2023: Osinbajo’s moves for the Presidency rattle Tinubu

•Osinbajo is more acceptable to us in the North than Tinubu – Mustapha Saye

• Tinubu’s ambition is inordinate – Remi Salami

• The Asiwaju Foisted Buhari on Nigeria, it is payback time- Khadija Ladoja

By Mike Odeh James

It has been in the offing for a very long time now, but it has also remained a closely guarded secret, only known to very few people.

Early this week, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, was reported to have informed President Muhammadu Buhari of his intention to run for the Presidency in 2023, in line with the zoning principle which was secretly inserted into the All Progressives Congress by top members during its formative years.

Osinbajo’s moves seem to have taken certain players in the APC by surprise. Chief amongst those taken aback is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the national leader of the party and a close confidant of President Buhari. It is also a known fact that the national leader of the APC is the godfather of the current Vice President, and until now, he seemed to be the frontrunner for the party’s presidential ticket.

The Desert Herald Newspaper gathered that despite the fact that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was seen as the frontline runner for the APC ticket, against the backdrop that he has a well-oiled political vehicle to push through with his ambition, the main power broker, when push comes to shove, has never been comfortable with the ambition of the Asiwaju.

In 2015, when APC defeated the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to clinch the presidency, Tinubu, who was very instrumental in the emergence of Buhari as the President, was given a bloody nose when Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara emerged as Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively, as opposed to Tinubu’s anointed candidates.

Between 2015 and 2013, the Yoruba political strategist was ignored by the Presidency and there were rumors of a fall out between the APC national leader and the President. However, sensing that the APC may not do well in the South West, having lost much goodwill in the North and with a rejuvenated PDP in the North and the general discontentment with his administration in the South East, President Buhari hastily turned back to his estranged ally.

A series of agreements were secretly agreed upon, namely that Buhari would support Tinubu’s presidential ambitions in 2023, Tinubu’s allies would get the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Furthermore, June 12 would be declared a democracy day, as opposed to the previous date set aside for the past 18 years.

Tinubu’s return to the corridors where power was laced with vengeance. In 2016, Tinubu insisted on the removal of Chief John Odigie Oyegun as the Chairman of the APC. His grouse with Oyegun was that the latter supported former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Senator Dino Melaye, and Yahaya Bello against his preferred candidates.

Though his wish was granted and his friend Adam Oshiomole emerged as the party’s national chairman, Tinubu’s rivals systematically haunted his office one after another; Melaye, Saraki, and others lost their seats in the National Assembly.

However, the same forces that opposed him in 2015 were very much around and would strike with devastating precision. Cashing in on the abysmal performance of the APC during the 2019 General Election, Jagaban’s ally, Oshiomole, was booted out of the APC. And the party apparatus returned to their political traducers.

However, like a cat with nine lives, the Jagaban Borgu reemerged in the party when his scion, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamilla, inserted direct primaries as a prerequisite for all parties in the Electoral Bill Act. If allowed to, Tinubu would have had a free ride to clinching the APC Presidential ticket.

Again, the political strategist was beaten at his game when the President was prevailed upon to decline his accent. As for now, the most potent threat to Tinubu’s ambition is, as usual, the ambition of the incumbent Vice President.

The Vice President, right from inception, has paraded immense political credentials that would have endeared him to many electorate both in the North and South.

For many reasons, Osinbajo is seen by many as the most acceptable candidate after Tinubu.

According to Mustapha Saye of the Arewa Frontier Movement, “Yemi Osinbajo is a highly educated Nigerian yet very humble and loyal to his principal, Buhari.

He further argued, “We from the North love people who are loyal and, in turn, would put our trust in him politically. We did that for Obasanjo in 1998 and 2003.”

Secondly, Tinubu is a Muslim. If he emerges as the Presidential candidate of the APC, he would have to get a Christian. From which part of the country would that Christian come from? A certain part of the north would be marginalized, Saye added.

However, if Osinbajo, a Christian, is elected, he will represent all Christians in both the North and South, and will choose a running mate from the North to balance the act. According to the national coordinator of the Arewa Frontier Movement, “he is still talking about religion and region, apart from being a pastor in Redeem Christian Church of God, which has one of the largest followers in the South West.”

Furthermore, Osinbajo is also married into the family of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. All of this combines to give the Vice President a big edge over other contenders. Saye added

Just as the Arewa Frontier Movement gave the incumbent Vice President a thumb up for the Presidency in 2023, many other groups are also joining the fray.

On January 6, 2022, northern groups from across the region, under the aegis of the Arewa Consensus Assembly, met in Kaduna for a one-day Northern Agenda conference, where they unanimously resolved to support Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to succeed his boss in 2023.

The groups, which were represented by Suleiman Makama of National Partnership Campaign Project, Daniel Shawulu of Arewa Consensus Assembly and Khalid Mohammed of Joint Participation of Development Initiative, recalled that the Southwest threw its weight behind Buhari and this is now a payback time to support the emergence of a President of Southwest extraction in 2023.

The Joint Conference noted that the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osibanjo, SAN, GCON, fits and addresses the questions of balance, equality, and attributes, which the country needs and therefore, the group pledged to support his candidature.

The communique was issued at the joint conference on Northern Political Participation and Power Shift with the theme, “Northern Agenda: Our real solution,” held at the Arewa House in Kaduna.

Even as the North considers Atiku Abubakar, Yemi Osinbajo as possible successor to Buhari, the political ambitions of Tinubu in the South is under intense scrutiny.

According Remi Salami of South West Network, Tinubu has never condemned the policies of Buhari even for once. “This portray a character of a man that is very ambitious and shifty, he cannot be trusted with power, Remi said.

In Nigeria economic capital, Lagos, Khadija Ladoja would rather support Yemi Osinbajo or Atiku than the Asiwaju.”Asiwaju foisted Buhari on us and what did we gain? For me, it is either Yemi or Atiku, she added.

Political analysts are of the opinion that the entrance of the Vice President into the Presidential race has changed the equation from a two way race to Osinbajo, Atiku and Tinubu.