Tinbu to Buhari - Shine My Shoes
Tinubu to Buhari: “Shine My Shoe”

The bearer of the Golden Fleece, senator, former Lagos governor and APC kingpin Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has never been shy about his ability to exert influence behind the scenes in Nigerian politics. With coming presidential elections on February 14th, the ambitious former accountant for Mobil is primed to pull his biggest feat yet: installing a loyal man at Aso Rock in the person of General Muhammed Buhari.

Asiwaju’s largesse, though, comes with a catch. Just ask crime-buster Nuhu Ribadu, whom Tinubu supported in his 2011 bid for the presidency, only to abandon him in an effort to sway the election – then – in Goodluck Jonathan.  The wise, old general could not have walked into this arrangement wearing blinders.

According to Lagos insiders, tensions between Nigeria’s self-styled Cassius and Caesar have been brewing for some time now and nearly reached the boiling point. The two were arguing over finances at a recent meeting in Lagos when a visibly-inebriated Tinubu reportedly extended his right left to Buhari and said: “shine my shoe.”  The enraged general stormed out of the suite as Asiwaju laughed, and muttered “I was only singing a song.”

The strains in the Tinubu-Buhari arrangement might have been expected for some time, as the two could hardly be less similar. Tinubu is extravagant and given to bragaddacio, while Buhari is austere and unforgiving. Buhari is reputed to be incorruptible, while the same has never been said of Asiwaju. Perhaps both men believed they’d benefit from their arrangement under the APC aegis.

A mounting pile of unpaid bills led to latest flare-up, APC sources suggest. Tinubu has provided Buhari with a fully-fitted campaign operation, a state-of-the-art touring bus said to be the most opulent in Africa, and American President Barack Obama’s own campaign strategist, David Axelrod. With so much flash, many of the more mundane costs have been falling between the cracks, creditors allege.  Journalists commissioned to wrote pro-Buhari pieces haven’t been paid since November, which is what the two men were discussing before Tinubu unleashed his shoe-shining crack.

As the presidential race intensifies, one of Buhari’s biggest investors may have more to worry about than the shine on his shoes