LAGOS – Since Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s declaration of his intention to run for the presidency in 2023, there have been subdued disquiet between the camps of the All Progressives Congress (APC) national leader and the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who many believe could end up as the anointed and preferred choice of President Muhammadu Buhari.
President Buhari was non-committal when asked if he had a ‘favourite’ candidate in his party to succeed him. The president said he would rather keep the matter close to his chest, knowing that if he revealed his favourite, he could be taken out.
Although Prof. Osinbajo is yet to declare his intention to take over from his boss, many observers believe that both the president and the supposed cabal are rooting for the vice president.
After Tinubu’s declaration, one of the groups supporting the calls for Osinbajo to contest the 2023 presidential election, said they remained unruffled by the decision of Tinubu to throw his hat in the ring for the 2023 presidency.
Looking Like Two-Horse Race
The chairman of the Public Opinion Leaders Group, a unit of The Progressive Project (TPP), one of the groups rooting for Osinbajo presidency in 2023, Shettima Umar Abba Gana said it is the beauty of democracy for many aspirants to show interest in a position. He, however, added that they won’t be shelving their calls for Osinbajo to succeed President Buhari in 2023 just because Tinubu has also declared his intention.
Speaking further, Gana disclosed that though Osinbajo had not commissioned them to campaign for him nor has he openly declared interest in the race, the Vice President is their choice to become the next leader of the country and every other person had the right to support his/her preferred candidate as well.
He said: “What is happening is democracy, he (Bola Tinubu) wants to run, we want our own man (Osinbajo) to run. That is the beauty of democracy; we want our man to come out because we believe he has some good qualities.
“In a democracy, everybody has his own opinion, his own wish and his own vote. Let them come out and let us go to the field. Ours is that this man is good, let him come out and we’ll support him. What we’re doing has nothing to do with Bola Tinubu coming out or not, let him come out and let everyone that wants come out. It’s a democracy that is not a problem.”
However, those who belong to Tinubu’s camp have been raising concerns and observations over what they term the high profile political movements for Vice President Osinbajo for the 2023 presidential race which they believe must have been sanctioned by President Buhari.
Sources in the Tinubu camp believe Osinbajo may be the secret weapon Buhari mentioned in his recent television interview.
The complaint by the Tinubu camp came against the background of high level endorsements and notable moves by canvassers of the Vice-President’s alleged 2023 presidential aspiration. The endorsements have been especially manifest in the North and recently the trend moved downwards to the South with Delta State as its launch pad.
The Tinubu camp, which has vowed not to raise the issue with the Presidency is, however, irked by the fact that Osinbajo’s name is being mentioned and projected everywhere for the 2023 presidential election with Buhari looking the other way.
A source within the Tinubu’s camp said, “You cannot tell me that the President does not know anything about this and that his deputy is being worked up to take his office and he is ignorant? No, no.
“How can your subordinate be moving about like that as if you have anointed him for your office? You send him here and there to expose him?
“If you have a wife and she is misbehaving, who am I to complain when you, the husband, are indifferent? So, we will keep on watching.”
Those Who Stand Against Tinubu
On Tuesday, Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Political Matters, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, in a Facebook post which he titled, “Principled Political Choices are not Betrayal”, explained his decision not to support the presidential bid of Tinubu, saying his stance should not be interpreted as a betrayal.
After he released the lengthy statement on his Facebook wall, Ojudu came under serious attacks from Tinubu’s followers and loyalists who accused him (Ojudu) of betrayal and double standard.
Ojudu, who claimed to have been receiving threat messages for his stance not to support Tinubu’s aspiration, said although he and Tinubu had been long-time associates, supporting the former governor’s presidential bid does not agree with his conscience and ideals.
The presidential aide, who seems to have taken sides with Osinbajo whose presidential bid he is now energetically promoting, in his Tuesday statement, said he was being threatened while his family members were being embarrassed because of his political opposition to Tinubu.
According to the statement, “I have seen a statement made by me, many years ago, to celebrate the 60th birthday anniversary of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu making the rounds. Yes, I did make that statement. And more of such will come in my autobiography. We, together, have seen good days and bad days.
“I and Bola Tinubu have come a long way and we have been there for each other. So, let no one use my acknowledgment of his good deeds and my refusal not to support him in his bid for Nigeria presidency portray me as a betrayer.
“Tinubu remains my leader and I will forever cherish him and the contributions he made to my Organisation during our fight against the military.
“He, however, knows I don’t follow the herd. I make my choices based on very rigid parameters. He will tell you I am very Independent in my actions and ways.
“As a third year university student my dad chose to be in NPN. I never considered the fact that he fed me and paid my school fees to join him in a party I despised. I went to UPN and became a youth leader.
“Tinubu will tell you that whatever and whoever Ojudu is committed to is in for 100 percent commitment. Reasons I did rather faced torture and possible death in General Sani Abacha’s detention than reveal certain things they wanted me to reveal about him.
“The idea that everyone who has related with Tinubu and disagrees with him on this Presidential bid is a traitor and a betrayal is puerile. Many of us, his associates, were not made by him as you also want the world to believe.
“We were already made before meeting him and in the course of relating we gave one another a helping hand. As far back as 1992 when I came to know him, I was already one of the editors of a popular news magazine with a good standing too in the civil society. I walked out of my job when our billionaire publisher (Chief MKO Abiola) requested I and my colleagues apologize to General Ibrahim Babangida over a story critical of the regime. That was 1992.
“When I left that job, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, a man whom I was indebted to greatly (gave me a scholarship in my school days alongside King Sunny Ade) invested in my publishing platform (The News, publisher of PM news). The same one that was consequential in the battle to bring democracy back to Nigeria.
“At the conclusion of that struggle, Chief Fawehinmi insisted we sit out politics. Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu disagreed with this notion, and I did as well. Against an obvious choice to blind loyalty, I went along with Senator Tinubu, even serving severally in critical roles as he assumed the governorship position. My actions angered Chief Gani so much he asked that I repay his investments. Guess what? I gladly did.
“So, if my principled stance against NPN, against IBB, and against “siddon look” was not betrayal of my father, Chief MKO Abiola, and Chief Gani Fawehinmi respectively, why would my principled stance against our leader’s present ambition be?
“So, on this matter of 2023, I wish him well but I cannot in good conscience give him my support or cast my vote for him in the coming primary. It is my right. I am above 60 years of age for God sake. I almost died seeking this inalienable democratic right, held up in detention and severally tortured. Your god is not my god.
“Let no one think he can browbeat or blackmail me to do what does not go with my conscience or my ideals. Enough of your phone threats and embarrassment of my family members.
“I know Tinubu. I respect and adore him. Many of his latter day supporters do not even know him. If they do, they won’t resort to emotional and physical blackmail. When Tinubu decided to go against Afenifere and the Yoruba elders in 2003 by not supporting President Olusegun Obasanjo, he wasn’t betraying the Yoruba nation or a traitor to Afenifere. He made a choice and history has been his judge. Let history be my own judge too. When he supported Chief Olu Falae against Chief Bola Ige, our respected leader, who fought for him to emerge as the candidate of Alliance for Democracy in Lagos, no one shouted betrayal.
“For the irritants who have been sending threat messages to me and members of my family or calling to abuse me for not supporting Tinubu, do know that is not democracy. It is something else. I spent my youth years fighting autocracy and intolerance of the military and I am still willing and ready, even now, to stand up for what I believe , even if it will cost me my life. Enough said.”
Meanwhile, former Governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, on Tuesday, said the APC will give its presidential ticket for the 2023 general elections to Vice President Osinbajo.
Speaking at the ongoing 2022 annual lecture of the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation in Kano State, the former governor, while referring to the National Leader of the APC, said the party would only be interested in his (Tinubu) money.
According to Aliyu, any “riff-raff or moneybag” will not get to the highest office in the country, even if they bring out money.
“No matter how much money he has, let him bring the money and we will collect it. Mr. Vice President, wherever you go, we will follow,”
He described Osinbajo as the best candidate for the ruling party. “Mr. Vice President, do you know you are the best candidate in your party?”
He stressed that Osinbajo has the acceptance of most Nigerians regardless of tribe, religion, and political party.
On Saturday, January 15, thousands of Nigerians campaigning for Osinbajo’s presidential aspiration converged on Kano where they unveiled a new support group called ‘New Nigerian Tribe’.
