Ahead of the 2023 presidential elections, fingers are already pointing towards the fit, fierce and fortunate of the aspiring lot. This lot includes several notable individuals, some of which have already tried their hands at grasping the mantle, only to have it slip past greasy palms. Of all those being primed to star as lead protagonist in the show, none has experienced more traction than APC national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Since the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, President Muhammadu Buhari assumed power stakeholders and political analysts have been casting sidelong glances at Tinubu. It, apparently, seemed good to them to consider him the most practical follow-up to Buhari’s administration. Whether this deduction is in hope or in horror remains a buttoned-down mystery. As does Tinubu’s intentions, truth be told.
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has worked hard for the country and deserves to be the next President at the expiration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term. The most credible candidate for 2023 presidential election. The South having supported the north to get first and second term in the Presidency deserves to get the slot in 2023. A master strategist who has dominated the politics of Nigeria’s commercial capital for over two decades, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has long been expected to make a run for the country’s top job his formidable political network, propensity for deal-making and substantial personal wealth give him a head start over many other contenders.
On the 2023 presidential elections, Tinubu has been coy. After the latest ructions in the ruling All Progressives Congress, in which Tinubu and his allies seemed to lose out, he mocked those pundits who purported to know his political intentions.
“To those who have been actively bleating how the President’s actions and the NEC (National Executive Committee) meeting have ended my purported 2023 ambitions. Already you have assigned colourful epitaphs to the 2023 death of an alleged political ambition that is not yet even born.”
On 25 June, the ruling party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) had dissolved its National Working Committee (NWC) on which Tinubu and his allies had a clear majority and could choose the party chair. They lost that battle. Now the management is in the hands of a caretaker committee and state governors are battling to reassert their control over the party’s machinery.
The general view is that Tinubu will run in 2023 but he has not announced any such intentions. This secrecy may be a new strategy given that he is facing serious rivals in the party and the government. Tinubu has not held an official position in government since his second term as Lagos governor, which ended in 2007, but his influence national politics has grown.
Read Also: Will The Fulani Cabal Give Tinubu A Chance To Be President?
The big question is whether President Buhari wants to play a lead role in determining his successor like Obasanjo did in 2007. Nobody knows the answer of this for certain, but people around Buhari are trying to make sure they are on his good side, hoping that if he does decide to influence the choice and the primaries, he will be on their side.
Although the Nigerian political system is meant to work in a way that the presidency rotates between a southerner and northerner in power implying that Buhari the northerner should be succeeded by a southerner the question of whether the APC’s next candidate will be a northerner or southerner looks far from resolved.
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is one unique Nigerian personality with imposing features, strides and achievements. A politician, businessman and leader of thought, he has in the last 16 years risen to become the ‘El Generalissimo of Nigerian Politics’, the Jagaban. Tested and trusted, supportive, most influential politicians in Africa, in the 21st century.
One interesting thing about the ‘Asiwaju’, is the fact that there are varied perceptions about him, from being the new ‘Awo’, a bullish businessman, to a tactical politician, it is very clear that he has been relevant in the scheme of the 4th republic political landscape.
Tinubu cannot succeed with support only from the south-west, he needs northern votes as well. Will the eight million-strong voter block that Buhari tapped in to stay with the APC, regardless of the candidate, or will they go to a northern candidate, regardless of party? For example, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the north-east state of Adamawa is likely to contest again for the PDP and fight for those eight million northern votes.
The collaboration between Buhari and Tinubu in 2015 involved the latter being tasked with bringing in the south-west votes and providing a southern technocrat as the vice-presidential candidate. When the APC vote count from the south-west for Buhari slipped, it seemed that Tinubu had become less important for him.
It’s unclear how far Tinubu and Buhari trust each other. And whether Buhari would support Tinubu as an APC candidate for the next presidential election. Buhari always plays his cards close to his chest like a real politician that he is.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
