As the number of aspirants for the 2023 presidency rises by the day, TAIWO AMODU writes on the intrigues already playing, especially on the bid by a former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu.
The battle for the 2023 is gathering momentum with the presidential hopefuls hopping across the six geopolitical zones of the country. Individually, they are have embarked on consultations with influential persons and groups in the bid to curry their favour. Many of their foot soldiers have also stepped up series of programmes aimed at rallying support for their principals. For instance, a week after former Lagos State governor and national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), BolaTinubu informed President
Muhammadu Buhari of his ambition, his foot soldiers converged on the International Conference Center (ICC) Abuja tomarket their candidate. The Tinubu Support Groups, from across the country converged under the umbrella body, Support Groups Management Council (SGMC). However, the event was principally organisedby his loyalists in the APC to react to pockets of negative, acerbic reactions from certain politicians who had so far openly expressed strong reservations about Tinubu’s bid.
The last few days have witnessed an upward swing in events that will culminate into the convention of the APC on February 26. This followed the release of the timetable and schedule of events on the convention by the leadership of the party. The party is believed to have sent a notice to the Independent National electoral Commission on the planned elective convention.
For the kingmaker smarting to be king, the flaks have been coming in torrents. First to squeal against his ‘lifelong ambition” was the Arewa Consultative Forum which citedalleged ill health of Tinubu. Speaking in Kaduna, spokesman of ACF, Emmanuel Yawe said Nigeria needed be saved the agony of having any President with health challenge to run the country. Few days after the ACF spokesman raised the alarm, National President of the Arewa Youths Consultative Forum (AYCF), Yerima Shettima raised a similar opposition to Tinubu’s Presidency project saying a kingmaker should stick to his role of anointing kings. The President of AYCF argued that the nation
needs a young, vibrant Nigeria in the saddle in 2023. He advised Tinubu to stay at the background and stick to his advisory role.
However, the Abuja gathering looked specifically and strategically convoked to give responses to those who had been casting aspersions ontheir candidate. The list of Tinubu’s backers, at the event, included lawmaker representing Ikeja Federal Constituency, Honourable Biodun Faleke; two term Borno State Governor and Senator representing Borno Central, Kashim Shettima; former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Engineer Babachir Lawal and a former member of theHouse of Representatives and Director General of Tinubu Support Groups, Honourable Abdulmumuni Jibrin. Leading the charge at the gathering of an estimated 2,500 Support Groups, Senator Shettima, in his speech titled: The Time has Come to Choose Wisely, cautionedthat the 2023 race should be about ideas not personal attacks on contenders for the exalted office. He faulted those raising concernover Tinubu’s physical fitness and mental acuity for the Presidency.
Specifically, Shettima addressed claims of alleged physical infirmity of Tinubu, saying: “A few days ago, I joined him on a trip to Zamfara state tocondole with the people and identify with their realities and the experience made a nonsense of the propaganda that he’s unfit to run Nigeria.
“On the eve of the trip, Asiwaju had retired at 6 am after Subhi prayers, and was already awake and attending to guests by 11 am. We departed for Sokoto around 2pm and had to traverse the menacing hinter land of that part of the North-West for seven hours from Sokototo Gusau where he made a generous donation of N50 million as he had inother places struck by tragedies and then back to Sokoto. On returning to Abuja by midnight, his schedule was entirely a series of meetingsthat kept him up till 3 am.
“Now, excuse my curiosity, how many of ushere can match or endure such a demanding schedule? Asiwaju’s alacrity, therefore, has never been a subject of scepticism for those
who’ve worked with him, and even his critics are aware of this. If he were half the man in their tales by moonlight, they would’ve long succeeded in subduing him. The mark of true leadership isn’t the ability to lift a bag of cement. It’s the mental effort to think rationally of solutions designed to redeem one’s people and territorial jurisdiction. This waswhy leaders like Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States of America, stood out. Roosevelt took power in a countrywrecked by the Great Depression of the 1930s and guided its economy through the Second World War, and the quality of his thoughts andideas made the United States a superpower under his watch. Similarly,the accident that had Kenya’s MwaiKibaki confined to a wheelchair didn’t disable his ability to produce sound ideas, and Kenyans weresold on his virtue that they chose him as their President over what
some would consider a fitter option.”I’m not asking you to tone down criticalassessments of your futureleaders, but redirect you to see the bigger picture. We are not hereto prepare for the Olympics, but an institution that relies on thesuperiority of ideas to thrive. Asiwaju’s credentials aren’t onlyappealing, they are proof of the qualities this country needs toredeem its vast potentials and possibilities. We are here to testifyto this power of ideas – one that overturned the fortunes of Lagos State and sustained its supremacy as the largest economy inSub-Saharan Africa and kept the opposition alive when it was moreprofitable to sell out. Those who seek to make us go low hope topresent the presidency as a brick-laying exercise. But that’s the work
of a machine created by an idea, and who else to guide us towardsmanufacturing the best ideas to redeem this country?”
Direct primary war reverberates
The views of a former Secretary to Government of the Federation, (SGF), BabachirLawal was a veiled referenceto those basking in the euphoria of President Muhammadu Buharirejection of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill. Buhari had premised hisstance to decline presidential assent on the lawmakers’recommendation of direct primaries as the only choice open to political parties toelect their candidates for 2023 general elections and subsequentelections.This was despite the fact that the APC 2014 Constitution (as amended)made provisions for direct, indirect and consensus options. The choiceof options was taken as a direct battle between the governors and thelawmakers, with the former’s preference for indirect primaries.Speculation was rife that the former Lagos State governor preferencewas direct primary.
Tinubu was alleged to have used certainprincipal officers in the National Assembly and his benefactors topush for direct primary ahead of the APC convention andpresidential convention, where national officers and presidentialcandidate would emerge.The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable FemiGbajabiamila was alleged to be his Man Friday.
Speaking on SunriseDaily, a Channels TV monitored programme, Senator representing Kebbi South senatorial district, Bala Ibn Na’Allah, alleged that theinclusion of mandatory direct primary in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill was the idea of Gbajabiamila. He further declared that he was told that the provisionwas meant for a particular individual hence the bill did not gothrough a thorough process before it was forwarded to PresidentMuhammadu Buhari for assent.“We are hearing that that law (direct primary) was intended for anindividual. I don’t know. I honestly don’t know but I must say andmaintain that the process was not painstaking enough,” Ibn Na’Allahsaid.
The former SGF who declared that support for Tinubu’s aspirations hascontinued to swell said the former Lagos State governor was preparedfor whatever options that would be adopted by the APC stakeholders topick its presidential candidate.Lawal did not spare the current APC Caretaker/ ExtraordinaryConvention Planning Committee under the leadership of Yobe State governor, Mai Mala Buni, which he alleged had been hijacked by acertain cabal.He said: “The incapacity of the party to even harmonise and synergisepolicy direction of the Federal Government with that of states itcontrols especially in key critical areas around which the campaignswere ran, speaks volumes about its incompetence. Compounding these problems in the last one year is the apparent hijacking of the partyby a self-serving cabal who, driven by personal ambitions has failed to organise even simple conflict-free Ward, Local Government, andState Congresses not to talk of a convention. As we speak,there are only a handful of states in the country that do not haveparallel state executives.” The DG, Tinubu Support Groups, HonourableJubrin, told newsmen thatthe gathering of the support groups was part of its activities to ensure cohesion among the supporters for easymanagement. He also said the former Lagos governor was fullyprepared for the presidential convention.
But Tinubu will have to struggle for the ticket with others who haveso far signified interest like Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi;former Abia State Governor and Senate Chief Whip, Orji UzorKalu; former Imo State governor and Senator representing Imo West, RochasOkorocha and a chieftain of the party from Benue State, Moses Ayom. The convention will however offer an illumination asto which power bloc will produce the next national chairman. It willalso tell who gets what in the 2023 general election.