Lessons from Obasanjo The rejection of Bola Tinubu today in the South-West also lies in the very betrayal of his earlier success. Tinubu championed South-West resistance to Obasanjo’s determination to sacrifice Yoruba interests on the altar of a contrived alliance with the North. While that alliance clearly served Obasanjo’s interests, independent-minded South-West voters saw nothing in it for them. Foolishly, Tinubu is now presenting himself as yet another architect of the same rejected alliance with the Northern caliphate, for the sake of his own personal political ambitions. Following the crisis that ensued after the annulment of M.K.O. Abiola’s victory in the 1993 presidential election, there emerged a general consensus that the 1999 election should be zoned to South-West Yorubas in the interest of national reconciliation. However, Northerners decided they would determine who the Yoruba candidate should be. Obasanjo was fished out of prison and anointed as PDP presidential candidate. This Yoruba choice by Northerners was rejected by the Yorubas. Although Obasanjo went ahead to win the election nationwide, he lost woefully in the South-West. Thereafter, he was derided as a president without coattails in his own backyard. Obasanjo’s response as president was to make a play for PDP victory in the South-West in 2003 by hook or crook. Every trick in the book was employed to bring South-West states under PDP control. Failure of success The PDP rigged the 2003 elections masterfully and wrested back power from every ACN-controlled South-West state except Lagos. Even in Lagos, the INEC went ahead to proclaim a fictitious PDP victory on its website, before this was belatedly withdrawn with ignominy. The brilliant South-West answer to this PDP treachery was Bola Tinubu. Tinubu drew a line in the sand, held on to Lagos, and struck back from this stronghold to win back all the lost South-West states in 2007. He won because the people of the South-West refused to mortgage their future to the political interests of Obasanjo and his allies in the North. It is therefore surprising that, with the arrogance of power, Tinubu is now following the same failed footsteps of Obasanjo. Instead of learning from Obasanjo’s blunder, Tinubu too has now decided to unite his ethnic ACN party with the Northern caliphate. With the contempt for the people that has come with years of monarchical control over the ACN, Tinubu presumes South-West people will follow him sheepishly into this alliance with the North, just because his burning ambition to become the vice-president of Nigeria now demands it. But what this has achieved is to show that Tinubu’s ambitions are anathema to South-West interests. Anybody who thinks Tinubu’s APC will succeed in the South-West does not understand South-West politics. The Yorubas are too proud and fiercely independent to agree to play second-fiddle to anyone because of a man called Tinubu. S.L. Akintola tried the same gambit in the 1960s, and the South-West rejected him. The same rejection has befallen Bola Tinubu. Lagosians are disgusted that Tinubu has privatised their politics. His wife, daughter and even son-in-law have been steam-rolled into vantage political positions. The state’s finances are tied to Alpha Beta. Tinubu has even gone ahead to anoint Akinwunmi Ambode as the next governor of the state without the benefit of any election. This is asking for trouble. If Tinubu is not careful, a big implosion is likely in APC Lagos State over the issue of the choice of the next governor. Every which way in the South-West, the message is crystal clear: “Tinubu’s imperious dynasty is over: long live the sovereignty of the people.” -Femi Aribisala
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 15:02:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015