FEATURE ARTICLE

Olanrewaju AjiboyeSaturday, March 3, 2018
[email protected]
Canada

APC RECONCILIATION:
WHY TINUBU MUST APPLY THE WISDOM IN MATTHEW 10:16

n the course of the presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton it was, who said "When someone shows you who they are, believe them."

The target of the statement is POTUS 45, Donald Trump, who was then a rival candidate. Trump has not betrayed Hillary's statement since assuming the office of the president in the United States.

This quote by the erudite politician which Hillary is, speaks volume for every human being at all times when they are faced with such a reality.

It is on this note that Bola Tinubu, the APC stalwart, be advised to view the reconciliation assignment given him by President Muhammadu Buhari to fix the disconnects in the deeply troubled APC (All Progressives Congress), a ruling political party in Nigeria.

One would be doing a disservice, nay, an injustice to underestimate or rubbish the efforts of Bola Tinubu through the stages of baking the APC party into a cake with enticing aroma, to the stage of its defeating an incumbent government at the federal level, the first time in our chequered democratic history.

Were it to be the usual horse trading and money induced primaries, it would have been impossible for the then aspirant, Muhammadu Buhari, a retired Army General and veteran of presidential elections contests, to win the nomination of the party but some people made sure he carried the day, (he had contested the seat thrice and lost before the 2015 general elections).

With the leverage and influence he had on the party, Tinubu could selfishly have insisted on becoming the Vice President, a gamble which would either have ended as a loss or still a victory for the party.

There is no gainsaying that Bola Tinubu is gifted in the art of politics and governance. He's the "Messi" of the Nigerians politics, a valuable player for that matter.

The damage has been done to the cohesion of the party upon its coming to power and it is difficult to undo, simply because time is not on their side between now and the next elections.

At swearing-in, and with the turn of events, many people now believe that President Muhammadu Buhari coded his intent not to interface with Tinubu in the policy formulation and direction of the newly formed government; "I am for everybody and I am for nobody."

Being an association of different political philosophies brought together by the need to democratically dislodge the inept PDP administration, hardly had the APC won the election than perfidy and backsliding began.

A party with a majority in the Senate engendered an absurdity that made the erstwhile party in power the PDP, now in opposition, to cling the deputy senate president position in the intra senate election.

The shenanigans applied to undermine their star, Bola Tinubu led to wrong political decision in the Kogi governorship election debacle; it played out in Ondo state gubernatorial primary where the candidate Tinubu sympathized with lost to the candidate that had the sympathy of the party executive who eventually won the election. Again the APC rag wearers were dancing and drinking in the dead of the night to the euphoria of a 'demystified' Tinubu.

If Bola Tinubu had been carried along and embedded in the policy thrust to actualise the APC manifesto, and going by his antecedent as a governor of Lagos state between 1999 and 2007, the narrative would have been more positive than this 'the more you try to fathom, the more you are confused' system in place.

I keep alluding to Messi,the Barcelona team backbone, in order to amplify this discourse because like him or hate him, Messi is a game changer and an agenda setter for victory just as Bola Tinubu is to party politics and governance in Nigeria. Few are gifted, he is among them when it comes to the fulcrum of politics and governance. His exclusion did neither the party nor the government no good.

As the saying goes, alcohol purchased on credit intoxicates twice; firstly when it was purchased and secondly when the debt is to be paid. The reality of an upset or hiccup at election is dawning on the rag wearers, the palace courtiers and the deadly political serpents who jaundiced the political horizon of the president by creating a chasm between him and his hitherto resourceful asset,Bola Tinubu.

Outside of the constitution of both the party and the country, any other political deal whether written or verbal comes to nought unless the partner in advantage chose to be honorable.

What have they got to lose if they win a second and final time as the executive arm? Why would they not do more harm to hurt Tinubu's interests which sprouted mostly out of jealousy and unfounded fears in the first place?

Tinubu should remember that when the then Obasanjo's deputy, Atiku Abubakar, held the jugular of the former and refused to go for a kill, he ended up the prey.

The Tinubu's game should be the proverbial stalemate of the rat and the "s�ss�". Instead of the rat not to have the privilege to devour "s�ss�", it rather would splatter it.

Suffice to say that Asiwaju should be weary, he has once been beaten, rubbished, and used as a political cannon fodder. The line of wisdom in Nigeria politics therefore is that once you have been beaten you should be cautiously and severally shy and not twice. Those who are calling him are relentless; he also should not be listening deaf.

The APC has lost a lot of goodwill and no matter the popularity of the incumbent president from a section of the country, it may not be enough for it to win the presidential contest.

Bola Tinubu should now learn to tilt the hoe to his side as he cultivates the political soil. If the APC is made secured in the Southwest, they can form an alliance with another emergent and potent party to contest the presidency. He should apply the reverse psychology to beat the schemers at their game.

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