Sunday Telegraph’s investigations revealed that Tinubu’s decision to use his powers as the party’s national leader to provide direction on the party’s postelection future did not go down well with some other top members of the fold. As such, they used the opportunity of the election of leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives to stop him in his tracks.
While Tinubu backed Senator Ahmad Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila as candidates for Senate President and Speaker, House of Rep[resentatives respectively, his opponents supported Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara for both positions.
Eventually, Tinubu was outsmarted by his opponents, comprising elements from the New PDP who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to APC in 2013. Buhari’s neutrality in Tuesday’s election of National Assembly leaders, sources said, was the latest in steps taken by the President to whittle down Tinubu’s alleged overbearing influence on him. First, without Tinubu’s knowledge, Buhari appointed a transition committee.Curiously, the President called for nominations from Tinubu’s political disciples, fuelling speculations that Buhari was beginning to withdraw from the perceived influence of the former Lagos State governor. A telling pointer to the widened gap became noticeable a few days to Buhari’s May 29 inauguration when he flew out of the country to Britain on a private visit.
Sunday Telegraph learnt that Buhari never informed Tinubu about the trip until few hours to his departure. An APC chieftain, who spoke to Sunday Telegraph on condition of anonymity, said, “Prior to this time, several events have taken place without public knowledge.
We began to have fears for the party because with the way things were going, Nigerians will soon begin to ask questions.
“Tinubu had met with the President several times to discuss certain issues even before the inauguration. From the look of things, the President was already becoming uncomfortable that such things were coming from the national leader, especially when there had been insinuations that he (Buhari) was going to be a puppet to Tinubu. “So it was a deliberate thing that the President included in his inaugural speech that he belonged to all and he belonged to nobody.
It was a deliberate move meant to send a message to whoever had such intentions to corner the government.
“Most disturbing was that when Tinubu met the President and insisted on Lawan as senate president. He was told pointedly that it would amount to interference and that such a move could send a wrong signal to the outside world but he insisted on going ahead even without the President.”
He stated that as the National Assembly race heightened, immediate past speaker of the House of Representatives and current governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, was detailed by some northern power brokers to prevail on Tinubu to allow the federal lawmakers make their choices in both chambers but he insisted on having his way. As a result, Tambuwal; former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar; Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai; and ex-Chief of Army Staff, Abdulrahaman Dambazau, met and perfected plans on how to checkmate Tinubu.
“To them, it was inconceivable that Tinubu wanted everything for himself so they moved against him. If you look at it critically, a Buhari presidency under what Tinubu planned to do with the party would have been a big national tragedy. Not even in the days of PDP under Obasanjo did we have the kind of structure he desired to have in this country,” the APC chieftain added.
Sunday Telegraph also learnt that some APC chieftains were considering the removal of the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie- Oyegun, for allegedly carrying out Tinubu’s bidding.
Meanwhile, a pro-Tinubu member of the House of Representatives, Abdullahi Mahmud Gaya, told journalists in Kano yesterday that since the party had decided to accept the leadership of the two chambers, anti-Dogara elements had no option but to follow suit. He, however, stated that the “bad precedent” would be hard for the party to correct.
The lawmaker, representing Gaya Federal Constituency, said, “We are loyal party members and we agree with whatever decision they have taken, this does not in any way means we are quarrelling with the new leadership. We are only not happy that as gentlemen there was an agreement that should have been adopted.
“Be that as it may, we will work as colleagues with understanding and believe that an error has been set which will be difficult to correct.” The member also said the total cost of running the National Assembly should be reduced by 50 per cent because according to him Nigeria and indeed the new government needs finances to improve the people’s lives.
-New Telegraph