*Clerics empanelled for APC national leader’s emergence as candidate
•Blackmails, crisis in ruling party may sabotage bid to return power to South
Lagos West Senator, Olamilekan Solomon Adeola has engaged prayer warriors for the 2023 Tinubu Project amidst increasing ‘blackmail’ over the zone will that will produce the next Nigerian leader. The plan to return power to the South may also be sabotaged by the unending crisis in the ruling All Progressives Congress, writes Akani Alaka.
Popularly known as Yayi, Senator Olamilekan Solomon Adeola is especially renowned for his perpetual bid of trying to actualise whatever political ambition he had at any of the electoral period across two states – Lagos and Ogun.
While he is presently representing Lagos West, one of the biggest senatorial districts in the country in the upper chamber of the National Assembly, the Senator had in 2019 also attempted to contest the governorship of Ogun State before political reality forced him back to seek re-election into the Red Chamber. It is not yet known if he will return to Ogun to try to actualise his governorship ambition in the next general election scheduled for 2023.
But if what he told a group of Muslim clerics at his home in Lagos during the last Yuletide is to be believed, the Senator may already have his hands full with a project to ensure that the presidency is not only zoned to the South-west in 2023, but that the National Leader of All Progressives Congress, APC, emerges the candidate.
Prayers For Tinubu 2023 Project
In the video of the meeting held on 26 December recently seen by The Nigerian Xpress, Adeola, who is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance had recruited the clerics into the project by asking them to continue in prayers to ensure that the goal of ensuring that the former Lagos State Governor emerges the APC presidential candidate in 2023 without much struggle.
The Senator, who spoke in Yoruba acknowledged that there is an element of divine intervention in human activities and without divine help, striving for any position may end up in vain. “It is only God that can put a person in a position, no matter what you do. If God doesn’t want you to be in a position, whatever you may have done will be in vain.
“That’s why I am begging you that you continue in prayers that God who created the heaven and earth, who created all of us should give the position of the president of this country to our father, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” the Senator told the cheering clerics and others present at the end of the year celebration for members of his senatorial district.
“We don’t want him to struggle for it,” he added, while noting that the former Lagos Governor contributed greatly to his emergence as well as in ensuring the emergence of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government. “Without grace of God and through his (Tinubu) efforts you will not know somebody who is Yayi today.
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“If not for God and this man, even our president will not be there today. Without him, all the governors that have come to power in Lagos and the South-west will not be there. Though he left office in 2007, he has been serving all of us since that date,” he said.
“Help us beg God not to look at his shortcomings, but all the good things he has done to give him the position of Nigeria’s presidency in 2023,” Yayi told the clerics, promising that he is ready to fund the continuous stream of prayers to ensure the realization of the project.
“I don’t want it to be a one-off prayer, every time you are praying; I will be sending something to you to ensure that the prayers continue. Because prayer is something that can overcome all things, I want you to continue to pray for him because that it is the next project before us.”
Quid Pro Quo
Further justifying why the Presidency should come to the South-west in 2023, the Lagos West Senator noted that the Yoruba people “are serving these people in all ways and they have done their own eight years. Our prayer is that the next eight years should come to the South-west and they should give it to our father. I want you to take it as a prayer.
He also told the clerics that having Tinubu as the next Nigeria President will bring more people from the South-west into the ‘power loop’ of the presidential villa in addition to other benefits. “Because if he gets there, through me, you will also benefit, he is the one who put me here, and you are already benefiting from me.
“What if he becomes the President of our country? I don’t go to the villa except they asked me to go. If you go to the (presidential) villa now, most of the ‘people’ there are there because their ‘person’ is there. But if he (Tinubu) gets there, we will also be more there because the person there is ours, so I want you to continue to pray that God will give the Presidency to our father in 2023,” he told the clerics.
Too Early
However, Tinubu had after a visit to President Buhari at the presidential villa on 7th January about two weeks after the serious canvass for prayers by Adeola told journalists that it is too early to talk about which section of the country would get the party’s presidential slot in 2023.
He made the visit 48 hours after the Serving Overseer, Citadel Global Community Church, formerly the Latter Rain Assembly, Tunde Bakare, asked President Buhari to initiate a process that would led to the emergence of his successor.
“That time (zoning of Presidency) is not now. We have just finished one election and Mr President is busy sorting out the (2020) budget, working for the people of this country. Of course, the restlessness of politics is going to be there, but any lover of this country will not talk about the succession plan yet. That’s the truth. Concentrate on working for the country; help the President to help the country.
There is nothing more than that,” the National Leader of APC told journalists. But he never ruled himself out of the 2023 contest during the interview and as The Nigerian Xpress gathered, his loyalists, like Adeola have continued the underground work for his 2023 presidency.
Threats/ Blackmail, Strong Opposition
However, the presidential bid is going on amidst threats, subtle blackmail from regional and interest groups, the crisis within APC, a resurgent opposition in Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and controversies over zoning.
The recent threat by the Miyetti Allah Kaute Hore to the South-west governors over the “Amotekun”, security initiative, analysts told this newspaper is one of such threats, directed not only at Tinubu, but also at the Southern Nigeria in general.
“This Amotekun scheme is political and is not the solution to the problem of insecurity. It is best they give up on this idea because it may affect the chances of the South-west to produce the president in 2023. The thinking is that if the South-west, a major stakeholder in this government, can be toying with this idea now, they may do worse when they get to power,” Alhassan Saleh, national secretary of the group said in an interview.
A South-west group, the Oodua Youth Coalition promptly responded to the group, describing the declaration of the Miyetti Allah that the South-west might lose the 2023 presidency because of ‘Amotekun’ as worrisome.
But the fact is, even in the South-west, political opponents of Tinubu had also in similar blackmail interpreted his delay in declaring support for the security initiative as part of efforts not to annoy the Northern Nigeria.
While endorsing Tinubu for the 2023 presidency, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir Lawal also said the Amotekun initiative may be a problem. There are speculations that Babachir, who some months ago said it doesn’t matter if the presidential ticket of APC is zoned to the North in 2023 may have changed his mind because of the possibility of his being picked as deputy to Tinubu. Tinubu is a Muslim, the former SGF is a Christian.
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Babachir said his endorsement of Tinubu is based on his personal qualities and competencies and not on the basis of power rotation between the North and South. “I am advocating that the best man should take over from Buhari. And for now, that best man is Bola Ahmed Tinubu who is from the South-west by coincidence.”
He added that, “My own personal view about Amotekun is that either there is more than meets the eye or the six governors have not managed the issue very well. What baffles me is Rotimi Akeredolu, who is the governor of Ondo State and Chairman, Southwest Governors Forum. He’s Senior Advocate of Nigeria and he could not advise his colleagues on how to go about it. That is why I say there is something in it more than we see.”
In the same vein, the recent assertion by the Northern Elders’ Forum, NEF, to only support candidates willing to resolve the challenges facing the region was believed to be part of the hints that Tinubu or indeed any Southern candidate may not get the support of the Northern group in 2023.
“The forum has observed that political maneuvers around the 2023 elections are targeting the North as a region available for exploitation. We want to make it clear that people of the North will be very careful in committing to persons seeking their support on the basis of their region or wealth.
“The North knows its interest and will stand together to elect only persons who meet the standards and interests of the people of the North. No politicians should assume they are entitled to our support unless they show a clear understanding and a commitment to deal with our problems and meet our aspirations,” Professor Ango Abdullahi, the Chairman of NEF said in a statement read to journalists in Kaduna.
He had also at that forum made allusions to the ban on operation of commercial motorcyclists in Lagos which, according to him, affected mostly, Northerners living in Lagos.
“With due respect to the rights of the Lagos State Government to make decisions that improve the environment and public safety, we are constrained to draw attention to the impact of its policy on banning Okada and Keke in parts of the State on the poor and operators, many of them from the North, who earn honest living through this trade.
“We urge restraint in the responses of those who are immediately affected by this policy, while we urge Northern State governments to mobilize and support the people who will be compelled to relocate back to the North with other sources of legitimate living, “ Abdullahi said.
Analysts said the reference to the fact that the ban on ‘Okada’ in Lagos is part of the blackmail aimed at turning majority of the common people in the North against the APC.
“It’s part of the subtle blackmail that will continue because the North believes that with their huge population, it holds the aces in determination of who become Nigeria’s president. Many states in North have also banned or restricted operation of commercial motorcyclists.
“We did not hear the elders talking of the negative effects of such action on the people. This is moreso, in the case of Buhari and APC. Analysis of the voting pattern in the two presidential elections won by Buhari and APC so far will reveal that the North contributed most of the votes,” Gabriel Adeoye, an activist told The Nigerian Xpress.
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He, however, noted that most members of NEF, including Abdullahi had indicated that they are not in favour of zoning of the presidency to the South in 2023. He also noted that most members of the group supported the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the 2019 presidential election and may likely do so in 2023 if the former vice president is on the ballot.
Crises/ Multiple Interests
Aside the interest groups that may not be able to command much electoral support in spite of their claims to the contrary, analysts said the crisis rocking APC, is a greater threat to the ambition of Tinubu or indeed, the campaign for the return of the presidency to Southern Nigeria in 2023. Kayode Fayemi, governor of Ekiti state had recently warned that the party might collapse at the end of President Buhari’s tenure.
The governor spoke in reaction to speculations that some APC governors were plotting to remove Adams Oshiomhole as the chairman of the party following his rift with the governor of his home state, Godwin Obaseki.
The unending war between Obaseki and Oshiomhole had in November led to the APC faction loyal to Obaseki, suspending Oshiomhole after a no-confidence vote was passed on him. A faction loyal to the APC chairman had also suspended Obaseki and members of his faction of his APC.
The raging crisis had assumed a violent dimension with recent bombing of the homes of some party chiefs in Edo State. Rivers, Zamfara chapters of the party have also not been able to shake off the crises which stopped their participation in the 2019 election among others. Last week’s loss of Bayelsa governorship is another setback for the party.
“If we are not careful; if we do not institutionalise processes and procedures in the party and make it more inclusive than it is, we will not have a party when President Muhammadu Buhari leaves government. This is because he is the unifying force of our party,” Fayemi said.
“The governors want the party structures to function effectively and more regularly. Adams will also say that some of us have been at the forefront of pushing for even policy convention on an annual basis,” he added. But some members of the party, notably, campaigners for Tinubu 2023 presidency had disagreed with the Ekiti Governor.
“He is saying this because he wants to run for President. I think people should ignore any soothsayer predicting doom in the party. Those politicians who are seeing vision through their stomachs and selfish interest,” Coordinator of Tinubu 2023 Not Negotiable (TNN), Kunle Okunola said.
“One thing that is certain is that even if per chance the APC collapses, the progressive family as symbolized by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu will remain intact and will continue to enjoy the confidence of the people through landmark achievements at the various levels of political opportunities,” the Publicity Secretary of APC in Lagos, Hon. Seye Oladejo said.
But a weakened APC may not help Tinubu or indeed, Southern Nigeria in realizing the goal of return of the presidency to the South or indeed, the South-west in 2023. The South-east wing of APC is also making a demand for the APC presidential ticket on the basis of justice, being the only zone that has not produced a president at least, since Nigeria’s return to the presidency in 2019.
Also, analysts believe that a weakened APC without the presence of Buhari may not be able to confront the PDP which, going by ongoing calculations, may still present a Northerner as its candidate in 2023. Buhari had indicated that he will not anoint any successor and had indeed warned contenders for the APC presidential ticket not to use his name to further their ambition.
Analysts are speculating that the President may back his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo as his successor. The speculations that some Northerners are also warming up to join the presidential election may further sound the death knell for APC ahead of the presidential election.
The party may further be weakened by the ambitions of governors even from the South-west, including Fayemi speculated to be getting backing of some key interests in the presidency to contest the ticket against Tinubu.