Tinubu’s Camp Polarised Over Chief of Staff Position

Barely two months to his inauguration as President and Commander-in-Chief, the camp of Bola Ahmed Tinubu is divided over who to appoint as chief of staff.

Tinubu, a former Lagos governor is expected to succeed incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari on May 29 who will step down from the position as demanded by the Constitution.

While preparing to take over as the country’s next leader, there is an issue currently causing problem in the camp of the president elect: the appointment of his Chief of Staff.

Innitial suggestion had it that Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speaker of the House of Representatives has been penned down for the top job.

The calculation is that Gbajabiamila, who is expected to vacate his position in the 10th National Assembly, due to the All Progressives Congress, APC, zoning arrangement will land the job easily, particularly as he’s preferred by top guns in Tinubu’s camp.

But the tide seems to have turned now against Gbajabiamila because some politicians in the party, essentially from the south west have indicated interest to be Tinubu’s chief of staff.

The magazine also learnt that politicians from other parts of the country have also been lobbying those that matter in APC to favour them with the job.

The thinking of those outside the south west is that since Tinubu Is from the zone, he’s not expected to pick his chief of staff from the same place he came from.

The contest for the position has now reached a boiling point sources in the party informed the magazine on Wednesday, they warn that if the matter is not well handled it has the potential to destabilise the ruling party ahead the inauguration of a new govrnment.

An Indication that the contest for the office is causing tension among top APC leaders, emerged after a group, Renewed Hope Advocates, RHA, a pro- Tinubu group disclosed on Tuesday that, it would not support Gbajabiamila for the position.

Among other reasons, the group accused the Speaker of being corrupt, a situation it said ruled him out for the position.

Oluemi-Daniels Agbaoku, the Director General of the group said in a statement on Tuesday that, Tinubu has not even made up his mind on who to appoint into the position, adding that suggestions that he preformed Gbajabiamila for the job emanated from the Speaker’s camp.

It said appointment of Gbajabiamila as chief of staff is likely to distract Tinubu who needs total concentration to tackle the myriads of problem facing the country, it urged the president-elect to ignore the pressure from some members of the party to appoint Gbajabiamila.

The statement reads :“We have it on good authority that the president-elect has yet to make any such commitment, but Gbajabiamila and his allies are the ones selling the narrative to intimidate other alternatives, who might be better than him. It is so bad that he is said to have been dispensing unbelievable favours to people around the president-elect just to emerge the chief of staff.

“A man, who lacks rudimentary credibility and has begun to exhibit corrupt tendencies cannot be entrusted with such office as the chief of staff to the president. Tinubu, regardless of misgivings, worked hard for his victory and is believed by a majority of us that he would do well as president. He is actually the change that Nigeria has been itching for and he has to do everything to live this collective dream, starting with personal examples at all times.

“Although the appointment is personal, he has a responsibility to discourage the impression that Gbajabiamila is creating now amongst the people, especially the assumption that he is going to get it because he has money and has been doling out favours to everyone, including the president-elect himself. That would be starting on a wrong footing.

“While we hate to talk about his alleged misdemeanor in the United States, he has also not come out for once to discuss it, assuming it would blow away. That is one issue that speaks to gross credibility question and assuming it amounts to nothing is setting off the Tinubu presidency on a wrong premise.

“We believe the president-elect knows better and would do just what is right at the appropriate time, even though we also believe he should have since named his chief of staff, among such other related appointments to give a clear indication he would hit the ground running. But if hurriedly appointing Gbajabiamila is the option before him now, he can as well wait till he can do better.”

Apart from the position of chief of staff now causing furore in the party, there are other pressing problems to be dealt with ahead the inauguration, close watchers of the path said.

For instance, an infighting is believed to be going on in the party on where to zone the Positions of the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives.

While the party has recently announced that it has yet to zone the positions to any part of the country, it was learnt that some lawmekers have vowed to rock the boat with the leadership if the zoning arrangement did not favour them.

The party may be heading for a repeat of the 2015 crisis when some members of the party decided to oppose the party’s position on who becomes the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, analysts said.