; the northeast, Senate presidency and Secretary to the Federal Government; while the southeast goes home weeping.”
According to CAPS, “this dark pencil requires a soft eraser, and no amount of browbeating can dissuade that. We think that Gbajabiamila should be part of this solution, sacrificially. We expect a rework of what has been passed to the public domain as ‘APC zoning’, which the national chairman of our great party gladly says has not been concluded, going by his recent interview on Channels Television. We wish to be advised on which leaders of APC in the southeast were part of the process that chose who will be what in the National Assembly.”
Whatever eventually happens, only time will tell as the intrigues, backroom dealings, horse-trading and politicking of the leadership of the 9th National Assembly continues to build up ahead of June 9, 2019, when the new legislature will elect its principal officers. Being a shrewd politician, Tinubu is expected to read the public mood and shelve his wife’s political ambition for the time. But Mrs. Tinubu is expected to repackage her ambition sooner than later.
