Tinubu’s Rough Road to Presidency

DejiElumoye and UdoraOrizu chronicle the rocky, arduous journey that eventually led to the election of All Progressives Congress flag bearer, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as Nigeria’s next President

t exactly 4.10am on Wednesday, March 1, 2023, the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was declared winner of Nigeria’s presidential election held on February 25 by the Election Returning Officer and Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmoud Yakubu. The declaration took place at the International Conference Centre (ICC), the collation centre of the 2023 presidential poll.

It was a dream come true for the former two-time Lagos State Governor who has always said it was his age long ambition to lead Nigeria. However, since his declaration of interest to run in January 2022, the road to the seat of government has not been a smooth one.

Tinubu known as a political kingmaker will inherit a Nigeria that is faced with national security threats, economic challenges including rising cost of living.

The JagabanBorgu first tasted power as a Senator between 1992 and 1993, on the platform of the Social Democratic Party led by late Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua (rtd). He was elected to the Nigerian Senate, to represent the Lagos West Senatorial District

The Military President Ibrahim BadamosiBabangida’s transition programme witnessed a dribbling that saw the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election that was to produce M.K.O. Abiola. This brought Tinubufame as he became a major significance in the struggle to realise MKO Abiola’s presidential mandate.

With MKO in jail, Tinubu fled into exile in 1994, becoming a leader of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), against the despotic regime of General SaniAbacha.

Abacha had pushed aside after 84 days in office, the interim government of Ernest Shonekan that Babangida put in place in the wake of the June 12 crisis in 1993.

Tinubu only returned to Nigeria in 1998 after the death of General Abacha.

He won the Alliance for Democracy (AD) primaries and later became Lagos State Governor in 1999. From that position, he projected himself to the leadership of the Yoruba nation.

Tinubu is known to have played a role in the merger of different parties to form the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014 and the subsequent emergence of President MuhammaduBuhari as the party’s candidate and eventual President in 2015.

Declaring for Presidency

Tinubu, has been nursing the ambition to be Nigeria’s president, since the birth of the Fourth Republic, in 1999. In January last year, he made known his ambition to be elected as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in the 2023 polls.

The APC chieftain said he had informed President Buhari about his intention to run for the presidency in 2023.

Fielding questions from reporters after meeting with Buhari at the State House, Abuja Tinubu said he would pursue his ambition without the title of “kingmaker”.

According to him, it has been his lifelong ambition to become the President of Nigeria adding that he has the confidence, vision and capacity to build on the foundation laid by the President.

He, however, declined to comment on the presidential ambition of Vice-President YemiOsinbajo and Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, saying he would rather prefer to discuss issues instead of individuals.

He said: “I answer that with categorical yes. I have informed the President of my intention but I have not informed Nigerians yet. I’m still consulting. And I have no problem consulting. And I’ve not set a parameter of limitation to the extent of how many people I will consult. You will soon hear, all you want to hear is the categorical declaration. You’ve got that truth from me that I have informed Mr. President of my ambition, and you don’t expect more answers than that.”

On the President’s response to his ambition, Tinubu said: “That’s our business. He is a democrat. He didn’t ask me to stop. He didn’t ask me not to attempt and pursue my ambition, it is a lifelong ambition. So, why do I expect him to say more than that? You are running a democratic dispensation, and you must adopt the principles and the values and the virtues of democracy. That’s it.”

APC’s National Convention

The build up to the special convention of the All Progressives Congress, gave indications that he might lose the ticket to one of the other top contenders. Many alleged that President  Buhari did not want Tinubu as his successor in spite of the role the former Lagos governor played in ensuring that he became President of Nigeria in 2015.

In June 2021, for instance, in an interview, the President had said: “You cannot sit there in Lagos… and decide the fate of APC on zoning.” This was in reaction to a suggestion that the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate had been zoned to the South against the 2023 elections.

This message was read as targettingTinubu. Also the emergence of former Governor of Nasarawa State, Senator AbdullahiAdamu, as APC national chairman who in turn tried to foist the Senate President, Dr Ahmad Lawan as the presidential candidate gave the impression that they were all against Tinubu’s ambition.

However on the scheduled date of the convention in June, 2022, Tinubu, against all odds, emerged the standard-bearer of the ruling party.

He inched closer to the actualisation of his ‘lifelong presidential ambition,’ scoring 1,271 delegates votes at the primary held at the Eagle Square in Abuja to beat immediate past Minister of Transportation, Hon ChibuikeRotimiAmaechi, who got 316 votes and Vice President, Prof YemiOsinbajo, who finished distant third with 235 votes.

Same Faith Ticket

Since the announcement that the APC is going to float a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the 2023 presidential election, with Tinubu as the flagbearer and former Governor of Borno State, Senator KashimShettima as his running mate, there has been outrage and a sense of exasperation among some Nigerians.

The Christians decried the insensitivity of such a decision in light of the current atmosphere in the country. Many of them felt marginalised, shortchanged and offended and this heat up the polity for months.

Reacting to the outrage, Tinubu in a release gave reasons for picking the immediate past Governor of Borno State, Shettima, as his running mate.

According to Tinubu, he prioritised national growth and development above religious sentiments in picking Shettima.

He said Shettima’s career in politics and beyond shows that “he is eminently qualified not only to deliver that all-important electoral victory”.

Tinubu recalled that in 1993, Nigerians embraced Chief MKO Abiola and a fellow Muslim running mate, Ambassador Baba GanaKingibe, in “one of our fairest elections ever held”. He explained that if we truly understood the challenges facing Nigeria, citizens would place competence in governance above religious sentiment.

Part of the statement read, “I have never been an indecisive man and have no present intention to become one. Having now listened to the sage, careful advice of a broad section of the party and of the nation, there are a few points I feel I must make about the exceptional and extraordinary person with whom I will share the APC ticket and the principles of open and good governance that informed this choice.

“I am mindful of the energetic discourse concerning the possible religion of my running mate. Just and noble people have talked to me about this. Some have counselled that I should select a Christian to please the Christian community. Other have said I should pick a Muslim to appeal to the Muslim community. Clearly, I cannot do both.

“I announce my selection with pride because I have made it not based on religion or to please one community or the other. I made this choice because I believe this is the man who can help me bring the best governance to all Nigerians, period, regardless of their religious affiliation or considerations of ethnicity or region. May I say this to all of you, especially to those who will be disappointed in my selection based on religious considerations. I will not and cannot ignore the religious concerns and ethnic sensitivities of our people.”

Gaffes

Tinubu’s campaign was largely based on his record as Governor of Lagos state, Nigeria’s commercial capital.

The timeline of Tinubu’s campaign was filled with many gaffes. The sundry gaffes within and around his campaigns were too many to be brushed aside. Most people saw his gaffes and slips as not only very embarrassing, but are symptomatic of something more serious with him as an individual.

They were too frequent to be dismissed as one-off human errors. Many feared that if elected such slips would be an embarrassment in/among the committee of nations.

The opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) indicated that such errors are embarrassing and might at meetings with world leaders would negatively affect Nigeria’s image because “the Bola Tinubu who served as Governor is different now”.

Naira Redesign Policy

The currency redesign policy by the Central Bank of Nigeria, was believed by some APC Governors and lawmakers as geared at preventing Tinubu’s success.

Despite meetings with the President urging him to immediately resolve the new naira note crisis, Buhari still gave go ahead to the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele to implement the new  currency swap policy of government thereby rendering  the old N500,1000 notes useless from January 31, 2023.

The Win

Eventually realizing his dream, Tinubu was in the early hours of March 1, 2023, declared winner of last weekend ’s presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

According to the commission, Tinubu scored 8,794,729 votes and got the required 25 percent in 30 states to defeat his major opponents, AtikuAbubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who came second with 6,984,520 votes followed by Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP) who scored 6,101,533 votes.

His Acceptance Speech

Though the election has been described as tainted by irregularities by local and international observer groups, just as the opposition parties have called for cancelation, the president-elect has delivered his acceptance speech and issued certificate of return by the electoral umpire on Wednesday, March 1.

In his acceptance speech, Tinubu said, “I am profoundly humbled that you have elected me to serve as the 16th president of our beloved republic. This is a shining moment in the life of any man and affirmation of our democratic existence. From my heart, I say thank you. Whether you are Batified, Atikulated, Obidient, Kwankwasiyya, or have any other political affiliation, you voted for a better, more hopeful nation and I thank you for your participation and dedication to our democracy.”