LAST week, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo received two critical reviews for president in 2023. Both, with consequential geopolitical reading, could be endorsements, without discounting political debauchery of tongue-in-cheek.
First was, perhaps, the most-authoritative of PACs (Political Action Committees) supporting Senator Bola Tinubu for president; Bola Ahmed Tinubu Foundation (BAT Foundation). The DG, former Lagos lawmaker, Hon. Ipoola Omisore, while marketing his obvious pick for the job, swerved into the Osinbajo territory and emphatically said Tinubu could donate him again to Nigeria as president in 2023 just as he did in 2015, yielding the number two spot to the law professor when the need to be religiously-sensitive took it out of Jagaban’s waiting hand. Did that just sound like a subtle endorsement? Ipoola even contested Osinbajo ownership with Progressives Consolidation Group, (PCG), the super-PAC, marketing the VP nationwide.
Is Tinubu thinking of yielding ground again to his favoured political son? Will Asiwaju (meaning, the leader) take the back seat again now that he appears closest to his dream job, though his health is now a major drag? Well, we can only wait, but the fact that his camp is even remotely thinking Osinbajo as an option, if Capone (apologies to Arakunrin Akeredolu), would excuse himself, is a major boost for a man who as recently as May denied a presidential dream.
Well, Osinbajo is just doing the omo Yoruba atata (well-born, well-bred), who knows when not to rile a benefactor. Yoruba will say an elephant doesn’t holler and its baby so doing, simultaneously, except the baby elephant is ready to find a new forest to rule. Though some may fault him, it would be the right honour to give the Bourdillion captain if Osinbajo decides to play reserve when the team leader appears interested in top striking position.
And until the health scare, oga obviously wanted to be the top marksman for Nigeria. His team swaggered all over. Then came an ominous silence. Since nature abhors a vacuum, the political forest must roar again and PCG suddenly began to attract shine as SWAGA took a cool. Are all these mere coincidences? Has mother elephant endorsed baby elephant, to holler?
If nature appears to be silencing mother elephant, for their part of the forest not to be completely silent and inadvertently giving the impression that their abode can be raided and a dead rat dumped at their backyard, baby elephant should holler, in fact, shake the forest, no matter how frail its frame.
What if mother elephant finds its vocal range again? Well, both can holler together, now to keep the hunter completely at bay. If there is a game to share, a caring mother elephant, will allow its baby, a good share, to reach enviable status of elephants fast. Yoruba will say ajanaku o bi rara, omo ti erin ba bi, erin lo ma jo (an elephant won’t birth a dwarf, the baby of an elephant, is an elephant). Since Asiwaju is the political father of Osinbajo, he should allow him grow, to become an elephant like him, so both can shake the forest together, in a way never witnessed before in Nigeria’s political jungle. My cent!
What if a fight eventually breaks out over sharing? Mother elephant should remember another Yoruba wise-saying: if an elder wrestles a younger fellow, he will always carry the shame. If he beats the younger fellow, he would be tagged an elder without shame, beating someone below him. If the younger man prevails, the judging society will mock the elder as lacking in strength to handle someone beneath him. That is why sensible elders don’t fight their juniors in Yoruba land. You ask what if the elder is of bolekaja mode, ready to descend into gutters too deep and dirty, for the younger fellow to enter, or, is an ajigijaga reborn, who is ready to break bottle on his own head, before going for the Adam apple of his victim. Well, what a man soweth, he shall reap. But for an elder that will let go, instead of engaging in roforofo, his name shall be in gold.
What could pass for direct endorsement came from Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa, when the Osinbajo PAC took their crusading to the state capital. Apart from speaking glowingly of the professor-pastor, Sule proudly hoisted his friendship with the VP, calling him sellable. He was unequivocal that once APC says it is South’s turn, he and other governors would be on a roll for him. Is there an accord among APC governors on this?
Yes, you might want to say two out of numerous tendencies that would determine the presidency direction for the governing party, is too insignificant for the VP and his men to bring the drums out. Maybe, but they aren’t just any two individuals. Without diminishing their personalities and freedom to hold critical opinions, in political calculus towards 2023, they are like the proverbial gyrating hyacinth atop the waters, whose drummers are beneath. Omisore must have stayed long in politics to know snitches end up with stitches. So, he couldn’t have been selling his camp and principal out, if the Osinbajo option isn’t an open secret, at least, among the front-row leaders of the Tinubu caucus. Don’t forget, Osinbajo is also a senior member of the camp.
Sule has political leaders and fathers. He didn’t just become governor from nowhere. Adamu Abdullahi, is the father of APC in the state. The senator is also a major mouthpiece for Northern Nigeria political establishment and a Buharist to the core. Demonstrating his anger over open grazing ban by Southern governors, he told them to forget the demanded presidency. That would ordinarily be read as Sule’s leader, objecting to a Southern president in 2023. But Yoruba will say soup doesn’t slush in an elder’s stomach. When the woman is still pregnant, the man already has a name in mind.
APC would look ridiculous retaining the presidency in the North. Yes, the zone may employ Shylock mentality in negotiating, but it would have no choice but release the office, though in its usual style, it may want to help South fill it.
If Tinubu decides to play a considerate mother elephant, only Goodluck Jonathan, jumping into the race through APC, would make the forest a bit uncomfortable for Osinbajo, despite Dave Umahi’s irresponsible pandering, to be loved and anointed, by the president. Goodluck should rest and this has nothing to do with ethnic bias. He remains my man. I love his persona, but Ecclesiastes 3…
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents
In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state…
Selfies, video calls and Chinese documentaries: The things you’ll meet onboard Lagos-Ibadan train
The Lagos-Ibadan railway was inaugurated recently for a full paid operation by the Nigerian Railway Corporation after about a year of free test-run. Our reporter joined the train to and fro Lagos from Ibadan and tells his experience in this report…
[ICYMI] Lekki Shootings: Why We Lied About Our Presence — General Taiwo
The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry probing the killings at Lekki Toll Gate, on Saturday resumed viewing of the 24hrs footage of the October 20, 2020 shooting of #EndSARS protesters by personnel of the Nigerian Army…
ICYMI: How We Carried Out The 1993 Nigerian Airways Hijack —Ogunderu
On Monday, October 25, 1993, in the heat of June 12 annulment agitations, four Nigerian youngsters, Richard Ajibola Ogunderu, Kabir Adenuga, Benneth Oluwadaisi and Kenny Razak-Lawal, did the unthinkable! They hijacked an Abuja-bound aircraft, the Nigerian Airways airbus A310, and diverted it to Niger Republic. How did they so it? Excerpts…
and then