•To Scuttle TINUBU’s Ambition
Since Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo declared his intention to run for the Presidency, a few days he has come under serious attack for taking that decision, whilst his supporters and aides do not see anything wrong in the VP joining the presidential race to become President and to take over from where his boss, Pres. Muhammadu Buhari will stop on May 29, 2023. They argue that there is something to be said for continuity.
They argue that he has spent the last 7 years understudying his boss and that 7 years is enough time to prepare for that much-exalted office. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said that much in his declaration speech. He said his trips across the length and breadth of Nigeria have prepared him for the Presidency. He said if voted in, the transition will be seamless since he was part of the previous administration.
But there is a growing view that VP’s decision to declare is not solely his. They have argued that Prof. was only acting out a script designed by the North to have him scuttle the chances of his former political godfather, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. The popular view among many Yoruba political leaders is that Osinbajo is being used by the North to neutralise all the political activities of Tinubu.
According to that viewpoint, the North, desirous of not wanting power to shift to the South, especially the South-West decided that the way to go about it is to use someone from the Tinubu Camp to join the race to reduce the potency of Tinub’s candidacy.
Those who hold this view refer to what Asiwaju Tinubu told his aides a while back, sometime last year that he has it on good authority that the Northern cabal, plans to destabilise the unity that exists in their camp, by promising a few of his associate’s presidential tickets. Although he added the caveat that he is not stopping anybody from realising his or her own ambition in life, but added that all the carrots that will be dangled are aimed at scuttling his presidential ambition, which they are all aware of.
He explained that the Northern cabal had perfected plans to promise some of his top associates the Presidency and all they want to achieve is to create discord among his political family members.
His advice to his political associates is to all stand firm, and work towards the same goal of promoting his presidential ambition which he had briefed them about years back.
Revealed an insider, the age-long strategy of Asiwaju Tinubu since he left office as Lagos Governor was to create a powerful political machine across the country over a 10-year span with distinguished political players occupying key positions across the South and North of the country as Governors, Ministers, Senators, Legislators, which in turn will help his ambition to become the President of Nigeria when the time comes. Since 1999 when he became the Governor of Lagos till a few months back when he officially briefed President Buhari about his decision to contest, he has built a new generation of political players who today occupy key positions of power across all the states and at the federal level.
City People gathered that VP Osinbajo is a product of this project. Recall that it was Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who nominated Osinbajo’s name to President Buhari to be made V.P. Insiders revealed that in doing this, Tinubu’s plan was to help Buhari and Osinbajo get to power in 2015, hoping that kind gesture will help his own presidential ambition come 2023.
But what Buhari did after he came to power was to sideline Tinubu by giving some of his associates’ key positions in his cabinet without Tinubu’s approval or consent. What Buhari did was to play a fast one on Tinubu by giving some of his associates like Ogbeni Raufu Aregbesola, Sunday Dare, Babatunde Fashola, Lai Mohammed and Co. juicy positions in his cabinet.
Shortly after the Buhari regime stabilised, then came to the rumours that some of them had been promised the presidential slots and many of the names of Tinubu’s associates were mentioned as presidential hopefuls. These are names like Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Governor Kayode Fayemi, Babatunde Raji Fashola, were mentioned. Of course, each of them had to come out to deny the allegation.
Till today, it is believed that the rumour of the possibility of Aregbesola being tipped as a presidential candidate heightened the rift between him and Tinubu, his political godfather.
City People also gathered that the North in supporting Osinbajo believes that the only way to weaken Tinubu’s bid for the presidency was to get one of his strong allies to join the race. And Osinbajo being the most senior political office holder from the Tinubu group was their choice. According to insiders, going by his body language over the last 6 months, Osinbajo showed no sign of interest in the presidential race until he began to frequent the key Northern states to meet the Emirs and Governors of the states and he was accorded special treatment. At some point former President, Ibrahim Babangida came out to endorse him as a good presidential material.
Many have argued that the decision of Osinbajo to run for the presidency came from the Northern cabal who have promised to get him bloc votes from the 3K slates up North, namely Kano, Katsina, and Kaduna, area, which command huge votes. That is why he is not paying attention to his base, in the South-West.
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