By Elempe Dele, Benin.
I read with charm and endearment the very essentially correct analysis of Tinubu concerning the travails befalling the APC embattled chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomole, and the party, APC. I couldn’t but marvel at the artistic mastery of the article. That apart, I think such truth coming from Tinubu is also coming late from Tinubu. And that ends his political story! I am not sure any magic can resurrect him from the ashes of political oblivion.
It is a public knowledge without Tinubu telling us in the article how he helped form APC and sold us the dummy called Buhari with his personal cash and propaganda; a sale that turned out to be more than a hoax and a bad product but a toxic introduction into our political system in Nigeria.
After General Buhari came to power, and in fact during his inuaguration, the cabal infuxed in his speech, “I belong to everybody, I belong to nobody,” a direct and instanct dispatch of the Tinubu godhead. We saw it then as an affront but most APC members from the South West saw it otherwise, they felt Tinubu will be the one calling the shots and running the government. (And I actually believe if Tinubu was allowed by the cabal to run APC, not necessarily as a chairman, the party would have been a better institution than it is today)
Well, our foresight became true. For three years, he was relegated to political backyard by Buhari’s cabal propelled and controlled government. And few months to the 2019 election, he was called back from his penance and room of affliction to go and dance on podiums with broom in his hands and lies in his mouth to which his wife, Oluremi, was angry over. And predictably so, after the 2019 election which Buhari rigged himself into win, Tinubu was dragged back to his back-burner position.
And this is part of the history of a man who most people thought was a Jagaban of politics.
The truth is, Tinubu is afraid of causing any kind of discomfort to Buhari or the cabal so he is largely silent on national issues and msocial problems. And this has left him without any form of home support. Most of his foot soldiers have left him. The Yorubas warned him about bringing Buhari to power, and for whatever reason, he did not listen. He held sway in the South West then and swept the zone in the 2015 election for Buhari but struggled there without much success in 2019. That showed his dwindling fortunate in his once held political forte. In fact, they were stoned in Ogun State in one of the campaigns there where Buhari was present. The event is will a public document and a reference point how people fall from Grace to Grass.
Now, whatever tactics of non-confrontation protest Tinubu is applying to avoid Buhari, it is not going to work in the long run. Where exactly can Tinubu influence politically in Nigeria if he decides to run or decides to openly support a candidate? He cannot win any LGA in both the North and the East, he is most hated in those areas. Back home, they disregard him like a fake news. So where exactly can he win?
The truth is that, if he had repented like Falana, Sowore, Soyinka and a host of others who helped bring the maligned ailment called Buhari into power, and add his voice to criticize the undemocratic tendencies of his creation, he would have been able to assert himself back at home. The Yoruba want him to accept his error of judgement in bringing Buhari, add his voice to national issues no matter who’s ox is gored. He has been silent for the fear of retribution and that has earned him nothing but unfriendliness everywhere. Emerging powers in the West like Gani Adams, Doherty and Seyi Makinde will beat him in the South West without flinching.
To me, Tinubu is gone politically, no talisman can bring him back to the fore, not even his billion and bullion vans.
