By Eric Elezuo
The new found love between the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, could best be described as a wedding of strange fellows as their trajectory in political relationship has churn up only a no love lost status. However, events have taken a dramatic turn since the June, 2022 Presidential Primary where Tinubu emerged victorious and mandated to fly the party’s flag in the February 25, 2023 election.
But ever since the primary election, things have never remained the same as the centre could no longer hold together the slim fabrics that birthed the APC in 2013 in readiness to oust a sitting president. An uncommon civil war, which many describe as internal wranglings, is presently being fought full scale, and may likely affect the chances of the party in the general elections just three weeks away.
While fielding questions during a live interview on Channels Television, el-Rufai made a categorical allegation, accusing those in Aso Rock of conspiring to truncate Tinubu’s ambition of becoming the president of Nigeria via the party platform. He said because their candidate failed to win in the election, the Aso Rock has remained aloof to Tinubu’s campaign, and most cases flirted with one of his opponents, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
The Kaduna State governor’s claim came barely a week after Tinubu alleged that the petrol queues and scarcity of Naira notes due to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) cash swap initiatives were plots against his ambition. Political pundits believe Tinubu was stylishly throwing a jab at President Muhammadu Buahri
“I believe there are elements in the villa that want us to lose the election because they didn’t get their way. They had their candidate but their candidate didn’t win the primary election,” El-Rufai noted, adding that “I think they are still trying to get us to lose the election and they are hiding behind the president’s desire to do what he thinks is right.”
He insisted that the ‘elements’ are behind the non-removal of petrol subsidy after he had a conversation with Buhari where it was agreed that subsidy should be removed, noting that the same Aso Rock ‘elements’ are allegedly behind the faulty implementation of Naira notes swap introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“They are trying to get us to lose the election, and they are hiding behind the president’s desire to do what he thinks is right. I will give two examples: this petroleum subsidy, which is costing the country trillions of Naira, was something that we all agreed would be removed.
“In fact, I had a discussion with the president and showed him why it had to go. Because how can you have a capital budget of N200b for federal roads and then spend N2 Trillion on petroleum subsidy? This was a conversation I had with the president in 2021 when the subsidy thing started rising. He was convinced. We left. It changed. Everyone in the government agreed, and it changed.
“The second example I will give is this currency redesign. You have to understand the president. People are blaming the Governor of the Central Bank for the currency redesign, but No. You have to go back and look at the first outing of Buhari as president. He did this; the Buhari, Idiagbon regime changed our currency and did it in secrecy with a view to catching those that are stashing away illicit funds.
“It is a very good intention. The president has his right. But doing it at this time within the allotted time does not make any political or economic sense.”
It will be recalled that El-Rufai had in the not too distant past remained one of the many vocal voices against Tinubu, using his supposed godfatherism attributes to attack his ambition.
In 2019, while the party was in the middle of plans to return Tinubu to power, El-Rufai attacked Tinubu in a speech he titled Ending Godfatherism in Lagos and many other verbal abuses. The attack drew the ilk of many political watches including Senator Shehu Sani and a pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Omoluwabi Movement.
In their reaction, the group, in a statement issued to journalists in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, by the Publicity Secretary of the state chapter, Miss Idowu Ogundola, described El-rufai’s comment as a mere “idle talk of a frustrated political expansionist.”
They said El-Rufai should not be taken seriously as he is a well-known “genuflecting opportunist, who will do anything, especially his renowned genuflecting prowess, to achieve his ulterior motive, and who will abandon his benefactor immediately he achieves his pecuniary aim.
“Our attention has been drawn to the reported remarks of the governor of Kaduna State on ‘ending godfatherism in Lagos’. We therefore urge all well-meaning Omoluwabi to disregard the comment as a “circumstantial idle talk at a dinner by an evasive governor, who realising his inability to give good account of his crisis-ridden governance of his state, chose to launch an indirect and uncultured attack on an iconic Omoluwabi and pillar of democracy and progressive politics in Africa. It is a divisive and diversionary attempt to escape from giving account on his turbulent and most controversial administration in the annals of Kaduna State.
“It is on record that El-rufai has moved from one god-father to the other; from Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and now President Muhammadu Buhari. As soon as he gets what he wants, he moves on to the next milk-shop. He succeeded in his renowned opportunism because only a stone-hearted man will not want to listen to a genuflecting-midget.”
“We wish to join in warning President Buhari to be wary of the man with a gargantuan ambition and to call him to order. His outburst is understandable as his political expansionist voyage of imposing his bookkeeper on the people of Ogun State was checkmated by the members of the APC in Ogun State at the party governorship primary held last year.”
In another development, Senator representing Kaduna Central, Comrade Shehu Sani said El-Rufai’s comment was on how to unhorse Bola Ahmed Tinubu as godfather of Lagos politics was for three reasons. One is to provoke the Asiwaju to a new phase of internal war within the APC, which will eliminate him from the sphere of President Muhammadu Buhari and turn him into an adversary. The second reason for the act of provocation against Asiwaju is that there is a calculated plot to deny the Southwest or even the Southern part of the country rotation of power in 2023. And the best way to ensure that that materialize is, by getting into fisticuffs, into political combat between the Northern top ranks of the APC and the Southwestern top ranks of the party. There is a school of thought in the North among the ruling political elites that are close to President, that even without the votes of the Southwest, that the North can still produce the president in 2023. And as such, the attack on Tinubu is a trigger to begin realization of that.
While the third reason for the attack on Tinubu was simply to send a message that they are prepared to fight anybody for this 2023 and for his own personal ambition.
Sani added: “I told Asiwaju and Oshiomhole that el-Rufai would fight three people when he gets re elected. He will fight Asiwju, Adams Oshiomhole and Buhari; and now by being elected, he has got what he wants. The time he will go after Buhari that will be when he is clear he doesn’t have a case in court again. When he is out of the litigation challenging his election, then that will be the time he is going to go after the three of them. He is not known to be a person with permanent loyalty. His attachment to Buhari is for political survival and Self-preservation. It is about protecting himself. It is about consolidating himself because he has come to understand Buhari’s popularity, his footprint and Buhari’s inroads into the hearts of the Northern masses.”
Today, El-Rufai has reunited with Tinubu, and joined in the fight against Buhari, who is categorised among the Aso Rock cabal. Stakeholders said with the political hegemony of Buhari coming to an end, El-Rufai is desirous of clutching another tree to remain politically relevant, and so the civil war in the ruling party continues to heighten
A source, who spoke to The Boss via anonymous opined “Please ask for us why is ELRUFAI so afraid of ATIKU becoming president. Is he afraid of the Shiites killing he did on the head of PMB? When did ASIWAJU suddenly become so important to ELRUFAI than ATIKU who brought him into the limelight. Is he afraid of ATIKU, because of like revenge. Please tell him ATIKU is not like them in APC. ATIKU will use all good people in his Govt. Internet does not forget all the bad things ELRUFAI and RIBADU said about ASIWAJU in the past. But today ASIWAJU is their horse to…”
The battle line in the APC was drawn, according to analysts, in Abeokuta, Ogun State, when in a speech by Tinubu, x-rayed the journey of Buhari, punctuated every statement with how he singlehandedly brought him out of retirement and made him president after failing in the quest on three different occasions, including crying on national television.
“If not for me that stood solidly behind Buhari and encouraged him to go ahead, he could not have become president,” he said.
“Since his assumption of power, I never took ministerial position, begged him for any contract or loan.
“All I am saying is that it is the turn of the Yoruba speaking people to become president and within the yoruba people, it is my turn.
“I have adopted and protected many political children, but in the face of danger, one has to first protect himself.
“I have served enough. I do not want to become history. It is my turn to become president. It is a matter of right for me.
“Bring it on,” he said.
An APC faction had frowned at Tinubu’s entitlement mentality, and the manner at which he eventually won the presidential primary, claiming that a lot of money exchanged hands. Consequently, some of the losers of the primary election has distanced themselves from the presidential campaign including the runner up,, Rotimi Amaechi, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, who was originally nominated by the party as its flag bearer. Ever since, the civil war raged, and Tinubu and his foot soldiers have ignited the fire unendingly’.
In his quest for revenge, Tinubu settled for a Muslim, former governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, as running mate, and used the failures of the Buhari administration as campaign strength thereby putting a division between Buhari’s administration and the campaign. In the same way, key officers of the party including former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, and former Secretary to the Federal Government, Babachir Lawal, left for the PDP and Labour Party respectively.
