After the 2015 victory of APC at the presidential election, a government was formed. Many of the top guns in that government did not want Tinubu close to the then president and Jagaban respected himself by not hanging around Aso Rock.
Aisha, the wife of the then president was furious and on many occasions, she made it known that Tinubu should not be so treated. Then, Asiwaju traveled out of the country as the 2019 elections were approaching.
Saraki, Dogara etc were in charge of the national assembly and the party chairman, Oyegun had lost control over them. They were openly working as enemies from within the party and as 2019 was approaching, the inner caucus of the Buhari government perceived a defeat if something was not done urgently and so they remembered Tinubu and advised Buhari strongly to bring him on board.
Tinubu answered without delay and saw FPMB. He told him that 2019 will not be difficult if he gets hold of the party structure and Buhari obliged.
Tinubu nominated Oshiomole with the directive that Saraki and other PDP elements in the party must lose their hold in the party. Saraki, Dogara and a few APC governors wanted Oyegun to continue but a day to the convention, when they saw that the president was fully in support of Tinubu’s choice, they advised Oyegun to step down from the race. In actual fact, their real plan was for APC not to hold that convention which would have rendered invalid every primary elections later conducted by the party from councillor to president and PDP would have taken over as it happened in Zamfara but Buhari listened to Tinubu and his then Vice President.
In no time, Saraki, Dogara, Dino etc became outcasts in the party, losing their structure right from their respective wards. They got frustrated and in one day, Saraki who was the Senate President and 16 other APC Senators decamped to PDP and many who always said they’re neutral celebrated it. They said that that was the end of APC and Buhari. But dear beloved, I tell you this morning that none of the 17 returned to the Senate. Not one of them.
Then, within APC, some governors felt that Tinubu had become very powerful through Oshiomole and so he must be tamed. That was the genesis of their fight against the Edo leader. They found Obaseki as a dependable ally and finally made him use Oshiomole’s ward chairman to suspend Oshiobaba from the party and since the then president did not intervene, Oshiomole was removed to stop Tinubu from the 2023 election.
Shuaibu was nominated by Oshiomole to deputize Obaseki and since Obaseki wanted Oshiomole dealt with, his deputy who was Oshiomole’s direct political son from Edo North turned against him and danced the attached dance with Obaseki.
They brought Buni and ultimately, Adamu Abdullahi but finally, the will of God still prevailed and today, Tinubu is the President, Oshiomole is a Senator but Shuaibu has been unceremoniously removed as Deputy Governor of Edo state after series of humiliation by Obaseki.
That is why it is a dangerous thing to scheme against a man God has chosen.
Written by Sunday Wale Adeniran
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