Tinubu’s triumph…Oyetola’s victory, By Kunle Oyatomi

Nigeria will now begin to live to its potential…The journey has started…The country’s greatness begins now. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Presidential Candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC.

The remarkable feat of ex-Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in clinching the presidential ticket of the governing All Progressives Congress, APC, at the just-concluded party’s primary should not be viewed as an achievement, independent of other political variables and calculations in the politics of the country.

While the triumph of the national leader of APC, is not really at variance with popular expectations, it landed finally after much turbulence that threatened the postulations of the pundits. We must also refer to the inevitable link of the outcome of the event to other developments seemingly unconnected from the victory of the Jagaban of Borgu.
We need to take all these in their strides, even if they suck our breath. Tinubu is a long distance political runner. He bides his time and calculates strategies. Yet, he isn’t a ‘trudger’, in a practical sense of the word. The one who trudges in the political journey is given to a laid-back disposition that settles for circumstantial summons. He has a duty at hand; but if a challenge crops up and invites him to drop his ambition, he would without a murmur.

Not Asiwaju. He would roar back. He would restate his firm and unflinching commitment to the ideals that put him on the marathon trip. The reason he does, it has since been discovered, is because he has repeatedly tied his fate to that of his mentees, his godsons. After taking these neophytes into the treacherous trenches of politics, he would not abandon them or expose to the wild and ravenous beasts to chew them. He nurses them to full political maturity.

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Thus, Nigeria’s political landscape is peopled by those referred to as ‘Asiwaju boys’. At the recent presidential primary, some of these Tinubu acolytes were at work, showing gratitude to their mentor by giving him their approval to go for a shot at the presidency next year on the platform of the party he was significantly instrumental in creating. Interestingly, it was the party that entered the record book by being the only party that unseated a sitting government at the centre since we began this phase of democratic rule.

There’s a lot of excitement in the air with expectations that if Tinubu eventually secures the presidency in 2023, he would replicate the magic of his days as a two-time governor of Lagos State. In his days, he ran rings around those who wanted to muzzle the state by withholding the state’s federal allocation on account of his novelty in creating new local administrations. He did so to bring development and the goodies of life closer to the people of the grassroots. Tinubu was the first to so create councils in a civilian setting. Punished for this revolutionary initiative, the governor didn’t budge. He weathered the storm raised by the central government of President Olusegun Obasanjo. Lagos didn’t go under. Even when his state was the only one his party controlled in the southwest, he refused to resort to political compromise.

I did speak of the Jagaban as a player who not only teaches you the ropes, but also, he monitors you to ensure you don’t depart from the path that has earned him the magnificent applause he has been known for, that has now climaxed into the biggest of all, the mandate to go for the presidency. He has been a kingmaker all along. Now an attempt at the throne itself.

We of All Progressives Congress here in the State of Osun under Governor Gboyega Oyetola are a part of the Tinubu ripple. He has invested immensely in the stakes here. The national leader of APC shares in the success story here. It is the reason we are thrilled by his sweet victory at the presidential primary. He stood by us in 2018 to defeat the opposition. We also benefited from his counsel as our leader in the rough times of betrayal. We are also bound to celebrate with him now and wish him more success in the days as he embarks on the journey to Aso Rock.

Tinubu’s huge win at the primary is coming only a few weeks before the gubernatorial poll in Osun. We see it as the precursor of Oyetola’s win. If our leader has received such a resounding recognition for his political acumen and ingenuity, it is a call on the good people of Osun to follow it up with an equally thunderous vote for the reelection of Governor Oyetola. Let us make it a win for Osun APC in July to prove two unassailable points: Tinubu’s achievement in Abuja isn’t a fluke and also that the people of Osun are dogged winners like their leader.

● Kunle Oyatomi, Esq , writes from Osogbo.