A few days back, the camp of Senator Bola Tinubu said the choice of Senator Kashim Shettima as the running mate to the former Lagos governor is irrevocable. On Thursday, the party shelved the scheduled unveiling of the former Borno governor as Asiwaju’s running mate. The event isn’t cancelled, but shifted, though without official explanation. For those celebrating the brief pause as a listening ear, change of mind and likely reversal of the controversial choice, the event is now booked for Wednesday. Shettima is going to be Asiwaju’s running mate and APC is going ahead with the Muslim-Muslim ticket choice. Bishop Matthew Kukah has helped in situating the issue in common sense manner. What Asiwaju made was a choice and what the majority of electorate would make on February 25 is a choice. There should be no national outcries.
But Yoruba will say o ye omo ti o nsun ekun, o ye iya e ti o nbe (both the crying child and pacifying mum know whatzup). Tinubu has thrown his people into a bind, especially the majority Christian South Westerners, who do not want to tie the precious presidential beads on the waist of others, when their own son’s waist is available and worthy for whatever it is worth. At least, nobody has disproved Tinubu’s Yorubaness, despite the stories about his ancestry, educational background, age and name. All names attributed to him so far are linguistically and historically Yoruba. So, he is a ‘shorn’ of the soil.
But in pitching his tent with Fulani Muslim, with his choice of running mate, the second Yoruba candidate with the potential to win since 1999 has decided to play the Obasanjo joker of 1999; a prince, enthroned by outsiders, for his people. But the contexts are different. When Obasanjo heavily relied on North to be president, North had no child with worthy waist for the Aso Rock’s strung beads. Now, it does. Atiku Abubakar is as desperate as Asiwaju to be president. Someone well-respected says both are, at best, transitional leaders, who should stop at a term for someone more vibrant with vitality of age and agility of strength. The question is, is a transitional leader the most desirable for us at a time like this?
By announcing Shettima right at the door of President Muhammadu Buhari, Tinubu sent what amounted to a humiliating aroko (Yoruba’s term for deeply-coded message) to the supposed party leader and retired military General. It is a glee of ‘shior, see me do what you had no liver to do.’ If kings are this ridiculed in ancient Yoruba, they usually resorted to opening the calabash of death. They would commit suicide instead of being shamed. It is what Yoruba will call ‘iku ya ju esin’ (death is better than shame). That sense of fatal heroism and akinkanju (strength of character) is totally gone in today’s Yoruba traditional institution, let alone politics. Very few thrones are without charlatans. Thrones are now meal tickets. Even true-born, worse than slaves, in conduct, want to mount one. Since before-dependable oracles now anoint, like Ekiti irunmale, who drinks tea, dark money is thrown from everywhere once a juicy throne is vacant. See what is going on in Oyo and convince me the oracle won’t be confused.
In explaining the choice of Shettima, who I learnt, has been collaborating with the Lagos team since the Goodluck Jonathan time as president and had been the listed pick, even before the primary was won, (details deliberately left out), both the sensible and the ridiculous have been thrown around the media space, possibly to convince independents yet to make their minds on who to cast their ballots for. But the choice in itself has helped those hitherto on the fence take definite jump, going by many voters spoken to. From being an adviser to the discredited second republic leadership, Tanko Yakassai, has transformed into an elder statesman, basically on the account of advancing age and speaking against recent leaders, who have made the government of Shehu Shagari he served saintly. Here is his argument; Tinubu is a minority Southern Muslim and couldn’t have picked a minority Northern Christian as running mate. Is there some soundness to this argument? In essence, he is saying when South is top the ticket, and the fellow is Muslim, combining with majority Northern Muslim is the only acceptable arrangement to the North, whose majority vote isn’t even certain for the minority Muslim from the South. It is almost saying ‘we (North) don’t trust the Muslim-ness of our Southern brethren or we don’t count them as having the religion in them at all’. Obviously that was the creed, though not trumpeted then, that got Babagana Kingibe on the MKO Abiola’s Muslim-Muslim ticket that won the June 12, 1993 election. Despite the fixation on the political worth of those tipped them, what is shaping the Shettima argument from the North now shows the mindset about Southern Muslims has always been there. In fact, if Kingibe hadn’t been given, the closest to ticket then was no other than Atiku Abubakar, a Northern majority Muslim. The mention given to now-late Paschal Bafyau then was obviously decorative, the same way the fuming Babachir Lawal, Yakubu Dogara and current SGF, Boss Mustapha, were mouthed for the position, for the sake of optical robust consideration. Yakassai is of Northern ruling establishment. Forget his criticism of Buhari. His pro-Muslim-Muslim submission is North-wide. This should serve as a future reference for minority Southern Muslim, seeking winning alliances with majority Northern Muslim. The thing is we easily forget history.
Since the creation of APC, Asiwaju has been pointedly-clear about who he thinks should lead the party. Even President Buhari publicly acknowledged it at a point that he and Asiwaju were dragging the national leadership of the party. Well, he shoved potopoto (dirty water mixed with sand) down Asiwaju’s throat in a couple of political fights, using the power of incumbency, but see who is having the last laugh. When I saw the obedient (this word again) way the President towotowo (Yoruba’s coinage for unmitigated regard) rose to greet Asiwaju when vote counting had almost established his victory in a primary the President had a dog (his endorsement of the Senate President), I said in my mind that the owner of the party is finally taking over. Whatever courtesies he extends to the President now are just to ensure the Aso Rock tenant doesn’t play the spoiler, since he is still the C-in-C and the military is a major victory factor in our elections. The Daura appearance and declaration is almost like ‘see me, you tried to stop from being VeePee and President. I am now going to do what you couldn’t do, you coward’.
Guess, Mr President got the message and like John the Baptist, began to reduce, so that the new Champ of APC can take charge. At Ekiti and Osun mega rallies, the President was a no-show. Is anyone still in doubt of whose image APC is now crafted? Win or lose, Tinubu is now in charge of the governing party and except he suffers a defeat, so crushing he would have to withdraw into his shell, this Sheriff, would be in town for quite a while and won’t brook sharing the national leader title.
and then