Where is Tambuwal?

As if the unresponsive status of the Buhari Presidency’s economic management policy is not enough set back, its political management capacity has recently come under severe criticism for exacerbating the diversity challenges of the country. What was initially regarded as inadvertent favouritism is now slammed as bare-faced nepotism by a cross section of Nigerians outraged […]

As if the unresponsive status of the Buhari Presidency’s economic management policy is not enough set back, its political management capacity has recently come under severe criticism for exacerbating the diversity challenges of the country. What was initially regarded as inadvertent favouritism is now slammed as bare-faced nepotism by a cross section of Nigerians outraged by recurring appointment of northerners into top positions in the federal government.
My concern actually is how northern politics which barely a year ago was riding high on the crescendo of nation-wide support triggered and sustained by the Buhari presidential ticket has dramatically plummeted to such depths of disapproval particularly in the rest of Nigeria. As a northerner one must always identify with the best interests of the region in upholding its rightful place as a major stakeholder in the Nigerian project and this responsibility should be borne with nationalistic fervour. 
The return of Buhari as a “civilian” President seemed to symbolize the final conquest of the northern politicians by their most vehement military opponent complete with the “mammoth” backing of the talakawa. But barely two years after coming to power, there is sufficient evidence of an appalling lack of the legendary northern talent for political dexterity and strategic electioneering in the leadership rating of President Buhari to debunk any basis for according him recognition as an example of the northern political heritage. The reality is that President Buhari draws more from his career and reputation as an authoritarian military ruler than from the rich repertoire of people-oriented nationalistic politicians in whose midst he spent thirty years of post-retirement incubation before supposedly returning as a reformed democrat.
If truth be told, this predictable outcome of General Buhari as a president of northern extraction has significantly jeopardized the acclaimed political prowess of the northern political class as a potent contender for the Presidency in future. A major collateral damage in the unfolding political misadventure is no doubt the formidable broad-based coalition of “change” political constituencies assiduously assembled around the Buhari presidential bid and rather exuberantly tagged All Progressives Congress. Confirming the oft-expressed pessimistic postulations of pundits, the APC has indeed remarkably regressed rapidly as a consequence of the centrifugal impact of President Buhari’s post-election body language.
To the discerning analyst of this political tragedy, the most intriguing dimension looms from the seemingly remote political, nay presidential, potentialities of none other than Right Honourable Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, currently confined to the far-flung frontiers of Sokoto State governorship. One is bound to lament how the mighty have fallen in recalling the meteoric ascendance of this unassuming but outstanding example of the legendary political prowess of the northern political class in harnessing national leverage for capturing apex leadership.
Rising into singular significance from the maddening crowd of PDP power-flexing cabals to the “unauthorized” but unassailable speakership of the House of Representatives in 2011, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal marshalled the optimum support and loyalty of an overwhelming all-party majority of his compatriots throughout his four year tenure with a calm and calculating effectiveness that remains a reference icon in Nigeria’s political history. Simultaneously, he serially evaded and avoided all “banana peels” and improvised booby traps contrived and unleashed by the shocked and awed PDP mandarins ostensibly to cut him down with “party supremacy” and presidential power till he confidently completed his tenure and dumped the party as the undisputed reigning political new generation flag-bearer poised for the 2015 elections. It was so obvious that Aminu Waziri Tambuwal had earned all the personal and political credentials rarely acquired to seek and secure resounding nation-wide endorsement as the President Nigeria deserves and Nigerians earnestly yearn for when on November 10, 2014 he bought the APC presidential nomination forms. Or so it seemed…
Then, what could only be termed the jinx of Arewa politics reared its hideous head to scuttle the region’s best foot forward in the quest for nationally-acceptable presidential candidate! Just as soon as Tambuwal’s star rose into the limitless sky of national political attainment a conflicting contest broke out from the same Arewa that was on the verge of vindication and voiding of decades of political vilification. As with a destined debacle, the promising potential of a perfect prelude to the unveiling of the northern face of a new generation of Nigerian leadership class imbued with a tried and tested capacity for democratic dexterity and national identity, was unceremoniously and clandestinely quashed.
So, today as the nation groans and its citizens grumble in the face of tormenting trials and tribulations not unconnected to the travails of the Buhari Presidency, especially the rapid depletion of the national consensus, sense of belonging, unity in diversity and above all sagacious statesmanship, the legend of northern political leadership predisposition seems doomed to an inglorious epilogue. Whatever caused the regrettable reversal of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal’s rightful aspiration to the Presidency of Nigeria is entirely a monumental misrepresentation of the best political interest of the North as well as denying Nigeria Tambuwal’s impeccable track record of national democratic leadership capacity.
Gambo wrote this piece from Kano