TRIBUNE
On Tuesday, May 31, 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari, uncharacteristically made public his position on his relationship with the unofficial number two citizen of the ruling party, Senator Bola Tinubu and maybe unknowingly, but surely, set the tone for what would define their association, possibly for the rest of their lives.
To be clear, the President and Tinubu had never been social buddies or business pals. What brought them together, first, in the build-up to the 2011 presidential contest and later, in 2014, leading to the formation of their party, was politics or better still, the desire to use each other’s electoral strengths, to achieve lifetime ambitions of being Nigeria’s democratically-elected President.
On the basis of this alone, the President is morally-bound to support Tinubu’s ambition, since the former Lagos governor had fulfilled his own part of the deal.
But on this Tuesday, the President didn’t mince words in indicating he wasn’t ready to honour the gentleman agreement of both rubbing each other’s back. In a stump to the governors elected on the platform of the party, Mr. Buhari said: “In keeping with the established internal policies of the party and as we approach the convention in a few days, therefore, I wish to solicit the reciprocity and support of the Governors and other stakeholders in PICKING MY SUCCESSOR (emphasis mine), who would fly the flag of our party for election into the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
In attendance was the national chairman of the party, Adamu Abdullahi and it was just eight days to the presidential primary of the party.
