2023: Will It Be Tinubu’s Year?

As the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress prepares to declare his presidential bid this month, Segun James writes that the party’s ticket may be his for the asking

The mission seems grandiose, but achievable: and in the process, redefine the role of the presidency in the management of national resources. It worked in Lagos, a process that has led to continued growth. And he believes that it can work in Nigeria, on a broader scale. However, there’s a caveat: this can only happen if he’s given the ticket of his party, and ultimately, elected as the president by the people. Welcome to the world of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

In politics goes a saying: “politics is a game riddled with a circle of men holding a gun to each other’s head ready to pull the trigger at the first opportunity.” For Tinubu, this scenario is all too familiar. He has survived many political adversaries, persecutions, and betrayals, more especially in the last four years because of his alleged ambition to be president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Tinubu has not only survived the tortuous Nigerian political landscape which has left most of his first generation fourth republic colleagues scorched and irrelevant but has emerged with the potential to take the most coveted position in the Nigerian political scene, the presidency.

How did he get to this point? The events that led to this began in 2003 when to the consternation of many he dared the leadership of his party, Alliance for Democracy (AD) who wanted to drop him as the party’s governorship candidate for Lagos state. He also called the bluff of former President Olusegun Obasanjo who was determined to win Lagos at all costs for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He not only vanquished him, but he also survived.

His success is built upon his work as governor of Lagos state from 1999 to 2007. He turned around the fortune of the state which was making a paltry N600 million monthly in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to making over N10 billion monthly by the time he left office. Today, the state’s IGR is over N60 billion monthly.

People die for flag and country, but in Lagos, they do so because of the enigmatic Bola Tinubu. He is the one man that has changed the face of governance in the state, making the people to truly believe that their state is really the Centre of Excellence that it is called.

While there is continuous blackmail that he’s milking the state persists, yet Lagos remains the only viable state in the country. It also remains the only one that does not rely on federal government allocation to survive.

Rarely has a politician had more followers than Tinubu, the earnest, purposeful and strong-willed leader of the APC. In the Nigerian political field, the gulf between sentiment and reality is thin. To his admirers, the Tinubu presidential dream is ordained. At every event, they sing the anthem which has become the official song of the party in the southwest: “On your mandate we shall stand, Bola!” And they are not backing down.

Obviously, a man with a big heart, he was said to have nominated Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, one of his political lieutenants as vice presidential candidate in 2015 even though he desired the position himself.

Given his antecedents of selflessness the fact that Tinubu is interested in the presidency now shows the sacrifices he has made for others.

The coming out of the cold by the opposition to Tinubu’s ambition has long been expected. The crisis in the APC which has been simmering for some time has burst into the open. Yet it all has to do with this ambition. The first salvo of the opposition was fired by the chairman of the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) who advised Tinubu to continue as a kingmaker instead of striving to be the king. To him, such ambition is inordinate.

So far, the outside world hasn’t had a lot of pull in halting the Tinubu’s presidential train. Neither gentle diplomacy nor outright threats have helped to derail the move either. As the party’s convention draws near, more oppositions are expected.

Most politicians do not become the subject of an emotionally charged and historically pivotal election, but Tinubu has. Since the launch of the political pressure group, SWAGGA 2023, he has become the issue in the polity.

Nigeria has known more than its fair share of political and economic instability; Tinubu believes he has the magic wand to turn this around. Turning around an economy on a southward trend is not easy. But this is what Tinubu intends to do. After all, he did it with Lagos, he can also do it with Nigeria.

In a country full of both ambition and frustration, Tinubu, who will be 70 years old in March is a role model for those who dare to dream. Without doubts, he has expanded the frontier of politics in the country. In this way, he embodies the best in political engineering in the country.

Over the next few months, the nation will face two challenges in in the polity: religion and ethnicity. They will play major roles as the race for the presidential ticket of the APC gain crescendo.

In the APC, the battle for the control of the party may be entering a critical and decisive stage. This is where the strategist and tactician in Tinubu will be tested.

The clearest sign yet of the recovery of vitality in the polity is the strong set of indications coming the APC. Alliances are being formed across political divides. Negotiations have begun and people are placing their cards on the table to determine who gets what and how.

Already, a group within the party has put up the name of former President Goodluck Jonathan as a possible presidential candidate of the party in opposition to Tinubu. Also, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has formally informed President Muhammadu Buhari of his intention to contest for the party’s ticket. More candidates are expected to come out as the party zoned its ticket to the south. The battle has begun in earnest.

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