Read how Bola Tinubu is struggling to uphold the soul of APC in the south west.

With the outcome of the 2015 general elections, anyone could have been tempted to think the result of that election has completely invalidated the political prophesy by pro PDP political analysts that the alliance of all the political parties that came together to form APC would not stand.
As the Machiavellian philosophy of the end justifying the means already playing out in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC),it is only a lay person who is undiscerning in the art of political subterfuges, back-biting, intrigues and conspiracies that would think the APC alliance still remain intact.


Without equating events to an evolving dialectical process, the picture cannot be more clearer that the party only won the election but may lose the political war, this is not just the case of diminishing return setting in, but the construction of a tactical alliance with an incoherent strategic objectives which is already exposing the falsity of the APC political premise.
The dissenting Southwest APC and its game plan

When a soup is prepared and dished in the plate but you can still identify all the ingredients that make up the soup, this can be anything but delicious, the case with the APC alliance, as all the parties that came together to form APC can still be identify as a separate entity within the mega party. The discerning political watchers can see the CPC members who seem to be enjoying the government more, haven produced the President, the new PDP members, well, struggling to find a place for themselves in the party, have one or two appointments, produced the Senate President even in deviance to the arrangement of the party, ANPP members were not completely left out ,then an insignificant part of APGA who cannot really complain.
The southwest APC member from ACN who provided the logistic and huge financial support to deliver the zone for the general success of the 2015 presidential election, courtesy of its leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, believe they have not got a fair treatment in the whole arrangement giving their contributions to the party’s victory.

Of course, most of the appointments of PMB, particularly ministerial appointments cannot not be said to have gone the way of Asiwaju ,as people whom Asiwaju would rather blocked out of the national scene were not only appointed by PMB but were given powerful and juicy ministries to head,with one of them combining three powerful ministries together while most of Asiwaju’s candidates could not make the list.

Bola Tinubu, the game master, indisputably political mentor to many Southwest politicians and  national leader of APC, seems not to be getting as much as he put in into the party or all what he bargained for at the national level, starting from the emergence of Bukola Saraki as the Senate President against Asiwaju’s canditadate ,and Dogara’s headship of the House of Representatives as opposed to Femi Gbajabiamila who is Tinubu choice for the speakership position.
Kogi state governorship election is yet another political event that dashed the hope of Asiwaju ,whose political arrangement to have one of his political sons,James Faleke installed as the new Kogi governor after the unfortunate demise of chief Abubakar Audu failed.
Meanwhile, many people believed the choice of Yaya Bello as a replacement for Audu cannot but have the hand of President, also with the Tuesday Supreme court judgement that drove down the final nail on Falake’s chance as like Governor of Kogi State.
However, it is quite possible for anyone to think what exactly is Asiwaju looking for, after succeeding in planting one of his boys as the number two man in the country, but come to think of it, how much influence can one say Prof Yemi Osinbajo wield in this administration, even as the vice president, when the Kaduna state governor Malam Nasir El-rufai is being seen as an unofficial Vice President with his closeness to the president.

One of the strong southwest APC members, a former deputy speaker of Lagos State house of Assembly,Hon Kolawole Taiwo in an interview with Blueprint on the position of the Southwest APC said, “during the recent Southwest caucus meeting of the APC, they tried to reiterate what we stand for,the southwest ,from the day of AD to AC, to ACN,we have been at the forefront of the clamour for the restructuring of the Nigerian system, state police, and so on.
These are the progressive ideas that form the core of our party ideology, we cannot now jettison all these because we are now part of the government at the centre, we don’t want them to forget the idea we stand for, true federalism, devolution of power to the states, we will continue to push for what we stand for,the recent statement credited to the VP , Osinbajo saying that what we need in Nigeria is good governance and not restructuring, he is not speaking the mind of the Southwest people”,Hon Taiwo explained.

This obviously is one of the reasons while the Southwest people who joined forces together with the intention of forming an all inclusive government where they would have the opportunity to walk their talk as progressive ,may not be in consonance with the style of the federal government that is not ready to give their clamour any consideration.
The rebel group within Asiwaju’s political camp

That the APC ,if still remain a party, will not be going into 2019 election as a divided front is now in doubt, with secret agitations, gang up ,plots and divisions that has now enveloped the party.
We now have people who are loyal to Tinubu, and Buhari loyalists, while some remain neural for now, unfortunately, some of Tinubu’s former proteges from the Southwest, who either no longer comfortable with Asiwaju’s style of politicking or who thinks they are now big enough to stand on their own, belongs to Buhari’s camp
As the battle for the soul of the party by each faction get intense by day, the cracks on the wall continue widening, the recent gang up by some ministers and governors who belong to Buhari’s camp, against the candidate of Asiwaju in the controversial  APC governorship primaries in Ondo state lend credence to this point.

While Tinubu loyalists has also continued to fire venoms at Buhari with the recent political statement by Oba Rilwan Akinolu, Oba of Lagos telling Buhari to remember he is no longer a military president, and so he should tread it with caution, of course we know Oba of Lagos could not be making a weighty political statement of such if it does not receive the blessing of Asiwaju, then the recent outburst by  Sen Tokunbo Afikuyomi,one of Asiwaju’s proteges ,out rightly condemning Buhari’s economic policies, all these goes to establish the fact that all is not well with the APC leader and Mr President.

Meanwhile, speculations were rife that Bahari’s group ahead of 2019 is already trying to outsmart Tinubu’s people by spreading its tentacle round the Southwest zone, allegedly having the Governor of Ogun State,Sen Ibikunle Amosun to lead the plot, Sen Amosun who is not happy that Asiwaju is grooming Sen Solomon Adeola Olamilakan representing Lagos west senatorial district presently to take over from him as Ogun state governor come 2019.
It could also be recalled that the choice of Kemi Adeosun by Amosun who eventually became the Finance Minister as against Asiwaju’s choice of Wele Edun  for Ogun slot pitched the duo against each other, the reason Amosun was absent at the Southwest APC reconciliatory meeting at Eko hotel where the former governor of Ogun state, Olusegun Osoba was absorbed into the party sometimes this year.

While chief Bisi Akande according to a report is leading the Asiwaju boys in the Southwest by rallying round some APC governors, the Governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai is leading the Buhari group with people like Babatunde Fashola, former governor of Ekiti state,John Kayode Fayem,Rotimi Amechi and other ministers with them.
According to a recent report, the President Buhari group surprisingly  has former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Senate President Bukola Saraki, Speaker Yakubu Dogara and some state governors and the speculation that the Buhari/el-Rufai group has just two goals ; the 2019 elections and to take over the structures of the party in the South- West, while the Tinubu- Bisi Akande camp is strategizing on how to hold on to the South- West front just as the Abuja group, led by el-Rufai, is working with the governor Ibikunle Amosun-led south-west block to take control of the party structures in the zone from Tinubu.

According to Hon Kolawole Taiwo who expressed surprise at the gang up against Tinubu by people who according to him were made by Tinubu, “Honestly I don’t expect anyone from the Southwest to stand against the principles we stand for, and if you think you are there today, tomorrow you won’t be there again, so, these people  cannot succeed in their plot against Asiwaju”.
Whether these people will succeed in their plot against Asiwaju’s political arrangement or not, is left for time to prove or maybe, Asiwaju will make real the speculation in a national daily recently that Tinubu is under pressure to float another party ahead of 2019 remains to be seen

source Blueprint