How Edo Shut Tinubu Out Of Ondo APC Governorship Final Rally |The Source

By Adesina Soyooye

Not a few people were surprised, on Wednesday, that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, APC National Leader, was conspicuously absent from the final Governorship rally of the Party in Akure, Ondo.

Absent, as well, was Adams Oshiomhole, who was recently sacked as the National Chairman of the party. But Oshiomhole’s absence pales before Tinubu’s.

There are reasons.

Tinubu answers the National APC Leader. The state at stake is a South-west state, a zone where he wields his greatest political influence.

For his alleged political aspiration in 2023, many allege, he needs Ondo state.

In deed. Ondo state Governor, and the candidate of the APC, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, made this point during the flag-off of his campaign, recently.

At that flag-off, Tinubu was the star. He overshadowed  everybody. The Governor gave him more attention than he did to anybody else.

He was the one who commissioned a project, and he was the one who, the Governor, accompanied by Traditional Rulers, went to pay a courtesy call to in Akure. It was during that courtesy call that Akeredolu said that the outcome of the Ondo election would decide how  serious the Yoruba is in their aspiration in 2023.

Many people were surprised at the role Tinubu played at that flag-off, considering that he was not in support of the Governor in 2016.

During Akeredolu’s first shot at the Governorship seat in 2012, Tinubu backed him against Dr Olusegun Mimiko, his former ally. But he lost to Mimiko.

In 2016, he ditched Akeredolu, and backed another candidate, Segun Abrams. But a combination, allegedly,  of APC stalwarts, including some who were his boys, were too stormy for Tinubu. They swept Akeredolu into office. Tinubu  lost.

In 2020, even though Abrams contested, Tinubu was more cautious. He said he had no favourite. He may have read the handwriting on the wall for, as soon as Akeredolu won, Abrams collapsed his structures with his, allegedly, on the orders of Tinubu.

So, why was Tinubu absent  during the most important occasion, an occasion where both President Muhammadu Buhari, and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, spoke to the mammoth party faithful from Abuja, and where a good number of APC Governors and Chieftains were present?

“Blame it on the Edo debacle”, a party chieftain, who pleaded anonymity, told the magazine. He said, “Given the backlash against the party after Tinubu’s  unsolicited and unnecessary  advisory to the Edo electorate, part of which caused the party the state, not many people wanted him in Ondo. He will be bad news. In Ondo he will not be a good poster boy. A victory in Edo would have accorded him a privileged position in Ondo. But after what happened, I think he spoke to himself, and calmed down.”

For Oshiomhole, he said: ” The mere sight of him will irritate many of us. It was his vindictiveness, and Tinubu’s inteferance that cost us Edo”.

In deed, in the days leading to the October 10  Ondo election, the APC  took a different approach. The non-presence of both Tinubu and Oshiomhole at the final rally is one. The mega final rally which was held on Wednesday is another. None was held in Benin. Neither the President nor the Vice President was involved, as such, unlike in Ondo where both men were not only involved, but the President told the electorate  to vote Akeredolu.

In Edo, that job was left for Tinubu and Oshiomhole. The party lost.