President’s biography threatens to tear Buhari-Tinubu apart

The biography of President Muhammadu Buhari, presented to the public on Monday, has opened another chapter in the perceived silent war between the president and the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The biography, authored by Prof. John Paden, and titled ‘Muhammadu Buhari: The Challenges of Leadership in Nigeria’, has been branded as presenting a false account of how Vice President Yemi Osinbajo emerged as the running mate to then General Muhammadu Buhari.

The account of how VP Osinbajo emerged as related in Buhari’s biography was disputed by the Secretary to the Lagos State Government, Mr. Tunji Bello, in a statement on Thursday.

Bello said: “I don’t know how the author came about his story, but he totally got it wrong because what he wrote basically is based on falsehood that reeks of deliberate misinformation and mischief.”

The latest controversy over the emergence of Osinbajo has taken further the many controversies the ruling party has been plunged into lately and this particular one may just undo whatever bond that may remain between the president and Asiwaju Tinubu.

It would be recalled that Tinubu has been at loggerheads with the National Chairman of the APC, John Odigie-Oyegun, another benefactor of the Tinubu political machinery, over alleged manipulation of the governorship primary of the party in Ondo State. Tinubu, in a statement by his media office, asked him to resign.

Relating how Vice President Osinbajo emerged, Bello detailed how he was called to a meeting by Tinubu alongside Yemi Osinbajo, Dele Alake, Chief Bisi Akande and a renowned pastor, where the decision to pick Osinbajo was taken.

Bello wrote: “I know how Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu picked Vice President Yemi Osibajo because I was part of the process that midwifed his nomination.

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“In mid-December 2014, it was a Saturday morning after President Muhammadu Buhari had been picked by All Progressives Congress (APC), at the party’s presidential primary at Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, Lagos. I received a phone call from Asiwaju to see him that morning. On my way to his house, I discovered that a car at a reasonable distance was that of former Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Dele Alake, who was, ostensibly, heading towards Asiwaju’s house in Ikoyi. Asiwaju must have called him too for that task that could be explained underneath.

“As soon as we arrived, Asiwaju quickly asked us to join him in his car as we headed to a guest house. At the guest house, the former APC Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, Professor Yemi Osibajo and one renowned Pastor joined us.

“At the meeting, Asiwaju related to us the urgent need to pick a vice-presidential candidate for the APC. He advised that we immediately discard the idea of his being nominated for the vice-presidential slot as it was no longer possible to pick a Muslim-Muslim ticket. This he reasoned made sense if indeed we were to be realistic in our bid to defeat President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 election. He reasoned that what was important and imperative at that time was to look for a good Christian nominee to complement President Muhammadu Buhari.

“I remember Baba Akande responded to his aversions that he would still have preferred that Asiwaju should be the running mate since it had been done before. Baba Akande was obviously referring to the MKO Abiola/ Babagana Kingibe nomination. Asiwaju responded by distinguishing the political equation then from what was before us at that point in time. He foreclosed that scenario as no longer possible. We all voiced our opinions, and at the end of the day, it was resolved that we had to get a Christian candidate.

“It was at this point that Asiwaju reminded us to be fast in coming up with an option because he felt other geographical zones are also jostling for same position reiterating the need for the south-west to get it as a must. Asiwaju audaciously told us that, left for him, and if he were to pick anyone, he would suggest Professor Yemi Osibajo. That Osinbajo, apart from being a brilliant legal luminary is also a committed progressive, and democrat. And having been married to late Obafemi Awolowo’s grand-daughter, it would not be a problem selling him to the old political establishment of south-west for acceptance.

“He asserted that Alake and myself having served in his cabinet could attest to the great works he did as Attorney General during his, Asiwaju’s administration as Governor of Lagos State. He also reasoned that the second major factor in favour of Osinbajo was the fact that he is a strong Christian and one that he is already a Pastor at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).

“In the long run, Osinbajo’s nomination was well received by all of us at that meeting and Professor Osinbajo was asked to start detailing with us, further strategy sessions to which he brought out his laptop and we all commenced a brainstorming session.

“The rest of the discussion was to strategise on how to contain other likely opponents from the southwest zone before proceeding to Abuja to battle other regional zones in the coming nomination.

“The meeting did not finish until about 9.00pm when we returned to Asiwaju’s residence in Bourdillon. By the time we returned to his house, there were about six serving governors already waiting to see him from different parts of Nigeria.”

Continuing, Bello, a very close ally of Asiwaju Tinubu, said it was sad that the president’s biography was being used to create a make-believe story that puts the society at a disadvantage of history.

“One would have thought that now that the progressives, through an uncommon alliance in 2015, created an upset by defeating, for the first time in the country’s history, the then ruling People’s Democratic Party, it might be taken as given that the role of all active participants in the exercise would be correctly recorded. But surprisingly and painfully too, such an avenue was used to create an historical distortion of facts.

The Lagos SSG further said that it would have been understandable if the distortion is coming from political adversaries but coming from the president’s biography makes it disturbing.

“But surprisingly painful is the fact that an historical distortion of facts is coming from an unexpected quarters at this early stage of progressive politics.

“It becomes more of a matter of concern when a renowned intellectual writes a book and begins to redefine events in his own way by abashedly evading facts that are bellowing in the public space in order to re-create a world of make-believe for his audience. Sincerely, such an act understandably becomes a matter to ponder seriously.

“Let us stop here. It is not all clothes that can be dried in the sun”, Bello said.

By Timothy Enietan-Matthews…

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