By Olukayode Salako
When Asiwaju himself, was the anointed choice of the established ruling party elders, leaders and power brokers in Lagos State in 1999, even as a fresh and new entrant in the game, he became the governor against the aspirations of other aspirants, who felt they must also be the ones to be crowned the kings at all cost.
Against all odds, Bola Tinubu became the governor of Lagos State, and the rest is history.
Tinubu, Osinbajo- accusations of betrayal and the feeling of self-entitlement as state craft
When he too was leaving after his 8 years as the governor of the state, he openly anointed Mr. Babatunde Fashola, who was not a politician; not known and popular to Lagosians, and had no political structure at all for the contest in the state as his successor, against the ambitions of retinue of worthy aspirants, who also felt they deserved to be given fair chance to contest in a free and fair, as well as, credible primary election.
Since Mr. Fashola was who the established ruling system in the state wanted, who became the governor at the end of the day?
The same story of anointing for Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode and the current sitting governor of the state, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
This is the culture of how privileged Nigerians (aspirants) get to the positions of power or public offices any where in the country.
That is the way it runs in every state and at local government levels of politicking in the country.
Tinubu paying the price for betrayiing Afenifere
Those, who did not even aspire or show intrest in it at all, even get lucky with the selection culture in the Nigerian political system most times.
Tinubu
They would just sit down on their own, and they would be picked.
Let me now go to the politics of the federal level, Ex. Army General Olusegun Obasanjo became the president of the federal republic of Nigeria, simply because he was the choice of the established ruling system and the North in 1999.
The Yorubas, like many of us are agitating right now for Tinubu, preferred Olufalaye, but Obasanjo the anointed man of the system became the president.
Olusegun Obasanjo was in the prison; he had no premonition of it. He had no money and expansive political structure like that anywhere at the time, but everything was made ready and easy for him.
Eventually to the surprise of all, especially the Yorubas, who didn’t want him to represent their region, he became the president and ruled for 8 years.
However, when OBJ was done, and was about stepping down for another Nigerian to take over from where he stopped, he also openly chose and endorsed Umaru Yar’Adua, to succeed him.
Yar’Adua didn’t struggle for it. He didn’t have that very expansive political infrastructure and structure the way Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has built it, he was on his own like Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, when the then established ruling order system went to call him. And, eventually, he became the president against all odds also.
That was the same compatible story of how Goodluck Jonathan became the Vice President and eventually the President of the federal republic of Nigeria, when his boss Umaru Yar’Adua died.
This I heard was the same way President Muhammadu Buhari too was anointed and chosen for the job.
All of these Asiwaju Bola Tinubu knows, if his supporters (not one like me), who are now struggling for him to become the next president of Nigeria, would have to be behaving as if they do not know how it runs in the system.
If they do not know that of Nigeria, at least they know that of Lagos.
You don’t really have to struggle desperately for it. If you are the one destiny wants, the system would always reach out for you by itself, one way or another.
Bola Tinubu himself is a system man, and one of the power brokers to an extent in Nigeria.
He has been part of it, and he knows how they sit down in the dead of the night, when those of us, who are fighting because of them now, would have been fast asleep in the comforts of our bedrooms, to take those decisions for the country.
Asiwaju himself knows the story of how Prof. Yemi Osinbajo was chosen as the Vice President. So, if Asiwaju is the choice, he himself would have known. He wouldn’t need to be traveling the length and breadth of Nigeria, consulting effortfully as he is doing right now as the ‘National Leader’ of the ruling party of the country.
From the story I read, the Prof. Yemi Osinbajo was in Abuja for a supreme court case job, when he received the miracle phone call from Senator Ibikunle Amosun, the then sitting governor of Ogun State that he was the choice of the job of the Vice President in 2014.
Prof. Yemi never struggled for it. He never lobbied for it. He never campaigned for it. He was on his own, when destiny reached out for him.
That is the culture in most power game system in all societies across the world.
That is the way it is here as well.
Asiwaju knows how he himself influences the process of how kings and chiefs are picked for the crowns. He knows how he influences the choices of things in the political system in today’s Nigeria.
He has been part of it. He knows the nitty-gritty of how the game of power play runs in the country. He is one of the power brokers in the game.
Now, this is President Muhammadu Buhari’s time to leave for a successor to take over from him. The strong belief or resolution in some power game quarters at the federal level, as I heard it, is that he should also be given that honor of exercising the influence of how his own successor too would be picked for his party.
At the end of the day, it would now be left for Nigerians to decide whether they want that person or not with their votes on the day of the February 2023 election.
As far as I am aware of it, that choice might be Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, or somebody else in the permutation we all might not yet know.
Politics is a game of chess, you can only know the beginning, you might not know how and where it would end – It might also be Bola Tinubu at the end of the day.
However, my strong belief is that vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, would never, ever have come out to declare to take part in the contest on his own volition, or insistence, if President Muhammadu Buhari and some power brokers in the country are not behind it.
As I see him, he doesn’t have the nature of struggling for it, and I do not believe this time that he is the one struggling for it, on his own volition.
For the vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, with his nature, antecedent and way of taking things, to have come out to say he wants to run for the office of the President, even when he knows that his ‘Aswaju’ in the political fraternity, has also declared to contest, then he might have been the ‘anointed’ choice of the powers that be at the federal level and the agelong established ruling order system in the country, which former President Ibrahim Babangida, the suspected ‘spokesman’ of the group has already spoken to tell Nigerians that the vice- President Yemi Osinbajo is a very, very good and nice man for the job.
That appears to me like the endorsement zeal from their group.
And, when Babangida speaks like that about anyone, during election period as this, the North might be the one speaking.
As far as I know, when the North is behind it, that might be the next choice for Nigeria.
That is why I have always opined it, in my consistent submissions, that the North holds the aces, when it comes to the choice of who emerges, most times, to become the president of Nigeria.
To me, if it is Prof. Yemi Osinbajo this time, then that is when I would rather feel disappointed, that he would be betraying the South West by refusing not to accept the offer.
And, if at the end of the day, the choice is Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, a realistic Nigerian of Yoruba extraction like me, would be very, very glad to have an erudite and kind hearted political leader like him as my president.
But, as far as I am concerned, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo doesn’t have to betray Bola Tinubu in all of it, if he happens to be the anointed choice, because if he refused to accept it, the opportunity might go to somewhere else, and the entire Yorubas might also feel betrayed by the ruling party at the end of the day.
PYO doesn’t have to betray anyone, it is the culture of the system, which Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is eminently a part of.
SOUTH WEST FOR PRESIDENT!
– Olukayode Salako
Culled from the Facebook page of Akinwunmi King
