By Lateef Adegbite
President Muhammadu Buhari, a retired Army General, may have entered into a secret deal with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, popular, Jagaban, and a former governor of Lagos state, which is not known to the general public on who will succeed him, on the expiration of his second term in office in 2023.
Perhaps, based on the secret deal, the Lagos state former governor, had put in both his time and resources, to ensure that the Katsina tstate born Nigerian Army General, rtd, emerged as the All Progressive Congress, APC, Presidential Candidate in the 2015, general elections, which he won by beating Goodluck Joonathan, of the Opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP, who was the then Nigerian President.
The retired Army General had repeated the feat in 2019, beating the PDP Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, a former Vice president, believed to have won the election in but was carefully rigged out. The closeness of the duo became more pronounced as Buhari had visited the Jagaban on his sick bed last August in London where they were said to have held a closed- door discussion, which may believe was not unconnected to the 2023 elections.
The Presidency had made Nigerians to believe that the Nigerian President cannot support anybody aspiring for the Presidency on the Platform of the APC in the 2023 general elections. Femi Adesina, a Special Assistant to the Nigerian President on Media and Publicity had said that ‘’Buhari will never do it’’, meaning that Tinubu, the former Lagos state governor is on his own. He had alluded to the fact Buhari had said that anybody that wants to be President after him ‘’should go out and work’.
’This may have informed why Tinubu had begun secret Consultations and reaching out to some power brokers in the APC, in the north and south west, particular, to endorse his Candidature. Babatunde Fashola, minister of Works and Housing, who was brought into Political limelight by the Jagaban may have known about plans by the Buhari Political ally to contest the 2023 Presidency on the APC Ticket but had kept it a closely guided secret.
The minister may have set the stage for the former Lagos state governor declaration of his Presidential Ambition when he asked Nigerians to wait till January 2022 for the APC, National Leader who has been making wider consultations before taking a decision whether to run for the Presidency in 2023 or not’’
He may have shocked Nigerians when he disclosed that the Tinubu has not informed him that he is running in the 2023 , Presidential election. Putting on the garb of a Politician, the Buhari Works and Housing minister had said that the only Statement he had extracted from him since the rumour became pronounced that he is interested in running for the office of the President was that ‘’people would know in January’’.
Giving that the race on who becomes the APC , flag bearer in the 2023, general elections had peaked may have informed why the APC National leader, who many believe has become desperate to become the next occupant of the Presidential Villa, has given the nod to the 2,500 Islamic Clerics in the ancient city of Kano to pray for him as speculations continue to mount over his Presidential ambition.
Abdulmumin Jubrin, a former Chairman of the Appropriations Committee in the House of Representatives and Director General of Tinubu Support Groups Management Council, had said that the 2,500 Ulama from all over Kano state had said that they are coming to pray for Tinubu. ‘’This is what we want’’, he had said.
Going by his remarks, the Jagaban may have approved the Prayer of the Islamic Clerics because ‘’they are real’’, stressing that ‘’some of them for a year , two years and even more have not gone out of their domains’’. He noted that these are Spiritual People who are respected in their respective Communities.
In spite of the fact that Tinubu has kept Nigerians waiting on his Presidential ambition, Jubril , who has the ear of the former Lagos state governor had told those that cares to listen that ‘’ it was a done deal that the APC Chieftain will contest the 2023 general elections, confirming what Fashola, a one –time Lagos state governor had said that ‘’ Nigerians should wait till January 2022, to hear from him’’.
In a voice laden with emotion, Jubril had said, Tinubu is going to contest the election and his name is going to be on ballot paper’’. The declaration by Jubril, that Tinubu, who already has been endorsed by Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Lagos state governor, may have put to rest speculations whether the Jagaban will contest the 2023 Presidential election or not.
Notwithstanding that Tinubu, the Political giant from the south west geo-political egion, who believes he had worked for the party, to produce Buhari, as the country’s President in 2015 and 2019, Conscutively, and now it is pay back time for him to be on the driver’s Seat, Yahaya Bello, governor of Kogi state, has formally declared his interest run for the Presidency in 2023 on the APC Platform, meaning thathe wants to slug it with the formermer Lagos governor t on the party primaries.
Giving his seriousness on the Presidential Project, he has launched a national movement , the Global Alliance of Progressive Professionals, AP3, , a project of the Grassroots Aids Initiative, GAIN, a non-governmental organization registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC. Already, the Kogi state Forum of former political office holders, has endorsed Gov. Bello to contest for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023. Abdulsalam Bawa Dangana, spokesperson and Chairman of the Kogi Forum had said the endorsement of the APC, Presidential hopeful follows his ‘’dynamic and pragmatic leadership prowess which he had exhibited in the state over the last six years’’.
He had said that the Kogi governor, who now wants to move to the Federal level, had done well in addressing the security challenges in the state that the Bandits Group which have been terrorising the Niger, home state of Ibrahim Babangida, a retired Army General and former military President and the armed herdsmen terrorising Benue state could not find their way into the state. He noted that with such Credentials, the APC, has no option but to give the 2023, Presidential ticket to Gov. Bello, describing him as ‘’the best for the country’’.
But Babangida, an elder statesman and a former Chieftain of the PDP, would want the APC, to give the 2023 Presidential ticket to Osinbanjo, the Vice President, described as a’’personality the nation should pick for leadership’’. The former military President who could not hide his feelings had said that Osinbajo is a man who can’’ mobilise and engineer growth in the country’’. He did not stop there. He had described him as someone who can ‘’communicate with the country and inspire the citizens for a better and productive society’’.
Hear him: I know the Vice President very well. He is a good man. I have spoken to him a couple of times. We need a good person like Osinbajo at the helm of affairs of this country to learn from him and who people of goodwill share a common conviction with.
He further described the Vice President as someone who has a’’ great passion for the country’’, pleading with Nigerians ‘’to emulate the passion for the good of the country’’. Although, the Vice President may not have indicated his Presidential ambition for the 2023 general elections, but the ‘’Osinbajo Grassroots Organisation, OGO, has started the Campaign to drag him into the race.
Okezie Ikpeazu, governor of Abia state, would want the south east geopolitical region to be considered for the position of the President of Nigerian in 2023, stressing that the people know the country better than people from other regions.
The governor, however, believes that the only way a south east person could be elected to rule the country will be to negotiate with other regions on the need’’ to allow the zone produce the President of the country in 2023’’. He will want the people of the region not ‘’to see the 2023 Presidency as a right but to go all out and work for it’’.
There is no gain saying the fact the people of the northern part of Nigeria and the south west geopolitical region would prefer a south –south person to rule Nigerian than a south east person because of the incidents of 1966, which had resulted in the 30 months Civil war which is still very fresh in minds of many including Buhari , the Nigerian President.
