2023: Tinubu drives harder to keep South West under control

For the Jagaban, politics begins from home

By Akpo Ometan

The ongoing political gerrymandering going on in the South West is not innocent, The Difference checks have revealed.

This is because, ahead of the forthcoming tussle to take over control of the rungs of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in the post-Buhari era,  the party’s ceremonially acclaimed National leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu may have presently intensified his drive to ensure that he exercises maximum advantage over the politics of his home South West region, The Difference has learnt.

And in this drive, the leading politician from the region, who cut his political teeth in the heady days of the Ibrahim Babangida transition has preferred to adopt a complementing strong arm and Trojan Horse strategy depending on what the practical field variables in every situation requires.

Our sources say that in executing the brief, Tinubu, who is widely regarded as the Jagaban, has, along with his closet advisers, associates and supporters presently elected to divide their battles into two: those that must be fought to a standstill and those wherein the foes should still be accommodated for a season longer until the coast is completely clear.

In the first category are political competitors like outgoing Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State and Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo while for the latter category, identified longer-term obstacles include Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State and Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola.

Sources say that it is in the prosecution of this agenda that Amosun was denied the opportunity of presenting a successor of his own choice in Ogun while 18 of the 26 members of the Ondo State House of Assembly have presently been mobilised to not only make the State politically unstable for Akeredolu but to equally proceed on to initiating impeachment proceedings against him.region,

Equally being factored into the ‘accommodate for now’ frame in the politics of the region by the Tinubu camp, our feelers indicate, are notable party stalwarts as  Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo and Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi. Slightly outside the region, one major political player that is also being handled with kids gloves presently is  incumbent APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole.

It is already being very widely speculated that the 2023 battle in the APC would be a straight fight between Tinubu and incumbent Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el Rufai, who has on his part, very apparently sent out signals through his electing for a muslim-muslim second term governorship ticket in Kaduna, that he equally expects the battle for the post-Buhari years to be fought on the turf of bloc politics.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu