Oshiomhole Distances Tinubu From President Buhari’s Government

By Uche Mbah

A former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has distanced the Party’s Presidential candidate in the oncoming 2023  election,  Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, from the APC Government of President Muhammadu Buhari.

It is not quite clear why Oshiomhole, a former Governor of Edo State, did so,  but speculation is that he did that because of the anger in the land against the Buhari Federal Government over the deteriorating state of Nigeria. Unprecedented insecurity. A collapsing economy. Hunger. The free fall of the Naira. Inflation. Unemployment. The strike by the Association of University Lecturers which has kept students at home, on a forced holiday, for about five months and counting.

Speaking on ARISE Television’s flagship program, The Morning Show, on Wednesday, August 3, 2022, Oshiomhole, a Tinubu ally, said Tinubu, who, since the APC, appropriated the title of the “National Leader of the APC”, is not part of the Buhari Government.

According to Oshiomhole, Tinubu never participated in governance under APC.

His words: “It is the fact that Asiwaju by himself said, yes, he co-founded APC. I was a co-founder Governor of APC, along with Fashola and other Governors.

“But he never participated in governance. Never held any position in Government. He didn’t carry out any contract on behalf of Government.”

For the records, Buhari, in a Palace coup, sacked Oshiomhole as the National Chairman of the APC, to the discomfort of Tinubu.

It is generally believed that Tinubu helped Buhari to become President in 2015 after Buhari failed three consecutive times to win. It was the coalition they formed that did the magic after Tinubu convinced a reluctant Buhari, who had said, in tears, on national television that he would never contest again, to do so.

The fourth attempt worked.

For the first time in the history of Nigeria, an opposition Party dislodged a ruling Party.

Buhari defeated the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to become President. He is serving his second term, and would leave office on May 29, 2023.