THE ROAD TO 2015 GENERAL ELECTION: HOW SARAKI, EL-RUFAI, AMAECHI AND THE NEW PDP GOVERNORS BACKED BY OBASANJO TRIMMED TINUBU TO SIZE…AS THE BATTLE FOR 2019 HEATS UP

How Buhari walked out on him - How he shed tears after the rejection - How Adeboye influenced the final choice BY Napoleon Azeez and Ramo Silvers   ASIWAJU Bola Ahmed Tinubu described not too long ago by President Muhammadu Buhari as one of the national leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has once more opened up on the intrigues, the lobbying, scheming and backstabbing that characterized the 2014 Convention of the party.   He has also gone a step further to lay bare the facts of how the trio of the current Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai and the Governors' Cabal, then led by the former Governor of Rivers State and now Transportation Minister, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi truncated his ambition of becoming the running mate to Muhammadu Buhari in the 2015 presidential election.   It is not the first time Tinubu would go public about what actually strained his relationship with Saraki and how he failed to become Nigeria’s number two citizen.   A year ago, Tinubu had hinted on this in Abuja during the presentation/launch of a book,  "Muhammadu Buhari: The Challenges of Leadership in Nigeria", authored by a Professor of International Studies, John Paden. The former governor of Lagos State had stated: "There was the issue of selecting Buhari's running mate. After a careful study and discussion, it was agreed that we should field a religiously balanced ticket given the sensitivity of the moment. Based upon this conclusion, the name of a renowned professor, Yemi Osinbajo, a professor of law and former Lagos State Attorney-General during my tenure as governor was proposed and accepted as the running-mate. Aside Saraki, Tinubu also blames the new PDP Governors that decamped to the APC for truncating his vice-presidential ambition.   His narration equally says that the names of Tunde Bakare and Rotimi Akeredolu were also pushed as possible VP contenders, but Osibanjo was picked.   And that when he called Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to inform him that he had been chosen to be President Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate to contest the 2015 presidential election, he (Osinbajo) was hesitant know the interest Tinubu had in the position; and only accepted the offer after he had consulted with Pastor Enoch Adeboye who gave his royal blessing to the offer.   Another school of thought has it that contrary to the widely held belief that Tinubu was interested in becoming the running mate of General Buhari, he never really thought he was going to emerge as the VP candidate of the APC.   Rather, the whole show put up by Tinubu was a stunt to get leaders of the party, particularly those from the South East and South South zones to accept the nomination of Osinbajo as Buhari’s running mate, that presenting Osinbajo would have failed if he (Tinubu) had not put up the front of wanting to become the VP candidate.   The choice of Osinbajo was agreed at a Sunday night/Monday morning meeting of APC chieftains from the South West attended by Tinubu himself and many others from the zone:  Bisi Akande, Kayode Fayemi, Babatunde Fashola, Ibikunle Amosun], Rauf Aregbesola and Abiola Ajimobi amongst others..   However, when Tinubu presented Osinbajo to the enlarged house of the party leaders in Abuja, he was out rightly rejected by leaders from the South South zone.   But Tinubu who had already sensed that Osinbajo was going to be rejected at the meeting came with a Plan B. It was at this point that he indicated interest that he was going to nominate himself for the VP, knowing fully well that his choice was going to be a hard nut to crack for the APC leaders.   As expected, the announcement of his interest infuriated many of the party leaders to the extent that Governor Rochas Okorocha and Atiku Abubakar, both of them presidential aspirants that were defeated by Buhari at the presidential primaries in Lagos walked out of the meeting.   The Monday night meeting spilled into the early hours of Tuesday and it discussed other candidates like Rotimi Amaechi, Adams Oshiomhole and Kayode Fayemi, but the party was left with only two choices - Tinubu or Osinbajo.   However, Tinubu’s recent comments on the issue are contained in a book titled ‘Against the Run of Play,’ written by the Chairman, Editorial Board of ThisDay, Olusegun Adeniyi.   He said their reason was that Christians in the North would not accept a Muslim-Muslim ticket, and also revealed that El-Rufai wanted Pastor Tunde Bakare as Buhari’s running mate.   In what appeared a background to the political game that marked the June 2015 National Assembly leadership elections, Mr. Tinubu was reported to have said Saraki and other former PDP leaders who defected to the APC disrupted the plans the party had made before the arrival of the so-called PDP bloc.   “What they (Saraki and others from the PDP) did behind my back was wrong. We always do things as a group. By the time they joined, we were already too far ahead in our processes but we accommodated them.   “We agreed to take their state structures and subsume them into the party and they all had their opportunity to nominate the candidates of their choices for different political offices.   “But they went behind to instigate Buhari and some other people in the party against me on the pretext of religion. That was not right. They were canvassing arguments that the Christians in the North would not vote for a Muslim-Muslim ticket.   “Nasir el-Rufai was also selling the same argument within the CPC (the defunct Congress for Progressive Change) because at that point, he still wanted to have Pastor Bakare brought in as Buhari’s running mate,” he said.   The former governor was also reported to have said some senators and governors, who defected from the PDP to the APC, met with him on the eve of the APC presidential primaries in Lagos to know if there was an agreement between him and Mr. Buhari to run together.   “I told them that it was better to resolve such issue after the primaries, but they wanted to make it a condition for supporting Buhari, which, for me, was very wrong.   “I told them I could not insist on this as a condition for my support for Buhari. I felt that was not right to hold Buhari hostage in this manner.   “I believe the support that we gave was fundamental to Buhari clinching the party nomination. Without that support, a different outcome would have been most likely,” Tinubu added.   Buhari eventually asked Tinubu to present three names for the position, but he only provided Yemi Osinbajo.   “I backed down because I did not want to be depicted as causing a problem. I backed away from the position in order to offer Buhari a name I once raised with him in 2011: that of Professor Yemi Osibanjo,” he added.   But former Minister of Culture and Tourism, Femi Fani Kayode (FFK), has countered Tinubu's claim on why Buhari didn’t pick him as his running mate in 2015.   FFK in a Facebook post on Thursday, said El Rufai had wanted Buhari to pick Fashola, former Lagos governor as his running mate.   He wrote, “The Muslim/Muslim ticket was their plan all along and I was the first to expose and oppose it when I was in APC. That is why I left them.   “Obasanjo opposed it too. Saraki did so behind the scenes. El Rufai did not oppose a Muslim Muslim ticket. It is just that he didn’t want Tinubu. He wanted Fashola.   ‘I discussed this matter deeply with every single name that I mentioned here when I was with them. The whole thing sickened me.”   But Saraki had, in April 2016, hinted at how he sabotaged Tinubu’s VP ambition, which he said was his ‘original sin’ that motivated the former Lagos governor’s opposition to him.   Tinubu was strongly opposed to the emergence of Saraki as the Senate President, and was able to get the formal leadership of the APC to endorse Ahmed Lawan, for the country’s Number 3 position.   “Most people talk about the Senate Presidency position, but this was not my only offence. I have also been accused of helping to frustrate some people’s opportunity to emerge as President Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate. But I have no problem with anybody. My concern was that it would not be politically smart of us to run with a Muslim-Muslim ticket.   “This, my brother, was my original sin. What they say to themselves, among other things, was that if he could conspire against our ambition, then he must not realize his own ambition as well. For me however, I have no regrets about this. I only stood for what I believed was in the best interest of the party and in the best interest of Nigeria,” Saraki said.   Other pundits say the Osibanjo card was an after-thought. The author of Buhari’s biography, John Paden, on his account of how VP Osinbajo, emerged as Buhari’s running mate, had stated that Buhari chose Osinbajo despite much pressure from Tinubu against such.   But Secretary to Lagos State Government, Mr. Tunji Bello, disagreed with Paden, insisting that the process of Osinbajo’s nomination started immediately after Buhari emerged as the presidential candidate at the December 2014 National Convention.   The entire scenario could be called the many nights of long knives, though it still may not sufficiently capture the intrigues, betrayals, sellouts and drama that typified the various meetings which ultimately culminated in the choice of Osinbajo.   But with barely 24 hours to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deadline for the submission of names of candidates by political parties, the name Osinbajo, which had been making the rounds as the alternative choice, finally got the official stamp of approval of the general to run with him on the party’s ticket.   Practically all but the last meeting convened for the choice of a running mate for Buhari had failed for one reason: the reported interest of Bola Tinubu, who made a poor show of concealing his desire for the job.   Tinubu,  party sources alleged saw his probable ascension to the vice-presidency as an opportunity to be “compensated” for his incontrovertible role in the establishment of a strong and viable APC, a move other members of the party, including the governors, had opposed on the grounds that he would be a hard sell to the Nigerian public.   To exemplify his all-consuming desire for the job, Tinubu was said to have attended one of the meetings with the South-west leaders of the party and told his audience a story of how Buhari had agreed to field him as his running mate.   According to him, all he needed was the consent of those at the meeting in writing, in order to convince the retired general that he (Tinubu) also had the support of the South-west caucus to emerge as his running mate.   But this, a majority of those at the meeting saw through, compelling one of governors to say if his statement was true, “Buhari has picked you, then you don’t need our signatures to get our support”.   Unfortunately for him, some of those at the meeting were uncomfortable with the fact that he wanted to get them to sign a communiqué, which he would have taken to Buhari, informing him that his people in the South-west, majority of whom are governors, had asked that he be fielded as the VP candidate. In Tinubu’s estimation, the story would have been difficult to refute in order not to embarrass him nor put the party in a fix.   When it became clear to Tinubu that his people had effectively opposed his emergence as Buhari’s deputy, and that his goal was slipping from his grasp, he reportedly broke down in tears, moaning that their stance would render him insignificant in the scheme of things if he was neither allowed the opportunity to field himself nor present a candidate of his choice.   He was frankly told that it would be hard sell him because one, he is a Muslim and two, other issues might emerge from the woodworks that could be embarrass him and the party.   When Tinubu tried to make Buhari see things his way, a shouting match ensued, compelling the general to walk out on Tinubu so that the situation would not degenerate. He then allegedly rushed back to his people to push for the emergence of Osibajo.   To political observers, Tinubu, with his overt desire, covert antics and brinksmanship, may have secured a diminished victory. But of greater significance, he has had a taste of what it means to manage and square up against the contending interests and forces at play in a truly large national party.   And on Dec 17, 2014, a statement was hurriedly released by Tinubu to announce his withdrawal from consideration for the APC Vice- Presidential Position.   Way back June 2014, months before the APC Convention, Chief Tom Ikimi, co-founder of the party who later defected to the PDP, had in a lengthy letter strongly opposed the option of a Muslim Muslim or Christian Christian Presidential ticket for his then party in the 2015 elections.   The dramatic emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara as the senate President and Speaker of the 8th National Assembly was likely to end the overbearing influence of Asiwaju who allegedly single-handedly picked Buhari, Osinbajo and Chief John Oyegun as the president, Vice and the APC chairman respectively, but in a terse statement, Tinubu after the election, vowed never to recognise Saraki as the gavel handler and landlord in the house.   As at last week, The APC is touted to be currently divided into four warring camps: The Aso Rock Cabal Camp comprising family members of the President, and led by Mamman Daura; The Buhari Political Friends Camp (BPF) Kayode Fayemi, Rotimi Amaechi, Babatunde Fashola and their ilk; The Bola Ahmed Tinubu Camp - one of the leading members of this group, Senator Ali Ndume was suspended from the Senate by the Saraki camp and The Bukola Saraki camp  - a major factor for his survival is his ability to plan ahead, aside being firmly in control of the Senate.   Ahead 2019, Tinubu says he will never stand in any contest against President Muhammadu Buhari or support anyone against him.   This was made known by his Media office to debunk a story published by THISDAY newspaper on Tuesday, February 28, suggesting that he was preparing for a presidential contest and that he might dump the APC and join the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to fulfil his ambition in 2019.   Chief Ayo Adebanjo who is a leader of the Yoruba group, Afenifere and a top member of the defunct Action Group, in an interview with Vanguard last year, had expressed his notions on the ruling APC and most especially, the mistake of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.   He said that the South-West voted profusely for the APC and their leader, Jagaban as a principal figure knew very well the position of the west but he thought that he would be clever enough to use the north to achieve what he wanted. That was the mistake he made.