₦airaland Forum

MANY monuments have been built in honour of
the man Bola Tinubu. He is acclaimed as the
political genius of our times who not only
engineered the taming of the PDP juggernaut,
he caged it and confined it to the backwaters
of Otuoke. Since the APC defeat of the PDP in
the presidential election, Tinubu the tactician
has been feted, celebrated and praised to high
heavens. But all these encomiums have proved
to be highly exaggerated.


The truth of the matter is that Tinubu, the
veritable Jagaban of Borgu, is a master of
political illusion. He is remarkable for the
distinction of characteristically pulling defeat
out of the jaws of putative victory. He mid-
wifed the birth of the APC, only to be shut out
of its vice-presidential sweepstakes. He
engineered APC”s victory at the centre, only to
see his arch-enemies take over the posts of
Speaker and Senate President in the National
Assembly. He piggy-backed Buhari to the
presidency, only to be shut out of a say in the
president’s cabinet nominees..


Tinubu is called the National Leader of the APC
when there is no such post in the party’s
Constitution. When a critical meeting of APC
bigwigs was called to address the party’s
imbroglio in the National Assembly, the “National
Leader” could not attend because, in actual
fact, he is not even a member of the National
Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.


Sowing and reaping

In 2011, Tinubu was hailed for cutting his nose
to spite his face. The PDP nominated his
kinswoman, Mulikat Akande, as Speaker of the
National Assembly. However, Tinubu conspired
with recalcitrant PDP party-members to
frustrate the plans of their party for his
South-west homestead. Instead, he engineered
the election of Sokoto’s Aminu Tambuwal, an
APC wolf in PDP sheep’s clothing, as Speaker.


In 2015, Tinubu received payback for these
shenanigans again to the detriment of his native
South-West. The same Aminu Tambuwal of
Sokoto he schemed into the position of Speaker
in 2011, repaid Tinubu by frustrating his efforts
to install his Lagos acolyte, Femi Gbajabiamila,
as Speaker in 2015. Taking a leaf straight out
of Tinubu’s 2011 playbook, Tambuwal conspired
with opposition PDP members to install another
Northern PDP turncoat, Yakubu Dogara, as
Speaker.


Tinubu’s comeuppance here is particularly
savage because it was actually Gbajabiamila who
reportedly convinced Tinubu that Tambuwal
would readily act as traitor to his PDP party
in 2011. It is therefore veritable poetic justice
that the same Tambuwal became an equally
ready tool of the PDP in the frustration of
Gbajabiamila’s ambitions and the interests of
Tinubu and the APC in 2015.


Moreover, Tinubu was repaid for his 2011
manipulations with interest. The same
treachery employed to Tinubu’s political
disadvantage in the House was also duplicated in
the Senate. Bukola Saraki, another PDP
turncoat, refused to abide by the dictates of
APC Central, firmly controlled by Tinubu’s
ACN. He snatched the position of Senate
President without official APC approval, but
with the support of the opposition PDP. So
doing, he sidelined both Tinubu’s first-choice of
George Akume, as well as his second-choice of
Ahmed Lawan.


Crumbled cookie

Just as Tinubu was licking his wounds at the
denial of his “rightful inheritance” in the
National Assembly after the APC victory at the
polls, the news came that his political cookie had
equally crumbled at Aso Rock. It had been
popularly alleged that Tinubu’s portion in
Buhari’s presidency would not be limited to the
appointment of his political godson as vice-
president, but would also include the allocation
of no less than nine choice ministerial nominees
to the discretion of the Jagaban of Borgu.


But by the time Buhari unfurled his ministerial
list two weeks ago, the alleged dedicated slots
had shrunk to zero. Many of us had warned in
the heady days of the formation of the APC
that those insistent that power must return to
the North would be determined to checkmate
Tinubu if and when the election was won. We
warned Tinubu that even as he cannot
conceivably be accepted nationally to rule
Nigeria as president, even so can he not rule
Nigeria by proxy. We warned him that the
North would never allow Buhari to be his Man
Friday in Aso Rock.


However, Tinubu was too far gone to listen. It
would now appear that he even failed to take
out insurance policies against such probable
eventualities.


But once elected, Buhari started a romance with
Babatunde Fashola and Kayode Fayemi designed
clearly to sideline the Jagaban. While these
former governors were previously members of
Tinubu’s inner-circle, they had since run out of
patience with the heavy handedness of their
boss. Therefore, during the election campaign,
both of them campaigned for Buhari above and
beyond the call of party duty.


Fashola, in particular, was clearly fed up with
being under Tinubu’s political shadow. In the
struggle for who would be the APC governorship
candidate in Lagos State, Tinubu did not allow
Fashola to choose his successor, in the ignoble
tradition of Nigerian governors. While Fashola
favoured Dapo Sasore, the former Attorney
General of Lagos State, Tinubu railroaded in
Akinwunmi Ambode as the APC candidate.


While again, in the ignoble tradition of Nigerian
politics, governors promptly transform
themselves into Senators when their term as
governor ends, this option was closed off to
Fashola because Tinubu had already installed his
wife as the Senator from Fashola’s
constitutency. The only option left for Fashola
politically was presidential ministerial
appointment and, even there, Tinubu had put up
a road block against him.


Tinubu prefers to nominate political nonentities
for higher office in the South-West, so that he
would be the only Iroko tree in the forests of
the region. Therefore his candidates for
ministerial appointment from Lagos were his
little nationally-known former commissioners,
Wale Edun and Yemi Cadosso, who could pose no
threats whatsoever to his ascribed South-West
political supremacy.


Alarm bells:But when Fashola and Fayemi
accompanied Buhari to the G7 meeting in
Germany in June 2015, alarm bells started
ringing in Tinubu’s Bourdillon Road mansion in
Lagos. This was clearly a signial that these
former governors were intent on by-passing the
official godfather of the South-West by
applying to be members of Buhari’s kitchen
cabinet on their own recognisance.


The Tinubu brigade would have none of this.
Therefore, a campaign of calumny was launched
to cut Fashola in particular to dimunitive size.
Suddenly, the “memo” was sent out implying the
former governor had developed political
leprosy. When two books were launched
simultaneously celebrating his achievements as
governor, none of his APC colleagues from
Lagos dared to attend for fear of entering the
bad books of the dreaded Jagaban.


In order to nail the coffin on Fashola’s
ministerial aspirations, it was leaked to the
press that a whopping 78 million naira of public
money was spent on the construction of his
personal website. 139 million naira was also
alleged to have been spent on two boreholes
constructed in Government House, Lagos during
his tenure. The intention here was to ensure
that Fashola becomes ineligible for ministerial
consideration on grounds that he would not
pass Buhari’s anti-corruption integrity test.


However, Buhari was apparently unimpressed by
these political shenanigans. When his list of
ministerial nominees were unfurled, Fashola and
Fayemi featured prominently among Buhari’s
“first eleven.” None of Tinubu’s nominees made
the list. Other nominees from the South-West
were precisely the kind of people Tinubu did not
want in Buhari’s team; people who would not be
indebted to Tinubu but to Buhari.


While Buhari completely ignored Tinubu’s
candidates, he included that of another South-
West bigwig. Obasanjo’s favourite-son, Prince
Olagusoye Oyinlola, former governor of Osun
State, was included in Buhari’s list. Thereby,
the president asserted the saliency of
Obasanjo’s South-West influence in Aso Rock
over that of the Jagaban. He even pointedly
appointed Obasanjo as his special envoy to
Guinea-Bissau.


This is certainly not what Tinubu bargained for
when he decided to pitch his tent with Buhari
and the APC. If he were to be furthermore
overlooked in the appointment of BOT chairman
of the APC, the marginalisation of the Jagaban
in the post-election APC would be complete.
Comeuppance: Some of us saw this coming. In
the heady early days of the APC coalition, we
warned that Tinubu would be used and dumped.
But we were labelled as PDP lapdogs and
charlatans. That is why I say today: let no one
cry for Bola Tinubu.


Anyone who hears Tinubu’s recent vicious
attack on Saraki would realise these are the
tokens of a frustrated man. Tinubu could not
attack the President, therefore he poured all
his venom on the Senate President. He accused
him of indiscipline and disloyalty; the very
things he celebrated in the PDP rebels who
joined forces with him against their party in
2011.


Face saving device

The recent declaration that Buhari appointed
Babachir Lawal as Secretary to the Government
of the Federation at the instance of Tinubu is a
face-saving device. The Tinubu camp forgot to
tell us this until now. At the time of new SGF’s
appointment, all the uproar was about the
Northern lopsidedness in Buhari’s choices.


Observing the sidelining of Tinubu by Buhari,
Senator Femi Okunroumu said: “I am having a
good laugh. This is what I expected. In any
case, Tinubu is stretching his luck too far as he
wants to dictate who will rule Nigeria. Tinubu’s
wings need to be clipped. With the ministerial
list, Tinubu has been dumped. He should not just
be dumped, he should be disgraced.”


On his part, Afenifere chieftain, Chief Ayo
Adebanjo, said: “APC is not a party; it is a
gang of people whose sole aim was to remove
Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as president. In a real
party, you share the spoils of office before
elections not after elections. This is what is
happening in APC. We warned our people, but
they failed to listen.”


In the new politics of today’s APC, it is better
to be the enemy of Bola Tinubu than to be his
friend. The enemies of Tinubu become Senate
presidents; they become Speakers of the House
of Representatives; they become ministers of
the Federal government. But the friends of
Tinubu are sent to Siberia.


The Jagaban of Borgu himself has been slain
politically upon his high places. How are the
mighty fallen!





www.vanguardngr.com/2015/10/dont-cry-for-bola-tinubu/

Local champion ludo player. The North still hold the ace, they own this country.

Tinubu's power starts and ends in South West alone, excluding Ekiti and to a larger extent Ondo.

So long a letter

Nonsense

These guys will die over Tinubu matter

The envy for the man is just too intense.

A lot of this old men are not fulfilled until they mention Tinubus name.

Free publicity for the Jagaban everywhere

Tinubu my Man

Ekun oko oke

Unmmmmmnnnmh. They orchestrated a successful plan to route out the oppposition. But they forgot how to share the loot and move Nigeria forward. No one can shout betrayal, because there was no pre- determined agrement. It all resulted in personal and individualistic struggle that made many loosers and victims . Well, Nigerians are waiting to see how their own welfare and betterment will top the govt agenda. At least we have suffered enough.

I enjoyed this read. Careful analysis of the current political quagmire in APC sw

I warned and warned but as usual alj harem is this and that.

Bot chairman will be atiku not tinubu

Any way they have given tinubu camp Lie Mohammed a portfolio

looooooool

We only weep for his rotten teeth.

The idiotic writer even refer to Oyinlola as one of the ministerial nominees



Vanguard is a very useless and stupid newspaper.

Alphaoscar:
The idiotic writer even refer to Oyinlola as one of the ministerial nominees



Vanguard is a very useless and stupid newspaper.

He was a nominee but didn't scale thru gullible yellowbar boy

"Tinubu is a Master of illusion" Good talk! The illusion produced Vice President, SGF, Fashola, Fayemi, Deputy COS in the presidency, Chairman FIRS and several others to come, vanguard newspaper, continue to delude your self and your readers

kennybabs1980:
"Tinubu is a Master of illusion" Good talk! The illusion produced Vice President, SGF, Fashola, Fayemi, Deputy COS in the presidency, Chairman FIRS and several others to come, vanguard newspaper, continue to delude your self and your readers

Ua rit, dn't mind dt foolish man called pastor aribisala. The guy is still bitter and pained abt Jonathan lost. His brain needs factory reset.

SeverusSnape:
Local champion ludo player. The North still hold the ace, they own this country.

Tinubu's power starts and ends in South West alone, excluding Ekiti and to a larger extent Ondo.

Local player indeed. Such a local player that PDP had to meet as a party and plead/prevail on their NA members in SS and SE just to checkmate the growing influence of the so called local player.

ishiamu:
He was a nominee but didn't scale thru gullible yellowbar boy

My stupidt bingo ? There is a different from someone been considered for a post it is when that person's name is forwarded for approval that he/she can be called a nominee. Was falana, Aketi, Edun and others that we never even hear their names were considered as well.

ishiamu:
He was a nominee but didn't scale thru gullible yellowbar boy

So you are also a tribalist?!

donphilopus:
So you are also a tribalist?!

Am not.... just that I have seen the guy in so many threads being tribalistic had to retaliate today... but that's the last you see such of me anyways

I don't care about Tinubu because:
1. He is not holding any politcal office nationally

2. He hasn't contributed anything on the national stage

3. He is as insignificant as the letter *P* in psychology in PMB's govt

So why should I waste my time on a regional champion.