Tension!!! Tinubu’s Presidential Ambition Tears APC Northern Leaders Apart, Vow To Disgrace Asiwaju At 2019 Polls

The perceived move by the defacto National Leader Of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Tinubu, to contest for the Presidency, come 2019, is generating ripples, and further polarising the North, despite the former’s latest denial of such ambition.

Though, despite clarifying the statement credited to him, Northern leaders are already divided over Tibubu’s perceived and real intentions.

In a reaction, Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, Muhammad Alhaji Yakubu, warned that Tinubu may end up disgracing himself, if he eventually makes up his mind to run for the Presidency.

Yakubu, advised Tinubu to remain faithful to playing godfather and king making roles in the nation’s politics, pointing out that the APC Leader should not forget that he was the major brain behind the enthronement of President Muhamamdu Buhari, and Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo.

“My reaction, I mean my personal reaction, and not that of ACF, is that in a democratic race, every Nigerian, provided you meet the criteria to aspire for any elective office, is allowed to contest. But for Tinubu, I think if the godfather himself decides to put his hat in the ring, he may demystify himself. I don’t think that will be proper. As a kingmaker, I think it will be more respected to maintain the aura of a kingmaker, than to go into the Presidential race.

“And another fact is that if he decides to go into the race, he may scuttle the chance of the North. Though, it is an unwritten agreement in APC, but I don’t know whether they have it in their constitution, but I know that it is PDP that has it in its constitution of eight years in the South, eight years in the North.

“But one will expect that the current President is still alive, he is still on the throne, and it is too early for anyone to start contemplating succeeding him. Nobody knows who will be alive in 2019; what if the President decides to contest again in 2019, what happens? So I think it is not wise for anybody to start making this kind of permutation.

“As I told you earlier, if Tinubu decides to run for the Presidency, it will amount to demystifying himself. If he decides to run against Osinbajo, his godson, and Buhari, who he brought and supported for the Presidency, all the aura, all the honour and respect bestowed on him as godfather, as kingmaker will be stripped. So Tinubu should not forget that he is the one who brought Buhari to run for the Presidency, and as such he should support him either in good or bad health”.

Speaking in the same vein, a former Vice Chancellor, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and member of the Northern Elders Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi, felt sorry about the development, referring to it as a surprise especially as it was coming from Tinubu, urging party members to take note and watch closely for the next few weeks.

According to him: “I’m really surprised that a leader or somebody who is called a National Leader of the party in power, and not only party in power but with a President on seat that is less than two years old in position of leadership, he is himself talking about his ambition in 2019. There is nothing wrong in ambition. Of course, Bola Tinubu had always had ambition. It was his ambition that made him become Governor of Lagos State. So, that is alright.

“And of course, there were a lot of discussions about his purported ambition to be Buhari’s Vice President, which was also in the papers. But the significance of this news item, here is a leader of a party, a National Leader with his President on seat, he’s talking about the possibility of contesting election in 2019, and I don’t know whether he’s talking about the APC platform or whether he’s talking about another party.

“Whatever platform he’s talking about, I consider this totally insensitive of a leader who should show some humanity; this is a speech that is coming at a wrong time. And I can only feel sorry for Bola Tinubu, if he indeed came out with such a statement. Already also, in fact he’s not worried about the party so called APC. This is for party members to take note. But their party to my mind is either dead or it’s dying. We can then wait and see what happens in the next few weeks.’’