Meeting Osinbajo, Lawan, Yahaya Bello — Tinubu’s ‘shuttle diplomacy’ after heated primaries

The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary election has come and gone. The ruling party’s primary election had it all: the deluge of political drama, a barrage of condescending jibes and smithereens of misfired permutations. A former governor said a hopeful was too nice that he would make a perfect ice cream vendor. Some hopefuls gave long unwinding speeches about their abilities only to step down for another man right on the spot. One hopeful, in explosive rage, boasted of single-handedly getting President Muhammadu Buhari into Aso Rock.

The poll had all the hilarious pockmarks of Nigerian politics, but it went relatively peaceful, with Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos, amassing four times the votes garnered by Rotimi Amaechi, former minister of transportation, who placed second.

Tinubu’s 1271 votes were even unimpeachable with the accumulation of the numbers won by other hopefuls who finished in the top five.

Despite the landslide victory, the former Lagos governor has begun reaching out to some of his fiercest opponents during the contest.

He began ”shuttle diplomacy” to repair the bridges that were fractured during the heat of the campaign for the primaries.

VISIT TO VICE-PRESIDENT YEMI OSINBAJO

In the lead-up to the primary election, speculations were rife that the relationship between Tinubu and Osinbajo — which began while the latter had served as attorney-general of Lagos and the former was governor — had grown terse.

The speculation gained more decibels after Tinubu, in an outburst in Abeokuta a few days before the primary election, narrated how he made Osinbajo the country’s vice-president.

“I said, ‘I have someone that’s a Christian, and I will nominate him. This party must not scatter’. And I nominated him (Osinbajo). That’s the truth,” Tinubu had said in Yoruba.

“They asked me to bring three names. Yemi Cardoso was number one. Wale Edun was number two, and Yemi Osinbajo was number three. I decided to drop just one name since I was surrendering my right. Buhari agreed to this, and I dropped Yemi Osinbajo’s name.”

However, after his victory at the Eagle Square on Wednesday, the former Lagos governor paid a visit to the vice-president at his residence in Abuja and pictures that emerged from the meeting showed the two former political allies deep in conversation.

HOSTING ABDULLAHI ADAMU AND APC NWC

Abdullahi Adamu, APC national chairman, was one of the few people who never made their antagonism toward Tinubu’s presidential bid subtle.

TheCable understands that Adamu had wanted Buhari to “cage” Tinubu following his utterance about putting the president in Aso Rock.

On the eve of the special convention, he announced that Lawan was the consensus presidential candidate. A move that was orchestrated to sideline Tinubu and a host of other hopefuls from the southern part of the country.

Adamu’s plan failed, and the former Lagos governor won the party’s ticket.

In acceptance of the party’s choice, the national chairman led a delegate of the APC national working committee (APC) to meet Tinubu.

At the meeting, Adamu said the ruling party “will deliver” the former Lagos governor as president in 2023, adding that NWC members have become his “foot soldiers”.

VISIT TO BUHARI

Some unprecedented political manoeuvrings during the run-in to the primary election saw Tinubu lose composure and make a couple of regrettable utterances. One of those was the viral speech in Abeokuta where he boasted about his effort in getting Buhari to win the presidential election in 2015.

“If not for me that led the battlefront, Buhari wouldn’t have won. He contested first, second and third time, but lost. He even said on television that he won’t contest again,” he had said in Yoruba.

“But I went to his home in Katsina. I told him ‘you would contest and win, but you won’t joke with the matter of the Yoruba’. Since he has been elected, I have not been appointed minister. I didn’t get a contract.

“This time, it’s Yoruba turn, and in Yorubaland, it’s my turn.”

TheCable learnt that the statement when interpreted to the president initially upset him, but he refused the pressure from some of his close associates to deal with the former Lagos state governor or interfere in the the primary election.

After the poll, Tinubu visited Buhari and hailed him for being trustworthy by not endorsing any presidential hopefuls.

MEETING AHMAD LAWAN

Ahmad Lawan, president of the senate, has severally hailed Tinubu as his “leader” and at one point said he would never contest against him for any position, but he did just that during the APC presidential primary election.

Lawan was endorsed by the party’s national chairman as the consensus candidate, but some members of the NWC kicked against it, and on the poll day, he came a distant fourth with just 152 votes.

In the aftermath of the victory, Tinubu said he would have been upset with the senate president for contesting against him and added that he would leave him to “lick his wounds”.

The duo, however, met at the national mosque in Abuja on Friday, and they prayed Jummat salat together, surrounded by other dignitaries.

A VISIT TO YAHAYA BELLO

When APC northern governors decided, with a few days to the primary election, that the party’s presidential ticket should go to a southerner, Yahaya Bello was the only governor who refused the resolution.

A video of him grumbling out of the meeting went viral on social media, and he even excused himself from the subsequent gathering of the governors with the president.

The governor of Kogi went ahead to contest the ticket and lost, earning just 47 votes. He alleged irregularities in the poll.

He, however, congratulated Tinubu on his victory and even donated a campaign office to the APC presidential ticket bearer.

The former Lagos governor then met with Bello and called for a united country in order to provide a better, prosperous future for Nigerians.

HOSTING DAPO ABIODUN

Dapo Abiodun, governor of Ogun, was another victim of the infamous Abeokuta outburst.

Tinubu said Abiodun would not have won the seat to become Ogun governor without his help.

Abiodun had pledged his loyalty to Osinbajo for the APC presidential ticket, which infuriated the former Lagos state governor.

Reacting to the utterance, the Ogun governor said he is not an emperor and his position is not a family inheritance.

Following Tinubu’s election, Abiodun visited him and pledged his support ahead of the 2023 presidential election.