Features
Bola Tinubu: The power of one man
By OBINNA EZUGWU
“The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience,” writes famous Russian author, Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) in his novel “War and Peace.” In Nigeria’s political landscape, perhaps no one has deployed these two warriors in political battles more than former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Even in the face of what seemed to many as extreme provocation by the power brokers in Aso Rock, who upon riding on his shoulders to power in 2015, turned around, seemingly, to undermine his interest, as admitted by his wife, Senator Remi Tinubu, who once remarked that her husband was being trashed, Tinubu refused to lash out, giving support to President Muhammadu Buhari in spite of the odds.
In Lagos where he reigns supreme, the former governor, has continued to prove an ultimate deal maker, ceding grounds where necessary, and, of course, deploying nationalism to rally support. Today, he remains the most relevant among his 1999 set of governors, and indeed the most powerful political figure in the country, outside the presidency, and analysts say, although the power brokers in Abuja are not inclined to giving him the All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential ticket in 2023, they may not have a choice after all.
“Tinubu has paid his dues as a politician, and it is within his right as a Nigerian to seek to be president,” noted Bar. Oladotun Hassan, founder, Yoruba Council of Youths. “And he is strong enough in APC to secure its ticket.”
Tactfully aligning his interest to ‘national’ interest and those of President Buhari, and taking his time to make moves, Tinubu has established himself as an indispensable figure in APC, and demonstrated same few days ago as the plot to unseat his installed National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, got to a crescendo.
Tension had brewed in the APC. The many fires stoked by the garrulous Oshiomhole, in whose dictionary diplomacy did not exist, was certain to consume him. Suspended in his ward and suspended as party chairman by an Abuja High Court, he was a step away from the exit door… then, the Lion of Bourdillon roared in his defence. It was largely what it took to compel his adversaries to accept compromises. Oshiomhole lived to fight another day. Such is the demonstrated influence of the former Lagos governor.
“It did not come as a surprise that Adams Oshiomhole would survive the latest move to sack him as the National Chairman of the APC,” notes APC chieftain and presidential aspirant, Dr. SKC Ogbonnia. “His opponents have been hitting the tail instead of the head. The gist is that Oshiomhole’s tenure of crisis cannot be divorced from the overbearing ambition of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to rule Nigeria at all costs.”
Ogbonnia argues that those after Oshiomhole should have started from Tinubu, as according to him, it was impossible to remove Oshiomhole while Tinubu is still calling the shots. But even he would admit that if it were easy to get rid of Tinubu, it would have been done after 2015.
Oshiomhole, a long time political ally of Tinubu had become chairman of the party on June 23, 2018, a year seven months after serving out his two terms as governor of Edo State on November 12, 2016, largely due to Tinubu’s influence. The hitherto chairman of the party, Chief John Oyegun, although had been nominated by the former Lagos governor in 2014, he would subsequently lean towards Abuja, helping to undermine his interest, particularly in Ondo State in 2016.
While it was convenient, the Aso Rock power brokers used Oyegun against Tinubu, but always applying patience as a conquering virtue, he waited till 2018, when his support was desperately needed for President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term bid, to make his move. After several weeks of intense politicking, Tinubu had his way, Oyegun was gone, in came Oshiomhole, in a move many believe was an attempt to secure control of the party’s structure ahead of 2023 power bid.
But as chairman, Oshiomhole who came into limelight as labour unionist, displayed lack of tact and diplomacy needed to lead a national party of people with divergent interests. He inevitably got into trouble having ‘offended’ many. This and the very idea that his emergence as national chairman was part of Tinubu’s presidential agenda, the plot to oust him began as soon as Buhari got reelected for second term.
In a letter dated May 27, 2019, few weeks after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Buhari winner of the February presidential polls, Lawal Shuaibu, deputy national chairman of the party (north) asked him to resign for failing to add value to the party.
“In advanced democracies, people who fail to add value or build over and above what they met on assumption of duty show some civilized examples, they honourably bow out,” Shuaibu wrote.
“In that connection therefore, I want to advise you to take the path of honour, to step aside and allow the Party to embark on the onerous task of reconstruction and rehabilitation in those States it was weakened by the effect of manner the last primary election exercises were conducted or even the task of recreating the party where it is on the path of extinction, arising from the loss of a sitting APC Government, for example in Zamfara State, where you directly personally created the problem leading to the painful complete loss of APC’s electoral fortunes.”
Lawal’s letter was the first major sign that there were forces against the chairman. It would emerge subsequently that some serving governors and ex-governors against whose interest the party leadership worked in the lead up to the elections of 2019, or who has 2023 interests, such as Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, Rochas Okorocha, Ibikunle Amosun, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, Godwin Obaseki, Nasir El-Rufai, Kayode Fayemi, among others, were part of the plot to oust him.
In August last year, the governors, under the aegis of Progressive Governors Forum, in a letter signed by its Director General, Salihu Lukman, titled “APC: Appeal for Reconciliation,” dated August 6, 2019 and addressed to the APC National Chairman, berated Oshiomhole, accusing him of diminishing fortunes of the party.
In the said letter, Lukman had observed, among other things, that, “My distant observation is that there is hardly any difference between your approach in managing the party and the way Chief Oyegun had managed it during his tenure. Instead, things have really got worse and painfully, it would appear, you are in denial of this reality.”
Things quickly escalated, no thanks to the political fight between the national chairman and his successor in Edo, Godwin Obaseki. Oshiomhole’s men who had since turned against Obaseki for not ‘carrying’ them along and had made up their minds to ensure that he doesn’t return for second term, saw the first opportunity to begin execution of their plot with the state assembly election in the state in 2019.
A majority of the Assembly members who returned elected were loyalists of the national chairman, and the governor, fearing that the question of impeachment might arise, plotted to install his own loyalists as principal officers of the Assembly. It was a move that set both men on a collision path.
The Obaseki controlled party leadership in the state, as the battle intensified, influenced Oshiomhole’s suspension from the party at his Etasko ward. And following that, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja presided over by Justice Danlami Senchi on Wednesday March 4, suspended Oshiomhole as national chairman of the party having been suspended as member of the party in his state.
The court’s decision had followed an application to that effect by Olawale Afolabi. With different interests converging against him: Obaseki and Akeredolu whose concerns are apparently second terms tickets, and those plotting against Tinubu’s 2023 power bid, made Oshiomhole almost toast… but Tinubu again, proved his mettle, and it was not to be.
The plot to oust Oshiomhole, sources revealed, was already well hatched. His adversaries fixed the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting for Tuesday, March 10, a day after an appeal court hearing of his appeal against his suspension.
“The plan was that as soon as the appeal court dismisses his appeal on Monday,” a source who craved anonymity said, “NEC will meet the next day and appoint someone to replace him.”
Following his suspension by the court, Lukman issued a statement calling for the appointment of an acting national chairman of the party, since according to him, Oshiomhole no longer had legal right to function as chairman.
But on Sunday, Tinubu reacted. In a scathing attack on those plotting against Oshiomhole, he described them as being worse than Coronavirus, and ultimately, pointed out that they are plotting against him because they feel he is a threat to their 2023 power bid.
“The plotters launched their attack solely because they perceive the chairman as an obstacle to their 2023 ambitions. People went to court knowing full well the party constitution prohibits such action because these people had not yet exhausted all internal disciplinary procedures,” he said.
“We even had a national deputy secretary improperly call for a NEC meeting on the basis that he believed himself the acting national chairman. Clearly, this man would not have summoned the temerity to make such a move had he not been instigated by powerful individuals who he thought would reward or, at least, protect him for committing the wrongful act.”
Tinubu’s intervention saved the day for Oshiomhole. The Appeal Court which is supposed to hear Oshiomhole’s appeal against the suspension postponed it to another date. Earlier on the day, Oshiomhole was sighted going to the office of the Chief of Staff to the President, Mr. Abba Kyari.
Later on the Monday afternoon, a number of APC governors, including those of Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Kwara, Kano, Nasarawa, Edo, Kebbi, Jigawa, Gombe, Borno, Niger, Plateau, Lagos, Katsina, and Imo States met with Buhari and came out to announce the postponement of the NEC meeting scheduled for the next day, Tuesday.
Later same Monday, the Court of Appeal ordered stay of execution on Oshiomhole’s suspension order. The rattled but now elated Oshiomhole consequently addressed a press conference, admitted that he had not been diplomatic in his style and promised to “reconcile his style” with those of others.
Upon resuming work on Tuesday, Oshiomhole, in a reconciliation move, lifted the suspension of Shuaibu and the party’s national vice chairman (Northwest), both of whom had been suspended by him for their plots against him.
As part of the reconciliation effort by the reconciliation committee headed by Chief Bisi Akande, those whose suits against Oshiomhole were still pending in the courts were asked to withdraw them. Some are yet to do so, suggesting that anger is still being nursed. But for now and for the foreseeable future, Oshiomhole’s position as APC chairman looks secure, and Tinubu has proved a point going into 2023. But it is still, however, too early to tell.
In the meantime, the governors are said to be demanding automatic tickets for Obaseki and Akeredolu as condition for peace, and Oshiomhole may have got his reprieve by conceding to the governors. This will be the immediate test of his future in the party.
