Presidential Campaign: Has Buhari abdicated his responsibilities to Tinubu?
The decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to hand over his reelection campaign to APC National Leader and CoChairman of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has continued to dominate political discourse across the country.
The development has elicited mixed reactions from a broad spectrum of Nigerians.
Speaking while inaugurating the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council in Abuja last Monday, President Muhammadu Buhari handed over the role of leading the presidential campaigns to Tinubu on the grounds that he did not want the country’s governance to suffer.
He explained that much as he would be involved in the campaigns, it was Tinubu who would be fully in charge and must keep a 24-hour vigil to ensure the success of the campaigns.
BDSUNDAY reports that the 2019 election is exactly 33 days away.
According to the President, from the nation’s Number Two Citizen, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to the Adams Oshiomhole-led APC as well as Director General of the campaign council, Rotimi Amaechi among others, they are all to report to the former Lagos State Governor.
“But I must also add that, though we will all be deeply involved, I would like to assure the nation that I will do my part without making governance or my work suffer. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, my co-chairman, will be fully in charge and is going to be on 24-hour vigil,” he explained.
The development has thrown up several interpretations from political commentators in the country.
While the President’s critics are quick to point to United States President, Donald Trump who tranversed the country, campaigning for votes for Republican candidates in the build-up to the 2018 mid-term election, Buhari’s admirers have applauded him for the decision.
Particularly, to some, the President’s move is to use Tinubu’s influence to clinch the South West geopolitical zone, which many described as the ‘swing states’. Those who share this school-of-thought hinged their argument on the fact that Buhari had previously lost the 2003 to 2011 presidential elections unti he (Buhari) entered into a merger with the Tinubu- led Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to form APC in 2013 before he won.
Other political observers are of the opinion that the President’s decision may have been informed by his health challenge. According to them, Buhari cannot go through the rigours of campaigns because he had previously admitted that his doctors had advised him to eat and sleep well.
It would be recalled that in 2017, the President had revealed that feeding well and sleeping for longer hours were the secrets of his good look after he recovered from illness. “I have explained to the public that as a General I used to give orders, now I take orders. The doctors told me to feed my stomach and sleep for longer hours; that is why I am looking much better,” the President had said.
BDSUNDAY reports that since he was inaugurated President on May 29, 2015, he had spent over 180 days receiving medical treatment abroad for an undisclosed ailment.
Coming barely 24 hours after a leaked audio tape involving Amaechi where the Transportation Minister was reportedly caught criticising President Buhari, others believe the decision was to strip the embattled Rivers State politician his role as campaign DG.
A source in the Presidency told BDSUNDAY that the President is miffed at Amechi for disparaging his person. He described the move as a vote of no confidence on the DG. “Forget the picture you see of Buhari and Amechi, smiling to the cameras, the President and his cabals are unhappy with him ( Amechi),” the source who spoke on condition of anonymity, informed our correspondent.
The audio clip posted by Reno Omokri, an aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, on his Twitter handle, echoed a voice which he attributed to Amechi purportedly saying “Buhari neither reads nor listens to anyone.”
However, the voice could not be authenticated by BDSUNDAY.
As of the time of filing this report, Omokri had released the fourth audio clip of the Minister criticizing his principal.
The source explained that the two court judgments in Rivers State, which barred Rivers APC from fielding candidates in the forthcoming elections and the Minister’s inability to put his party in order in his home state, may have compounded his problems.
While some opine that it is a ploy by Buhari to get Tinubu more committed to his reelection bid, having neglected him after he won the 2015 election, others submit that this has confirmed the claim by
Senate President, Bukola Saraki, when he accused Tinubu of plotting to succeed Buhari in 2023.
In the same token, other analysts have described the decision as an attempt by the President to avoid the forthcoming presidential debate scheduled for January 19.
In an interview with BDSUNDAY, a political analyst, Taiye Odewale, said Buhari may have made the pronouncements to test the waters.
His words: “This is strange in politics, not only in Nigeria but globally. It is about one month to the election. This is the time that anybody who is contesting is supposed to be on the field to campaign to say ‘this is what I have done, these are the things I am planning to do’. Not that you say somebody should go and do it on your behalf. But let’s wait and see how Tunubu will do it. I know that by the time the Presidential Campaign Council starts going to the field, he himself will know that he needs to be there with them because there is no way Tunubu who is not contesting will now be the one to be telling Nigerians what Buhari will do. It will be odd. So, I don’t think he will just sit in the Villa and expect Tunubu to be marketing him when he is very much around”.
On the influential role of Tinubu in swaying votes, Odewale said this can only happen in the South West which consists of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun. “Outside South West, he has no influence. What about the remaining 30 states and the Federal Capital Territory?” he asked rhetorically.
Also commenting, a former Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly, Jumoke Akindele, said the development is a testament of the President’s disdain for the masses.
Akindele expressed disappointment that the President would miss a golden opportunity that the campaign offers, to market himself to the people rather than do so by proxy.