•City People Reveals The Blow-By-Blow Strategy
Give it to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC National Leader, he is one astute politician who is always ahead of his peers in his game of politics. He usually takes a long term view of whatever he does. Like him or hate him, he understands the game and he enjoys the rough and tumble of politics. He likes to be tackled, like how players get tackled in the game of football. That is when the best in him comes out.
It was for this reason, City People honoured him for his political sagacity a few years back.
That was when City People conferred on him the Political Strategist of TheYear Award, in 2018. At that time, many thought he was simply being hyped. They felt he was not deserving of this huge accolade. They felt we were simply exaggerating his qualities.
But all the deft political moves of Tinubu over the last few years, have confirmed that he is indeed a master of the game and a master strategist of no small measure, when it comes to the game of Politics.
After receiving the City People Awards, he acknowledged the award given to him at the 2018 City People Political Awards as the Political Strategist Of The Year. He wrote a letter to say so.
Reacting to this award, Asiwaju wrote a beautifully worded letter: “I feel deeply honoured by the decision of the Management of City People to confer me with Political Strategist of the Year 2018 Award. I appreciate the noble gesture and the award is one that I earnestly treasure.
“Over the years, I have come to admire you Seye Kehinde, as a highly professional journalist and reputable media entrepreneur. Your City People has also come to be widely accepted as a society magazine of good standing.”, he said.
He also implored that City People Magazine, with the effort of like minds, to join him in moving the nation forward
Recall that Asiwaju has in the last 20 years, played significant roles in determining the winner of elections, at all levels in Lagos State and across Nigeria.
The two-term Lagos State Governor, respected all over the world for his strategic prowess and political know-how, won the award because of his ability to stabilize and unite progressive party members both at regional and national level.
Tinubu’s antecedents obviously speak volume about his relentless effort to revolutionalize political space.
It is based on these that City People honoured him with the Award.
That Tinubu has remains a political strategist can be seen in the ongoing race for 2023 from the South-West, where despite the fact that Tinubu has not told anyone he is running for Presidency, he has remained the only candidate to beat in the race right now.
Unlike his competitors, he started work on his presidential ambition way back when he was in office as the Governor of Lagos State.
During his tenure, he created an Army of Aides who became fiercely loyal to him, right from the grassroots, at the Ward to the State level. He built political structures from the ward level up to the top. And he picked ordinary people with no experience in politics and molded them into the political juggernauts that they have become today.
After he left office, he took his time to plan his next move. He shifted his gaze to the national level.
Having been a governor, his next move was to aim higher, and to play at the national level. He and others of like minds decided to make Buhari the next President, after Jonathan. And they succeeded.
That way the North was given the opportunity to do 2 terms, after which the position of Presidency can come to the South. All these permutations were agreed upon in what has been called the Gentleman’s Agreement, which has now become a subject of controversy, as some players from the North now see no reason why another Northern candidate can’t continue when Buhari stops being President in 2023.
That is why for instance the PDP is most likely to field a Northern candidate for Presidency in 2023 and the APC is not likely to give the ticket to a Southern politician. According to a top aide of Tinubu, “Asiwaju is not saying by force it must be him, but first of all let the party zone it to the South first and leave the South to produce a candidate”.
Like Asiwaju Tinubu himself has said repeatedly, Power is not served a la carte. You must go for it. He feels let all those who are interested and capable come out to show interest and leave the rest to the voters to decide.
In the ongoing race for Presidency, Tinubu early in the day redefined the game. According to City People’s findings, he decided that he will delay his decision on whether he wants to run or not till January 2020, when the climate would have become heated up and will be able to spring surprise on his fellow players.
According to an insider, Tinubu knows he has those who will likely oppose his move to run, but he also knows he has huge political support.
So, for starters he decided to test his strength across the country and he has identified his Strength and Weakness and it has helped him structure a way to deal with the problem area”.
Unlike other presidential aspirants who are most likely to join the race late (next year), he started early so as to allow him enough time to consult widely across the country. That is why over the last few months he has been traversing the length and breathe of the country meeting with political stakeholders and leaders to get them to buy into his game-plan. An insider revealed that because of the rigorous nature of the presidential campaigns, he had to quickly go and sort out his knee issue so it won’t disrupt his moves when the polity gets heated up next year.
Interestingly, the strategy that Asiwaju adopted has worked for him, as it has put his name forward in the race. Also in the South West he has become the only well known possible candidate for Presidency, come 2023. Because of his looming image in the political sphere, a lot of other candidates are finding it difficult to come out and be counted.
The fact that he has built a big image for himself has put some of his “Boys” who also want to run in a fix to come out.
The way it is now, despite the fact that he has not come out to say he is running, he is now being seen and projected as the No 1 candidate for Presidency from the South West. Many even believe that he is the only Yoruba man who has the capacity to run the race.
Another strategy that is most likely to work for Tinubu is that he has extracted a promise from President Buhari to make the Political Space a level playing field and leave all the candidates to compete and contest.
And the President, we hear has accepted.
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