From the Olubadan Ladoja penultimate Friday’s coronation , there were, as bound to be, viral Bola Tinubu moments.
One, was the brief socializing with the free-spirit Osun governor, Jackson Adeleke. The president, as seen in the video was bantering with the PDP governor, blocked by Osun APC from joining the President in the ruling party in the spirit of the southern coalition being coupled by the Nigerian leader, to smoothen his reelection. In what was obviously a friendly poke, the President while shooting for a handshake, quipped “ijo nko o” (how is dancing), an unveiled reference to the governor’s penchant for regular display of his dancing dexterity, despite his size, which makes his usual energetic “moonwalk” a rich spectacle. Not one to let such affability go to waste, he, while bowing to take the President’s offered handshake, replied with unmissable flourish; “ijo wa daada sir” (dancing is great sir). That brief exchange should reinforce to Osun APC stalwarts that their leader in Abuja has a soft spot for the one they don’t want in Osun. May God help the state opposition if Jackson moonwalks over them to re-election next year. That would be the political end of many current leaders of Osun APC. To stand a chance of proving to their Abuja leader whose body language has shown that he would prefer the incumbent Osun governor as a member of the Progressive Governors (like Delta, Akwa-Ibom and likely Rivers), Osun APC leaders must get the nomination right by going for the aspirant with consolidated voting base like the incumbent. Until Borno State caught up with Osun days back, as the highest-netting in fishing new voters, Adeleke’s Osun West was topping nationally, an undeniable proof of his get-out-the-vote groundwork.
It shows a man who is ready.
Kano, another huge-voting state is mirroring Osun, though its political climate isn’t yet as crystal. President Tinubu no doubt, covets the vote-sweeping influence of former governor and NNPP lord, Rabiu Kwankwaso who was also at the Ibadan event and whose attempt at drawing the attention of the Nigerian leader also created another Tinubu moment. A viral video showed the President security team initially bouncing him off the periphery of the President’s perimeter as he (Tinubu) arrived the Mapo Hall venue but before he could be roughened up, the President signalled he should be allowed access to him.
By any measure and every standard, Kwankwaso is a heavy-hitter in Nigerian political firmament and holds joint-record with Ayodele Fayose and Kayode Fayemi, both of Ekiti State, of non-consecutive gubernatorial second term. He is also the 2023 presidential candidate with the largest votes from a state; his Kano State, creaming almost a million votes at a go. He had been minister of defence and currently governs Kano, the largest voting state of 2023 poll, through his son in-law, incumbent Governor Abba Yusuf. So there is no way the Kano strongman is unknown to the President security team and in many public fora, Tinubu, before and when he came into office, had acknowledged Kwankwaso a friend. So what went wrong? It is in public domain that Kwankwaso is open to a return to APC, potentially to help re-elect his friend and possibly position himself for an enhanced 2031 run when power is expected to return to the North. President also wanted him. But there is Abdullahi Ganduje alongside other Kano APC big men in the middle, like Osun APC leaders, reportedly standing against having their former leader and his hand-held governor back in the fold, where Governor Yusuf will become the de jure leader, and his father in-law; Kwankwaso, the de facto leader.
Unlike Osun where the President reportedly agreed that Adeleke and APC leaders should first test might in next year gubernatorial poll to know who should lead his coalition in the state ahead of 2027, Tinubu, according to his orbit had done a lot to assure Kwankwaso of his commitment to their partnership if he returns to the APC fold for him, including having to painfully pinch Ganduje. But the Kwankwasiyya leader has been allegedly irresolute, constantly shifting his conditions to meet before decamping. Weeks back he went public in the media space with his desire and conditions, with the President reportedly souring on him and deciding to look elsewhere for solutions to his Kano deficits, notably the 2023 gap of 419,938 votes between him in second place and Rabiu in the lead.
When security begin to bounce someone who used to have access to their principal, words must have definitely gone around and about. The Ibadan scenario looks like using the right hand to pull a naughty child’s ear and using the left to rub the back of his head. Did RMK get the message?
Then there was the BAO snub at the Ibadan airport where attending governors formed a beeline to welcome the Nigerian leader. Pray, why is the President resorting to public snub and its attendant opprobrium to manifest his discontent towards his allegedly errant party governors, especially those of Yoruba extraction?. First it was the Lagos man, Babajide Sanwoolu who the President refused to acknowledge and greet during the controversial commissioning of a portion of Lagos-Calabar highway on May 30 this year. The President is from Lagos and was governor of the state like Sanwoolu between 1999 and 2007. By standing up to then-President Olusegun Obasanjo of then-ruling PDP, he gave the governor’s seat character, elan and respect. Though they later made whatever was between them up eight days after through the intervention of the nebulous GAC, the incumbent had been served as they say. It’s doubtful if a swashbuckling Governor Tinubu of his time and term in Lagos would have peacefully resolved such public shaming with any president whether of his party or from the opposition.
BAO, arrayed from his names, is the political sobriquet of the 57-year-old Ekiti governor, Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji. Married to a professor, the governor has been practically what anyone aspiring at Ekiti level could be, including serving as the secretary of the Falegan committee that made the creation of the state possible. It is just fitting that he leads the state he helped create. He should also be allowed to lead as he deems right and if found wanting, his reelection fate should be left for Ekiti electorate to determine. Period.
Before the Ibadan debacle, I had heard from power corridors in Abuja things weren’t well between the Governor and the President who is also the national leader of their party. While BAO has been variously judged average and even below average in governance delivery, his problem with Abuja was said to be mainly political and just like the Sanwoolu situation, the President gave a public confirmation to the behind-the-curtain muttering that Oyebanji is no longer a “son” in whom he is well pleased. At the airport reception, the President walked past him as if he didn’t exist despite his three-piece white agbada ensemble, standing at the head of the line of other governors and dignitaries. The security just moved in-between them as the President looked away and straight, unlike the Kwankwaso case later when the Nigerian leader rescued the Kano fellow from his security who appeared to be following strict orders.
Oyebanji’s alleged sins are mainly political and the constitution covers freedom of association. If President Tinubu as APC national leader thinks Oyebanji is derailing from the vision of the party, there are better ways of reining him in or keeping him out permanently without resorting to embarrassing his person, for fleeting political power. Yes I know people can bone (naija street lingo for snub) offending beloved, as a way of expressing disavowal so they come bearing repentance and desiring forgiveness but even for Trump the ruffler, there are acts that won’t be presidential. Add to the fact the President is a Yoruba elder who shouldn’t be handling the proverbial festival like a teen (agba ki nse oro bi ewe).
Like President Tinubu, the two governors, publicly humiliated over if I heard right, alleged acts that he himself would endorse as survival politics in his days in the thick, wild forest of politics, are Yoruba. While he is definitely older than both, respect should be reciprocal. And I ask, is it only South West APC governors that are overreaching in the President’s estimation? Will the President treat Northern APC governors this way regardless of political sin? Did ordinary palace guards of a Northern emir not break down doors in utter disregard for established protocol to let their lord into an event where the President was already seated? Whoever sells his own short will pay heavily for outsiders.
If the public smackdowns are the President’s way of settling scores especially with governors who he would not be able to monitor directly on election day, then he risks a situation Yoruba will describe as bottling the crimson inside while spitting out bright saliva. It is dangerous when people play along. If you see my hand you can’t see my mind situation. Whenever I see Governor Sim smiling the President into superlatives. a Yoruba adage is always jumping at me; “onikun lo mero”. Won’t interpret.
When you need to make others feel small for you to feel big, it is the highest manifestation of inner weakness. Dishing to others what you can’t take is against divine rule of do unto others as you want others do to you. Why publicly disgracing someone who has come to honour you?
The latest presidential humiliation is two too many. If the President is this way in the public, how toxic can things get with him in private when displeased, considering how he has been making grown men feel very small in full glare because he wanted everybody on board his re-election plans. The tortoise in-laws, even when rightly wronged, will always carry the shame of doing too much to shame their offending son-in-law. Haba! Kilode!
End.
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