Buhari, Tinubu and the South West

Tinubu demonstrated that he has a large, loyal, followership and is the single most important political leader in the South West. Tinubu’s performance put paid to wishful thinking bandied about as informed analyses by the duo of Femi Aribisala and Jideofor Adibe. Contrary to the line Adibe kept repeating, the South West wasn’t even the […]

Tinubu demonstrated that he has a large, loyal, followership and is the single most important political leader in the South West.
Tinubu’s performance put paid to wishful thinking bandied about as informed analyses by the duo of Femi Aribisala and Jideofor Adibe. Contrary to the line Adibe kept repeating, the South West wasn’t even the battleground, as even Ondo State, governed by Olusegun Mimiko, the loudmouth PDP convert, fell to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the presidential election. Ekiti, the least populated Yoruba state, voted PDP but the numbers it returned lacked the advantage needed by the losing party.
I have always suspected that the North Central, and not the South West, was the battleground in these elections. Despite the ethnic and religious cards played by Jonathan and his losing party, both Benue and Kwara states moved from the PDP to the APC column in the presidential and gubernatorial elections, and to a large extent even the legislative elections. After losing to the PDP in the presidential election in Nasarawa, the APC regained the state in the gubernatorial ballot. In the South West, the surprise was Ondo, and even there the APC beat the PDP in the presidential election.
Those who consistently opposed a Muhammadu Buhari presidency would have to come to terms with his electoral victory. They didn’t like Buhari’s alliance with the South West, just as they disliked the frontline roles of Tinubu and his men. Who could Buhari have allied with? More than any other politician in the South West, Tinubu has shown himself as one with committed supporters whom he can always count on to vote one way or the other. That’s why despite Jonathan’s multi-million naira and dollar largesse, the voters still rejected him.
Ayo Adebanjo, Olu Falae, Frederick Fasehun, Segun Osoba, Femi Fani-Kayode, Yinka Odumakin, Akin Osuntokun, etc, have all been shown for what they are: a noise-making bunch with no electoral value. The people of the South West clearly rejected the direction these people wanted to chart for them. Both Fani-Kayode and his friend Osuntokun boxed above their weight category when they obnoxiously and obscenely intervened in the otherwise non-issue of the Buhari certificate saga. The other day, Osuntokun practically attempted to intimidate the Channels Television anchor men when he appeared on their talk show ‘Sunrise’ programme. Obviously, his brief was to raise questions about Buhari’s integrity. Osuntokun was all over the place writing, speaking, disparaging the person of Buhari.
Femi Aribisala’s fallacious analysis of politics in the South West, particularly Lagos, was meant to prepare our mind for the imminent defeat of Tinubu. Much as we surmised, there was nothing on the ground to show that Tinubu’s candidate, Akinwunmi Akinbode, would be defeated in the 2015 election; but Aribisala kept on pushing into our faces his flawed reading of the politics there. Those who didn’t attend Oxford University were still able to discern that Lagosians had no reason to vote for PDP, but not Artibisala, who had consistently sought to obfuscate his Tinubuphobia through the use of some nebulous theory. It’s noteworthy that all of Aribisala’s political suppositions regarding Tinubu’s political demise have failed to materialise.
The people of the South West have long decided to remain in Nigeria; what they want is a balanced federalism where some exclusive federal powers can be devolved to states, and why not? In other words, the Yoruba people want good governance – and this is the desire of most Nigerians; nevertheless, this is not going to come through some dubious, copycat, wasteful national conference aimed at dividing the country. It will be ridiculous to rotate Nigerian presidency among six geo-political zones. What the wealthiest part of the country requires is upgraded infrastructure – regular electricity, standard gauge rail lines, motorable roads, safe waterways, soft loans for entrepreneurs, etc, so the people can help themselves. This is true for Lagos where Buhari’s government needs to assist handsomely.
Tinubu could have been vice president if not for the continuing conspiracy conjectures by religious bigots and ethnic champions allied with lazy, narrow-minded political commentators. Tinubu’s role in hammering the merger that trounced the ruling party has already gone into the books of Nigeria’s political history. Irrespective of the ethical questions raised about his personality, Tinubu has the capacity to meet his political goals and add value to governance; Buhari learnt that in 2011, while Jonathan just realised it. Tinubu has produced leaders – Babatunde Raji Fashola, Abdul Ra’uf Aregbesola, Dr Kayode Fayemi, Akinwunmi Ambode, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, etc, and from a regional political head, he is now an influential national leader. Nobody should begrudge Tinubu his role as the national leader of APC and we may well return to what obtained in the Second Republic when, in addition to other democratic institutions, the president contended with the opinion of his political party in matters important to the country.
Tinubu is over and above the noisy bad-belly group which sought to sabotage the APC in the South West. I wonder which way the six million-strong Odua People’s Congress voted on 28th March and when next their anti-Jega violent protest would be. How Buhari and Tinubu treat each other would make or mar the political fortunes of the APC in the years to come. Buhari and Tinubu can continue their horse-trading on who gets what in terms of appointment and contracts, but must not forget even for a moment that Nigerians are watching. We want service, we want results, we want accountability; and this mandate lasts only four years.