By Abdullai HARUNA HARUSPICE
2019 is not totally about President Muhammadu Buhari but a vicious battle of wit between two oduduwa sons. Cruising to political reckoning is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the man with the veritable sustaining political empire who since 1999 has not only remained politically relevant but wholly influential. He has built a dynasty that has criss-crosses the country and if everything goes well in his estimation, he would write his name permanently on the wall map of Nigeria’s political history.
On the other hand is Dr Olusegun Mathew Aremu Obasanjo, another descent of the Oduduwa blood. He has seen it all in the political calculations of Nigeria. For a man who broke the barrier of poverty and became a world reference is a man who has seen it all. He was military head of State and then civilian president. Just recently, he bagged a doctoral degree in Theology. Like Tinubu he has built a political empire but unlike Tinubu, his political investments have crumbled disastrously like a pack of badly arranged cards under the menacing hands of a violent wind. From his team of technocrats to plenty of politicians in his kitty when he reigned as president to the presidents he installed successively, there is no tangible trace of these investments today. Like the bubbles, they have all dissolved into nothingness.
Juxtapose this to Tinubu, you will find a man cruising in luxurious splendour. Like a mother hen, he watches in pride the manifestation of his chicks turning into cocks and chickens. He is the only godfather with formidable political structures in Nigeria. And with the traces on ground, he is set to conquer the political entity called Nigeria. The traces are there but only for the critical visible minds. Come 2023, Nigeria may produce a South West president and the man to make this happen is Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu. And the man to thwart perhaps this projection is Aremu Obasanjo.
To deny Tinubu this earthly honour, Obasanjo must rise up in fierce opposition. Like a war General, he knows the tactics of war and as a politician; he is also gifted with the theatrics of mischief. The first thing to do is to cut the bridge that leads to 2023 and the man to make that possible is Muhammadu Buhari. Stop his aspirations in 2019, kill Tinubu’s dream of producing a South-West president in 2013. With the general agreement that power must reside in the north for eight years, a Buhari’s four years and not 8 years would mean 12 years of power in the north. Because whoever succeeds Buhari in 2019 would end up doing eight years instead of four. Remember it was Jonathan’s refusal to stick to four years that led to the death of the PDP! Power is too sweet to let go- a man who enjoys four years can go any length to have eight years.
Can the South-West allow itself to be short-changed by the North following the gentleman’s agreement of zoning formula? This is the conundrum of our political reality.
Blinded by personal ego and the quest to be unrivalled, one man is set to deny a region the chance to be represented at the top roof of our political echelon. This ploy is not actually against a region per se but against one man begotten with the fortunes of destiny. Can Tinubu sustain his altitude of returning power to the West by 2023 by overcoming the dangerous wit of Obasanjo? Only time can tell.
– Haruspice wrote from Abuja
