Call
it the many nights of long knives, it still may not sufficiently capture the
intrigues, betrayals, sellouts and drama that typified the various meetings
which ultimately culminated in the choice of a former Attorney-General and
Commissioner for Justice in Lagos State, Professor Yemi Osibajo, as the All
Progressives Congress (APC) deputy to the presidential standard-bearer of the
party, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari.
With
barely 24 hours to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
deadline for the submission of names of candidates by political parties, the
name Osibajo, which had been making the rounds as the alternative choice,
finally got the official stamp of approval of the general to run with him on
the party’s ticket.
Practically
all but the last meeting convened for the choice of a running mate for Buhari
had failed for one reason: the reported interest of a former governor of Lagos
State and one of the national leaders of the party, Bola Tinubu, who made a
poor show of concealing his desire for the job.
At
each of those meetings, Tinubu, who yesterday said he turned down Buhari’s
offer to be his running mate, was said to have made the emergence of a
generally acceptable choice that excluded him impossible.
For
Tinubu, party sources alleged that he saw his probable ascension to the
vice-presidency as an opportunity to be “compensated” for his incontrovertible
role in the establishment of a strong and viable APC, a move other members of
the party, including the governors, had opposed on the grounds that he would be
a hard sell to the Nigerian public.
To
exemplify his all-consuming desire for the job, Tinubu was said to have
attended one of the meetings with the South-west leaders of the party last
weekend and told his audience a story of how Buhari had agreed to field him as
his running mate.
According
to him, all he needed was the consent of those at the meeting in writing, in
order to convince the retired general that he (Tinubu) also had the support of
the South-west caucus to emerge as his running mate.
Ostensibly,
however, he was purported to have conjured the story following the honour
accorded him by Buhari to choose the running mate and put himself forward for
the position. But this, a majority of those at the meeting saw through,
compelling one of governors to say if his statement was true, “Buhari has
picked you, then you don’t need our signatures to get our support”.
Unfortunately
for him, some of those at the meeting were uncomfortable with the fact that he
wanted to get them to sign a communiqué, which he would have taken to Buhari,
informing him that his people in the South-west, majority of whom are
governors, had asked that he be fielded as the vice-presidential candidate. In
Tinubu's estimation, the story would have been difficult to refute in order not
to embarrass him nor put the party in a fix.
When
it became clear to Tinubu that his people had effectively opposed his emergence
as Buhari’s deputy, he reportedly broke down in tears, moaning that their
stance would render him insignificant in the scheme of things if he was neither
allowed the opportunity to field himself nor present a candidate of his choice.
“We
told him frankly: ‘Look, we love you as our oga but Nigerians don’t.' We told
him we could not sell him because one, he is a Muslim and two, other issues
might emerge from the woodworks that could be embarrass him and the party.
“When
it suddenly dawned on him that his goal was slipping from his grasp, he broke
down in tears,” alleged a source, who also claimed that it was at that point
everyone gave in to his demands that the post of Buhari’s running mate be zoned
to the South-west and he should be allowed to pick someone else in his stead.
His
despondency was further compounded after Monday’s nocturnal meeting where the
parameters were clearly defined for the selection of a running mate. At this
juncture, Tinubu may have thought that he had been completely schemed out and
again sought the understanding of the South-west caucus of the APC to give him
a soft landing by allowing him to decide who deputises for Buhari, regardless
of his political baggage.
With
their backing, he dug deep. So while other vice-presidential hopefuls were
being bandied as possible running mates, Tinubu ensured that the post of vice
president never left the South-west, and made a last ditch effort to secure the
position for himself.
In
this regard, on Tuesday, he was said to have met with Buhari, who was at this
point at his wits end with the pressure that had been brought to bear on the
selection of his running mate.
Buhari,
during the meeting, was said to have told Tunubu in clear terms that he would
neither run with him nor accept a Muslim-Muslim pairing, adding that if he
pushed it too hard, he (Buhari) might be compelled to stand down even as the
party’s candidate.
When
Tinubu tried to make Buhari see things his way, a shouting match ensued,
compelling the general to walk out on Tinubu so that the situation would not
degenerate. It was against this backdrop that the former Lagos governor
allegedly rushed back to his people to push for the emergence of Osibajo.
Seeing
that Buhari was unyielding, Tinubu and the South-west caucus was left with no
option than to unanimously back Osibajo as the alternative option who was
presented to Buhari and subsequently approved by him in order to meet today’s
deadline for the submission of candidates’ names.
To
political observers, Tinubu, with his overt desire, covert antics and
brinksmanship, may have secured a diminished victory. But of greater
significance, he has had a taste of what it means to manage and square up
against the contending interests and forces at play in a truly large national
party.
In
the days of yore, he could dictate the pace and rhythm of his more malleable,
regional Action Congress (AC) and later Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). With
APC, he was shown that he can no longer pull the strings like a puppet master
behind the scenes as he deems fit.
With
Osibajo’s selection for the number two slot, it remains to be seen if Tinubu’s
latest gamble will do his party and Buhari’s chances in the contest against the
Jonathan/Sambo ticket any good. In the final analysis, the answer to this lies
with the Nigerian electorate.
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