Before the 2015 election, Tinubu and Buhari formed an alliance that provided Buhari with the foothold he needed to defeat Jonathan, but it also offered Tinubu and the ACN unrestricted access to central authority rather than a regional position. Remember that there were other parties involved in the merger, including the new PDP block, which contributed a sizable financial war chest, the APGA divisions, and the ANPP.
The ACN group had profited from the positions of vice president and speaker of the House of Representatives, as well as various cabinet positions, but no one could claim the same for the other partners. So it was a marriage of convenience, and in fairness, Buhari owes Tinubu no binding responsibility for delivering him the APC presidential ticket on a silver platter.
Tinubu is very analytical, and he deserves every flower he gets in the political terrain. In politics, there is no such thing as a “highland.” Buhari would not have run in 2015, much less won, if it hadn’t been for Tinubu, because the CPC was in tatters and his candidacy was one-legged. That had been the case since 2003.
Tinubu’s contribution to Buhari’s campaign was not only marginal votes from the southwest but also electability and wholesomeness. According to Jagaban, if the merger of CPC and ACN had failed, Jonathan would have stayed president.
However, as productive as that alliance was, the signs point to the fact that it is time to let it go.
There are huge political forces inside the APC and across the country that are opposed to Tinubu’s presidency and would go to any length to prevent it.
The fact that he was unable to recently place his loyalists in the APC leadership structure should serve as a warning to Tinubu that he will not have an easy time within the party.
The series of crises within the party at the state and national levels; the unreasonably long tenure of the interim national executive of the party; and the uncertainty surrounding the party’s national convention all point to hidden plans to prevent Tinubu from clinching the party’s presidential ticket. And the orchestrated liquidation of the APC, leaving him with no viable political platform to participate in the 2023 elections (which will be the last chapter in the bid to stop Tinubu).
