The Jagaban of Borgu Kingdom and leader of Yoruba land, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu is presently Nigeria’s most dutiful and successful politician of all time, for dethroning an incumbent president with media propaganda. Trained professionally as an accountant, Jagaban’s political career began way back in 1992 when he was elected to the Senate to represent Lagos West Senatorial Constituency in the Third Republic.
However, it would seem that Bola Tinubu’s political career as an opposition crusader in the murky waters of Nigeria’s political landscape is not a recent affair. It all began way back in 1993, following the events of the June 12 annulment saga, when the June 12, 1993 presidential elections were annulled. Famed among followers as a man who would never give up without a fight, Tinubu mobilised support for the restoration of democracy and recognition of the June 12 presidential election results using a pro-democracy group, named the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO). His opposition posture and firm resistance of the reins of anti-democracy did not go down well with the brutal military dictatorship of late Sani Abacha, whose bone-chilling resolve to crush all his political adversaries sent the Asiwaju of Lagos, Bola Tinubu taking flight from Nigeria on self-imposed exile, on the heels of safety. Jagaban returned to Nigeria in 1998 shortly after the death of General Sani Abacha.
In 1999, Tinubu competed against Funsho Williams and Wahab Dosunmu and won Alliance for Democracy’s primaries for the Lagos State governorship elections. The Ad ticket was given to him, and in 1999, he vied for the position of Governor and emerged victorious at the polls.
Tinubu has earned a reputation in Nigeria for being a man that is always on the opposing side of life. Even as Governor, he continued in his opposition streak, entering into a long-drawn controversial feud with President Olusegun Obasanjo-led Federal Government over his insistence to create additional Local Council Development Areas to cushion the needs and effects of Lagos’ soaring population. As a result, the Federal Government seized funds meant for local development councils in the state. Since then, Asiwaju of Lagos has been in constant clashes with the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party.
Tinubu must have been meticulous enough to have avoided stepping on banana peels littered all over the corridors of powers as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) summarily cleared him of charges of conspiracy, money laundering and official corruption. In 2007, he threw his weight behind the candidature of his protégé, Barrister Babatunde Raji Fashola who went ahead to become the Governor of Lagos State. It is believed by almost every Lagos resident that Bola Tinubu is political Godfather to Governor Fashola, and now, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.
Indications had emerged in the past, as far back as 2007, that following the success of the PDP at the polls during the 2007 general elections, Bola Tinubu was involved in negotiating with Northern power blocs in the interest of forming a redoubtable “mega-party” that would wrestle power from the PDP in no distant time. The effort paid off into what is today known as the All Progressives Congress, a coalition of two regional political parties, Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).
In the heat of his commonsense revolution, Tinubu introduced the “change” propaganda, judged by critics as insincere and deceitful, although in the eyes of the common man, the “change” slogan means nothing but a lucid representation of the people’s firm rejection of corruption. In 2014, Tinubu accused former President Goodluck Jonathan of “playing semantics with corruption” after the president declared, under seamlessly controversial circumstances, that “stealing is not corruption”.
With the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari as the president, it was widely believed among several classes of Nigerian citizens that Tinubu had fought his way into Aso Rock where he hoped to call the shots by directly influencing President Muhammadu Buhari’s decisions and operating Vice President Osinbajo like a remote control. But on the occasion of his inauguration and swearing-in ceremony into office as President and Commander-In-chief of the Armed Forces, President Muhammadu Buhari made it clear that he would not lend himself to being anybody’s puppet by affirming “I am for everybody; I’m for nobody”. In the past one year, it was also rumored among circles close to the presidency that Tinubu had not been able to affect changes in the president’s elusive political appointments.
But no, Jagaban would not lose it all rounds. In a ferocious, covetous attempt to keep holding on to the reins of power, Tinubu opened a can of worms in his political career by taking the fight down to the National Assembly where he intended to impose his dummies, Lawan and Gbajabiamila, as President of the Senate and Speaker of the House, on the whole 109 Nigerian Senators and 360 Members of the House of Representatives.
Unfortunately, a minority of 27 PDP Senators liaised with about 30 APC Senators to elect Saraki to the seat of Senate Presidency. Gbajabiamila, APC’s anointed candidate for Speaker position could not measure up at the end of the day, and therefore, lost out, paving the way for the emergence of Yakubu Dogara. Before and after his election as President of the Senate, Senator Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan and the inner caucus of APC stalwarts and some APC Senators-elect had been getting on Senator Saraki’s nerves, trying to tear him down.
Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu was very disturbed with the emergence of Bukola Saraki as President of the Senate, knowing well enough that Bukola Saraki, a self-opinionated and stubborn politician, would not sway, coupled with the fact that he, Saraki has been a member of the PDP who crossed over to the APC at the last minute when it deemed necessary for him to do so. This means that Saraki’s loyalty could be expected to be with the APC. He has no regard for the party hierarchy. If he had any regard for the party hierarchy, he would have stood aside for Senator Ahmed Lawan; the man chose by the party as its anointed candidate to the seat of the Senate President.
Time without number, Saraki had emphasized that he stepped down for President Muhammadu Buhari during the primaries and would not sacrifice his Senate Presidency on the altar of another man’s ambition. But did his argument ring true; bearing in mind that he was not one of those who contested the APC presidential primaries which Muhammadu Buhari won by a landslide?
The Saraki family is famed to have captured the soul of Kwara state since the 1970s. Bukola Saraki’s father was a Senate leader from 1979-1983. But Bukola Saraki’s political career began in 2000 when he was appointed Special Assistant to President Olusegun Obasanjo on Budget. In 2003, he ran for the office of the Executive Governor on the platform of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, and emerged victorious. He was Governor of Kwara state from 2003-2011. Saraki was a Governor of many firsts. Under him, Kwara state became the first to complete the Nigeria Independent Power Project and also the first state to embark on a campaign geared at reducing maternal/child mortality rate by distributing treated mosquito nets all over the state. In 2011, Bukola Saraki ran for the office of the Senator representing Kwara Central Senatorial District and won, succeeding his sister, Gbemisola Saraki-Fowora.
With his defiance of Jagaban and the APC party hierarchy to emerge President of the Senate, Bukola has proved that he is a man with balls that can stand his ground. Bola Tinubu is not only agitated by the turn of events in the National Assembly but also rudely shocked to the bones because there can’t be two champions in a ring at the same time. A fierce power tussle has been reported to be brimming faster than was expected in the political theater since then.
Bukola Saraki has since maintained that he has reached out to the President, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari but when asked by newsmen if Saraki had reached out to the president as he claimed, Femi Adesina, media spokesperson to the President said that “the president has always maintained that the party is supreme. The party started a process which was truncated. The president has always maintained that those who truncated or aborted the process were the ones who precipitated crisis. The president had said in earlier statements that he would work with anybody who emerged the Senate President, but then, that did not include those who will subvert the process...”
However, with the way Saraki’s recognition as Senate President continues to gain momentum in the country, it becomes pertinent for Bola Tinubu to admit his impotence at unseating Bukola Saraki from the throne of the Senate Presidency. Week after week, Saraki continues to whittle down his remaining influences in the Senate, reminding him that every political career ends in failure especially for those who don’t know when to stop pushing, the case of Goodluck Jonathan being a critical example.
The political sagacity of Asiwaju does not transcend across all political shores of the country. Bukola Saraki wanted to be Senate President and that was why he defected from the PDP to the APC. He could have won his senatorial seat under any political platform but he needed the APC to become Senate President since PDP has become a minority in both chambers of the National Assembly. With this turn of events, Northern power blocs seem wary of the Yorubas. It apperas that they only aligned with the Southwest for a political purpose which has already been achieved; the election of Muhammadu Buhari as president.
The only handwriting on the wall is that “Jagaban was used”.
Emmanuel Ifediata.
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