Tinubu: Adamu, Aregbesola, Go Back To Their Vomit

By Gideon Njoku

Victory, success, has many friends, it is often said. In the case of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, two-time Governor of Lagos State, chieftain of the All Progressive Congress, APC, and now, the duly elected candidate of the Party in the 2023 Presidential Election, nothing can be more true than that saying.

In the aftermath of his landslide victory at the Presidential Primary,  congratulatory messages have been going his way like claps of thunder. But none could have been sweeter than that of the Chairman of the APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu and the Minister for Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.

A couple of days to the Primary election which held on Tuesday, June 7, 2022 at the Eagle Square, Abuja, Adamu literally declared war on Tinubu. He was harsh on Tinubu. Adamu spoke about him, and of him, the way he shouldn’t have done. Finally, he embarrassed Tinubu, almost, by asking him, indirectly, to stand down from a race he had been preparing to run in the past seven years and counting.

It started on the day Tinubu embarked on that “ill-fated” visit to Abeokuta, Ogun State, to woo delegates.

In what was seen in some circles as a sign of desperation and frustration, Tinubu told the delegates that President Buhari wouldn’t have been President in 2015, but for him. He reminded them that the President had contested three times and failed. And had gone on National television, where he shed tears,  to say he would never contest again.

Tinubu said  he travelled, thereafter, to Buhari’s home and asked him to contest again in 2015, and that he would win. It worked. And Buhari won. Tinubu also said much the same thing of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and his host, the Governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun, who was present.

It is not like Tinubu lied or exaggerated. He was on spot. But many people felt he was arrogant and rude the way he put it.

Criticisms followed Tinubu’s utterances. From the Presidency. From his friend and loyalist former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Babachir Lawal, who described Tinubu’s claim as “bullshit.” And from Adamu.

And even though Tinubu, within 24 hours, explained two times, pledging his absolute loyalty to Buhari, emphasising that he would never denigrate the office of the President which he is aspiring to occupy, Adamu hit Tinubu hard.

Addressing Reporters in his office, Adamu said Tinubu disrespected the President. He said Tinubu would be sanctioned by the Party.

Within 48 hours, perhaps, it was part of the sanction, Adamu announced, without consultations with members of the National Working Committee of the Party, that the PDP had chosen the Senate President, Dr Ahmad Lawan, as the Party’s consensus candidate. He said he consulted the President.

It took a stiff resistance from Tinubu, NWC members and APC Northern Governors to abort Adamu’s coup which not a few people  said was targeted at Tinubu.

Now, on Tinubu’s victory, Adamu has turned 180 degrees. From threatening to sanction Tinubu, Adamu turned round to praise him.

In a congratulatory letter to Tinubu,  Adamu spoke of Tinubu’s sterling qualities. And he  described his victory as sterling. Adamu:

“I write on behalf of the entire membership of the All Progressives Congress on the sterling victory that you recorded at the just concluded Special National Convention to emerge as the Presidential candidate of our great party.

“I am pleased that the Party spoke with one voice when the delegates voted overwhelmingly to nominate you as our Presidential candidate.

“It is my sincere hope and prayer that our collaborative efforts between the Party’s National Secretariat and your Presidential team will proceed with the shared expectations of victory at the 2023 General election, by the grace of God.”

Aregbesola is the next person who went back to his vomit. A very close friend and ally of Tinubu, Aregbesola, surprisingly, publicly fell out with Tinubu because he was having problems with his successor  in office, Governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State.

Aregbesola, before he became Osun State Governor, thanks to Tinubu, was Tinubu’s Commissioner for Works when Tinubu was the Governor of Lagos State.

But Aregbesola descended on Tinubu, and said it was Tinubu who forced Oyetola on him as his Chief of Staff, and later as his successor in office as Governor. He placed a curse on Tinubu and called on God to punish him.

But in a statement he personally signed after Tinubu’s victory, Aregbesola hailed him as a dogged fighter.

Aregbesola: “You have demonstrated once again that you are a dogged fighter, and that in your quest for the establishment of a democratic society, you are willing to go the whole hug.”

That was the opposite of Aregbesola’s opinion of Tinubu a couple of months ago.