Opinion: Dear Buhari, Tinubu will be a disaster as running-mate

by Ola’ Idowu

The All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari must do well to tread cautiously in his imminent choice of a running mate as the 2015 elections beckon. In choosing a vice-presidential candidate he must not give in to over-ambitious people who want to ride on the people’s revolution to fulfil their personal ambition.

Its on that basis that a name like Bola Tinubu would be a disaster for the Buhari ticket. If the APC believes it can ride on the popularity of Buhari or dissatisfaction of Nigerians with the present situation in terms of governance in the country to achieve a Muslim/Muslim presidency (whatever that means) then the best person to pick the vice-presidential ticket is Lagos state governor ‘Tunde Fashola.

Buhari has come this far only because the masses of Nigerians are disappointed with the high level of corruption bedevilling the country that has made it impossible for any meaningful growth or government policy to sip through to them and transform the country for the better. They are also bitter, a man they gave so much trust to in 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan due to his I grew up with no shoes sob story, has betrayed their trust and allowed corruption to thrive unhindered while poverty deepens in the land.

Its for this reason hitherto strange bedfellows who are tired of the lack of progress in the country in the midst of plenty, left their different parties and joined up together to form the APC. Buhari brought in his CPC, the ANPP came on board and the new PDP with about seven defecting governors all merged with the ACN to produce the APC. Thus far it appears to be working, but its only worked this much because of the genuine cry for change from the Nigerian masses. They are supporting Buhari’s candidacy based on his life-long Spartan lifestyle and anti-elitist approach in everything he has done or espoused as his ideas and visions for Nigeria. It would therefore be totally out of place for someone whose lifestyle is a direct opposite to that of Buhari to become his vice-presidential candidate thereby weakening the ticket but with the hope that the masses would still vote for Buhari all the same and they can fulfil their own personal ambition rather than the ambitions of millions of Nigerians to have a better future and a nation with minimal if not totally free corruption.

Its on that basis that a name like Bola Tinubu would be a disaster for the Buhari ticket. If the APC believes it can ride on the popularity of Buhari or dissatisfaction of Nigerians with the present situation in terms of governance in the country to achieve a Muslim/Muslim presidency (whatever that means) then the best person to pick the vice-presidential ticket is Lagos state governor ‘Tunde Fashola. Not only has he espoused his views as to the kind of Nigeria he would love to see, he has taken his job as governor of Lagos state seriously and shown characters similar to that of Buhari in terms of frugality, discipline and commitment to duty. It would be taking Nigerians and indeed millions of Christians for a ride if you choose to produce a Muslim/Muslim ticket and the person running on it as vice-president is Tinubu.

Not only have lots of Nigerians always suspected he has helped himself massively with the wealth of Lagosians, a recent autobiography by former president Olusegun Obasanjo confirms that much describing Tinubu as the most corrupt governor in Nigeria between 199-2007. Out of the 36 governors between 1999-2007  investigated by Nuhu Ribadu the ex-EFCC boss, our dear Bola Tinubu came bottom of the pile in terms of his massive amount of corruption and treasury looting of Lagos state. One would have thought his paid team of hungered writers would have gone to town with facts and evidences to defend their master and refute Obasanjo’s claims but they are quiet so far. They are only quiet because just like their master they believe they can ride on Buhari’s popularity amongst Nigerians due to his life-long denouncement of corruption and ostentatious living to get their corrupt overlord into Aso-rock as vice-president. Like I said allowing such a name on an anti-corruption ticket would be a disservice to many Nigerians and particularly to Yorubas.

No one should use the Yorubas as a bargaining tool for their own personal ambition or fulfilment of a marabou or clairvoyant’s prediction to become vice-president. Yorubas at the moment have no leader or Asiwaju, if they did they would have voted for such Asiwaju’s candidate in Ondo and Ekiti state. What we have are governors in the different states in the South-west who are the de facto leaders of those states. The kind of blinding trust Yorubas gave to the late sage Obafemi Jeremiah Awolowo was because of his altruistic leadership style where he did everything for the Yoruba race and not for his personal glory. An Awolowo where he to be alive would never collect money from Jonathan over the heads of Yoruba people to strike a deal with him. What kind of leader would strike a deal with Jonathan on behalf of his own people and then come back four years later and say change Jonathan? Where you sleeping when you made the deal and in any case should you even collect money over the head of your people to strike a deal? That smacks more of a slave master and overlord rather than a leader. Thus Yorubas should not be used as bargaining chips to achieve one man’s personal ambition or fulfil the predictions of his marabouts and spiritualists. Buhari must tread cautiously in selecting his running mate and not leave it to glory hunters to do so for him. He needs to understand that millions of Yorubas due to their sophistication would vote for him anyway even if a Yoruba is not on the ticket as his running mate. It doesn’t matter to them if a Yoruba is vice-president, what matters is that Nigeria is well run and devoid of corruption which would benefit everyone regardless of tribe.

Buhari also need to understand that if he wins the presidency in 2015 its not because he is a northerner or the entire north votes for him, but because Nigerians are simply tired of the never ending corruption cycle in the country that seems to keep rolling without abating and they believe Buhari has the courage to deal with it. He shouldn’t be carried away by sentiments in making his final decision and that decision squarely rests on his shoulders. The party may make suggestions but Buhari has the final say and he should be more assertive without sentiments otherwise he begins to make discerning Nigerians doubt his ability to take on the Dogs (vested interests who perpetually keep running around for rackets and scams to defraud Nigeria) and Baboons (powerful forces who forever want to keep the country down and restrict our rights to elect the right leaders). Buhari must be reminded of what he said at the APC primaries that corrupt people cannot end corruption. There is nothing like good or bad corruption. A corrupt person in the PDP is the same as a corrupt person in APC no matter how much good sound-bites that corrupt individual in the APC makes about being a democrat or a progressive, except of course its now allowed to be a democratic or progressive thief, while the conservative thief in the PDP is crucified.

A ticket that is anchored on anti-corruption cannot have allegedly the most corrupt governor in Nigeria between 1999-2007 and the richest ex-governor in the history of Nigeria eight years after leaving office due to his dubious 2007 Lagos state pensions bill, as well as many trap doors put on the state’s treasury that lead back into the pocket of one man. A kilometre of road in Lagos state and indeed most APC states are amongst the highest in the world in terms of cost and its meant to be led by progressives or a progressive Asiwaju. Yorubas would vote for Buhari regardless of who is on the ticket, we voted for Jonathan/Sambo in 2011 due to Jonathan’s “I had no shoes sob story” there is no reason we wouldn’t vote for Buhari this time due to his incorruptible nature and we don’t need a “Baba sope” (Master says so) to tell us who to vote for. Yorubas should not be used as a bargaining chip to fulfill one man’s personal ambition whose hands were not clearly shown in terms of his full support to Buhari before the primaries anyway.

Its a slippery slope to Aso-rock in 2015 and Buhari has to tread cautiously in everything he does and every support he tries to seek without selling off the trust Nigerians want to repose in him even before he gets into the presidency. Beginning with the choice of his running mate he needs to demonstrate to Nigerians that he would be the one calling the shots when he becomes president and not waiting to retrogressively remove the influence of his current backers whom he doesn’t agree with in terms of principle. Choosing a running mate who is corruption and scandal free on an anti-corruption ticket Buhari wants to campaign on would be the start of the common-sense revolution we all want in Nigeria.

————–

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

cool good eh love2 cute confused notgood numb disgusting fail