By Hon Emma Asie ANipr
An adage in Igbo goes thus- "Onyinye ekwensu àdighi adigide, owere aka nri nye gi ife, ya were aka ekpe nara gi ya" Roughly translated, it means " the Devil's gifts never last. He gives you with his right hand and collects it back with his left". With the not unexpected controversies and tragicomedy drama of international proportions involving Bola Ahmed (Adekunle) Tinubu as the current president of Nigeria, this adage sounds almost prophetic.
Sen Bola Tinubu, celebrated two time governor of Lagos state in this Fourth Republic and elected senator in the botched Third Republic, is no stranger to controversies and Electoral battles. Infact he is acclaimed to be so electoral savvy that he thrives on the murky waters and treacherous cloak and dagger game of Nigerians politics. It is his tuff and he knows the game and it's intricacies like the back of his hand. For someone that left power to over 16 years ago as the governor of Lagos state but still maintained a vice-like grip and stranglehold on the economy and politics of the state, to the point of determining who governs the state and how all state revenues are accrued and dispensed, Tinubu is a sort of political maverick and enigma. He has been rightly acclaimed to be the Godfather of all Political Godfathers in Nigeria. Whilst almost all his contemporaries from 1999 to 2007 have either faded away into political obscurity (for the lucky ones) or cooling off in various jails on allegations of corrupt enrichment while in power, Bola Tinubu remained larger than life, enthroning and dethroning governors and all "elected" leaders in his Lagos state and occasionally making forays into neighboring states to spread his tentacles. And he was largely successful. His out of Lagos success was most visible in Osun and Ekiti states where the governors were said to have being directly handpicked by him and their elections bankrolled by him.
But one political prize eluded him and that is the most important and greatest prize of all.
The Presidency.
However, like the Machievellian political savant that he is, he knew just what to do and he bid his time for the right time and opportunity to strike. While waiting, he invested his time and immutable resources into consolidating his already unbreakable hold on Lagos, so much that his name became synonymous with the over 100 years old super metropolis called Lagos. For someone who came into limelight from almost nowhere in the early 1990s when he latched onto the late Abiola and June 12 fight to emerge as one of the top defenders of democracy , using the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) and others to fight against the oppressive ruthlessness and almost unstoppable ambitions of the then head of the Military junta (late Gen Sani Abacha), this was nothing short of a miracle. The governorship of Lagos state was largely seen as his reward for standing by Abiola and June 12 especially when many others gave up. But from claiming a reward, it became an inheritance!
Back to his "life long ambitions to be president". The time came when immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari approached him with an interesting and irresistible though tough proposition. The General and former military Head had made three previous attempts at the Presidency without any success. The pain of the failure and the rot in the nation which Gen Buhari in his patriotic zeal wanted to address, made the taciturn no nonsense General to actually shed tears of frustration on live TV and vowed never to attempt to redeem Nigeria again. Then along came Bola Tinubu with his AD/AC/ACN political structure which was dominant in the south west. In a flash of rare super intelligence, the General decided to try North-Southwest alliance as against the North-Southeast romance that had failed him twice. He reached a pact with Bola Tinubu and his CPC (which has a governor in Nassarawa state) merged with Tinubu s ACN/AC/AD with a sprinkling from a splinter group of the south east based APGA and most importantly, an icing on the cake in form of a powerful but renegade group of the ruling PDP led by Rotimi Amaechi of River state, Bukola Saraki of Kwara state and some other sitting governors including the Uber rich former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, to form the All Progressive Congress (APC). Details of the written and unwritten agreements that saw Buhari emerging as the Presidential candidate of the newly formed party and Tinubu nominating his vice president (the relatively unknown Prof Pastor Yomi Osinbanjo, Tinubu s former Attorney general and commissioner for Justice) were not exactly clear. But one thing was for sure. Tinubu must have gotten a firm commitment that after Buhari must have done his two term tenure of eight years as president, he (Buhari) will ensure that Tinubu becomes the next president, thus fulfilling his life long ambition. To ensure that all parties kept their sides of the agreement and to give Buhari free rein to enjoy his rule, Tinubu declined to become the running mate to Buhari, citing the religious incongruity and insensitivity of having a Muslim -Muslim ticket. Thus a pastor and Tinubu s lackey replaced him.
And Buhari defeated an incumbent (weak and clueless) president and became president. The rest they say is history.
Eight years later, it was time to collect. But uncomfortable with the idea of a character like Tinubu becoming president and playing along with the northern script of holding onto power, Buhari at first played hanky panky. However, he was forced to capitulate and allowed Tinubu to emerge as APC s candidate. But nonetheless, the north was not yet ready to give up power so easily. And despite the clamour for power shift by the south and the "support" from a few northern leaders and governors, the north schemed how it can get back the coveted presidency without appearing to be too narcissist.
The history,nature and personality of Tinubu gave the north the secret weapon it needed.
While Tinubu latched onto the agreement he had with Buhari to resound his notorious catchphrase and war-cry , Emilokan (It is my turn) the north was busy scheming how it can eat it's cake and still have it, how it can peacefully and patriotically hand over power to the south - and still take it back.
Tinubu and his bag of controversies and criminal history provided the fodder needed to achieve this.
Like the proverbial gift of Satan mentioned earlier, the north allowed the Tinubu to contest and emerge president.
After his swearing in on May 29th, the plot sprung into action
(To be continued)
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