By Uche Mbah
The political terrain has become so turbulent in recent times that the Vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, has recently voiced out his intention to abandon the joint ship he has been navigating with President Buhari in 2019 and return to his Pastoral duties. Indications are that he has been instructed by his principal to start preparing for his exit, probably because of the current permutation of Muslim-Muslim ticket rumored to be on the drawing board, where Tinubu himself will be in the vice presidential candidate in 2019. It is said to be part of the reason for the Abiola honor. Abiola and Babagana Kingibe contested under a joint Muslim-Muslim ticket. President Buhari, it was gathered, sees Tinubu as holding the key to his second term in Office, and has been making frantic efforts to placate him after using and dumping him after the 2015 elections. Events following that election show that the presidency barely tolerated Tinubu, and took time to cut his wings in appointments. Attempts were made to build alternative power blocks in the South west through empowering Tinubu’s dissident acolytes by giving them ministerial appointments that will boost their political structure. For example, Babtunde Fashola has been given three portfolios-Power, works and housing. But sources indicate that they were not usually given their full budgetary allocations, thereby could not create the kind of structure that was required to fight a political octopus like Tinubu.
Thus when the heat came from the Social media and the triumvirate of Ibrahim Babangida, Oluseun Obasanjo and Theophilus Danjuma, he realized he has only one person to run to: The Don Corleone of APC. And he doubled backwards to accommodate him for the sake of 2019.
Part of the new deal is the promise of a joint ticket in 2019.
The sudden bid to placate the southwest is actually a bid to please Tinubu. Only recently, Tinubu has taken Kola Abiola to Buhari for a closed door meeting, in what analysts believe is a lobby for appointment.
But it appears that Tinubu has to do more, even though he has pledged full allegiance to Buhari. The Ekiti election appears to be a litmus test for his current loyalty, even though he said he will not rig any election for anyone. This is understandable because the APC candidate, John Fayemi, belong to the people that Buhari attempted to empower against him.
Finally the activities of the nPDP are becoming worrisome to the party. Currently, it was gathered, Muslims among them met in Mecca and are wooing 5 APC governors, 28 senators and 70 House of Representative members to jump ship. Their exit will signal intra party collapse-all due to back politicking by the presidency.
