The appointment last Tuesday of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, national leader of the All Progressives Party (APC) by President Muhammadu Buhari as a peace driver to resolve the party’s squabbles, analysts say, may have constituted a crown of thorns for the former governor of Lagos State.
The pundits say that Tinubu, who leads some factions of the APC members that are disgruntled, needs someone to reconcile him to the party.
Watchers of political developments since 2015 noted that Tinubu had on many occasions verbalised his frustration against the workings of the government he midwifed.
Some cronies of the APC national leader have also clearly stated in print how badly Asiwaju has been allegedly treated and side-lined by the Buhari administration.
Observers say that the acrimony between Tinubu and Aso Rock had gone very bad until few months ago when the talks about Buhari’s second term ambition began to filter into the society.
In what some analysts described as first step of the rapprochement between Buhari and Tinubu, the President had in November last year invited the national leader to accompany him to the European Union-African Union (EU-AU) Summit in Cote D’Ivoire. It was believed that both men may have had a long talk on issues bordering on 2019 in relation to the APC in general and the president’s touted re-election ambition, in particular.
Last two weeks when a former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, issued a public statement advising the president on the need for him to vacate office after his first term, Tinubu made a surprised visit to the Villa. Observers had interpreted the appearance to mean a further consultation by the powers that be to find out what his thought lines were.
In what appears a usurpation of party leadership’s power and role, the President urged Tinubu to do everything possible to resolve internal squabbles in the party.
Among the terms of reference are resolving disagreements among the party’s members, leadership and political office holders in some states of the federation.
Some pundits have also questioned the appropriateness of the appointment of Tinubu as a peacemaker which is purely a party affair.
“I am at a loss how parties work nowadays. Parties are supposed to be supreme and the President should be taking orders from the party and not the other way round. For me, appointing Tinubu in that capacity is a let-down. That is the job Tinubu should ask some party leaders to handle and not for him to be doing. I think somebody wants to make a statement,” an analyst who craved anonymity said.
Speaking on the appointment of Tinubu, Maxwell Kadiri, a member of Civil Rights Organisation (CRO) and public affairs analyst, said Buhari had no powers to determine who handles what in the party, insisting that such powers resides with the party’s National Working Committee (NWC).
“What I can read from that appointment is that President Muhammadu Buhari is trying every means possible to get the support of Tinubu. The president has the power to appoint people into his cabinet, agencies and parastatals. He also has the power to make people heads and members of committees but when it comes to the party, there is a structure and the party is supreme”, Kadiri said.
According to him, “It is the party that controls the office, because he was voted into power through the party’s machinery. John Odigie-Oyegun is the chairman of the party and has the right to make such appointment. The President is the president of every Nigerian. He must allow the party to run its own affairs.”
“The way our political parties are being run is very wrong. If Tinubu is the national leader of the party as he is being addressed, why dramatising his appointment to resolve the internal problem of his party? I don’t get it”, he said.
“You know what? It is just sheer politics. It is a way of finding job for Tinubu or rather creating an impression that he (Tinubu) is being given a powerful position. By the way, the party belongs to Tinubu; appointing him to such a position is too simplistic,” Kadiri further said.
Tinubu in dilemma?
Observers say that Tinubu may be currently in dilemma over the right option to take in the re-election ambition of the President. Tinubu who has severally expressed shock at the turn of events in the government he helped put in place, and had, as a result of the frustration decided to make peace with the Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba cultural organisation he ditched many years ago, may find it difficult to throw his whole weight behind the “re-elect Buhari” project.
Analysts say that the second term of the President may prove brutal even for the likes of Tinubu.
“President Buhari knows how powerful Tinubu is politically and may move against him if he secures a second term. Don’t forget that no leader would want someone around him to be as powerful as himself. He may begin to look into the secret boxes of Tinubu just to create an impression to the world that he is a man of integrity and committed to fighting corruption. I sincerely expect Tinubu to weigh the options critically,” Thomas Oni, a public affairs analyst, told BDSUNDAY.
For Titilayo Ajadi, a Lagos-based system analyst, Tinubu may be in jeopardy at the moment. Ajadi believes that it would pay Tinubu to align forces with the likes of Obasanjo and Babangida to vote out the President.
Ajadi said that she was not sure if President Buhari would not go after Tinubu if re-elected.
“If you look at what is happening in Benue, an APC state, you would know that this government does not respect party loyalty. Governor Samuel Ortom has on many occasions cried to the President at the Villa over the killings in the state by the Fulani herdsmen and he has been left in the cold,” Ajadi said.
“If election were today, I tell you Ortom may not even vote for the President. So, Tinubu must be very sure what his fate would be in the event that Buhari returns. He may end up confronting with the Frankenstein’s monster. But why must Tinubu support the re-election of a president that has brought bad name to the APC and those who brought him to power? Well, I won’t be surprised because in Nigeria people suffer from partial amnesia,” she said.
The trouble with APC
Less than three years on power stool, the All Progressives Congress (APC) is seriously being assailed by internal wrangling that is threatening its very existence. The APC, an amalgam of political parties formed in 2014, seized power two years ago from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) that presided over the reins of power for 16 straight years.
Observers say that the factors that led to the “death” of the PDP are now threatening the ruling APC. Such factors include the alleged leaders’ high-handedness, dictatorial tendencies, imposition of candidates and the President’s penchant for taking critical decisions all alone without involving certain power brokers in the party.
The crisis in the APC started as a rumour. For instance, there were insinuations that Bola Ahmed Tinubu may have been dumped by President Buhari, while surrounding himself with some cronies that did not labour for the victory of the party in 2015. Then the rumour was confirmed by Aisha, the First Lady, who came out during an interview session with the BBC Hausa Service to pour her frustration with her husband’s administration. Aisha had noted that those who brought the party to power were not reaping the fruit of their labour.
Rochas Okorocha, governor of Imo State and chairman, APC Governors’ Forum, followed up by convening a meeting between the President and the governors.
At the meeting, the APC governors pointedly told the President that they were being side-lined when decisions are being taken by Aso Rock in matters such as deciding who should benefit from Federal appointments in their individual states. While critics believe that lack of tact in handling the economy resulted in the recession, APC government said it was squarely the fault of the out gone PDP administration. Analysts say the open fight between the President and the APC governors is a dangerous sign that portends grave danger for the broom party.
“Things are happening very fast. Within a space of one month, the president’s wife has spoken to him through public medium; the governors on the party’s platform have spoken to him on the same subject matter and don’t forget that Tinubu is totally frustrated, scandalised and embarrassed by what is going on in the party. When he told Odigie-Oyegun to resign over the crisis arising from the Ondo governorship election primaries, he must have spoken out as a result of some happenings in the party,” an analyst who craved anonymity said.
Zebulon Agomuo
