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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cI am familiar enough with members of Buhari\u2019s inner circle to know that they deeply despise Tinubu. They snigger at his presidential ambition and are amused by his expectation that they would support him. Tinubu himself knows this. That\u2019s why I am shocked that he appears irresistibly and dangerously drawn to people who will throw him like he is hot after the February election. Maybe he is gripped by the sort of deathly attraction that causes a moth to embrace a flame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDuring a TV appearance on Television Continental on February 20, 2018, Tinubu\u2019s wife, Remi, said Tinubu was \u201ctrashed\u201d by Buhari\u2019s northern political machine after the 2015 election. People who \u201ctrashed\u201d you after an electoral triumph to which you\u2019re central will certainly go the whole hog and incinerate or bury you in the aftermath of another victory that will ensure that they will no longer need you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cApart from the certain betrayal that will surely come from the Buhari camp in the event that Tinubu helps them to win or rig the 2019 election, a Tinubu presidential candidacy will be beset by a lot of problems. Given the heightened sensitivity of religion in Nigeria now, which is made even more so by Buhari\u2019s unexampled, in-your-face bigotry, Tinubu would be required to have a northern Christian as a running mate to earn the support of the south and the Christian north. That would, however, automatically alienate Buhari\u2019s northern Muslim supporters. So his ambition is dead before it\u2019s even born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMost importantly, though, as Tinubu himself knows only too well, a vote for APC in the coming presidential election won\u2019t be a vote for Buhari; it would be a vote for an evil, greedy, corrupt, provincial, and reactionary cabal and their minions who are currently perpetrating a stratospheric theft of the nation\u2019s resources in ways that would make an angel of Abacha. President Buhari is an insentient human vegetable who is barely aware of his own existence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a September 21, 2019 column, titled \u201cWhy Bola Tinubu Can Never Be Nigeria\u2019s President,\u201d I pointed out that \u201cBefore the 2019 election, a friend of mine who is close to Abba Kyari confided in me that after the election they would \u2018deal with Tinubu and his people.\u2019 He bragged that by the time they are done with him and his underlings, he would be so damaged that he won\u2019t even be an option for the 2023 presidency. It\u2019s already starting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a December 22, 2019 social media status update titled \u201cTinubu\u2019s Dangerous Dance with the Cabal,\u201d I wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe cabal is toying with Bola Tinubu like a yo-yo\u2014and he is naively, if gingerly, playing along\u2014 in readiness for his eventual political incineration by or before 2023. And the cabal is being ruthlessly Machiavellian about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTinubu has been given a fake promissory note that he\u2019ll be APC\u2019s presidential torchbearer in 2023. On the strength of this worthless promissory note, they\u2019ve sought his permission to destroy some of his most trusted foot soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith his consent, they\u2019ve consigned Yemi Osinbajo to symbolic Aso Rock prison. Tinubu endorsed Tunde Fowler\u2019s replacement at the FIRS and is in on his impending trial for corruption. He also stamped his imprimatur to MuizBanire\u2019s unceremonious ouster from AMCON. He\u2019s giddily approving everything the cabal tells him it wants to do to his \u201cconstituents\u201d and foot soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe has now fallen out of favour with almost all Southwest governors except his dutiful stooge in Lagos and his nephew in Osun. Of course, he is a b\u00eate noire to Afenifere. At this rate, Tinubu would divorce his wife and disown his children if the cabal tells him to do so\u2014just because he\u2019s told that he\u2019d be president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is a strategic, Machiavellian demobilisation of his base, but one in which he is a willing participant, using the illusory promise of APC presidential nomination. When he is eventually denied the APC presidential slot, he would have no one of political consequence in his natal region to fall back to for counterattack other than his battering rams in the Lagos media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBefore his eventual political annihilation, he would be thoroughly unpopular in the Southwest. His fate would elicit no mass sympathy from the region when the cabal finally bares its fangs publicly and devours him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in a December 8, 2019 interview with The Interview magazine\u2019s Azubuike Ishiekwene, I said the following in response to the question, \u201cIf you were to make a prediction about the political landscape in 2020, what would it be?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have no\u2014nor do I believe anyone has\u2014oracular powers, but I think 2020 would witness the incipience of the alignment of political forces preparatory to the 2023 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Buhari\/Tinubu alliance would crack more noticeably. The people who prop Buhari in power don\u2019t want Tinubu\u2014or anyone outside their primordial constituency\u2014to succeed them. That\u2019s my prediction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What hasn\u2019t started to happen yet is the fight I predicted between paid Buhari and Tinubu loyalists on social media. In an October 5, 2018 social media post titled \u201cContest of Idiocy Between Buharists and Tinubuists,\u201d I said, among other things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s no surprise that Buharists and Tinubuists are in a coalition of buffoonery to reelect a lifeless Buhari in 2019. When pigheaded Buhari fanaticism collides with sheepish Tinubu loyalty, it sparks the sort of combustible admixture of idiocy we\u2019re seeing today, which disposes otherwise normal people to lend unthinking support to transparently incompetent people for political office. Thankfully, the rank of the Tinubuists is dwindling dramatically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBuharists and Tinubuists certainly share the same slavish, uncritical, freakish mentality, but wait to see what will happen in 2023 (if Buhari wins a second term) when Buhari disappoints Tinubu by not \u201chanding over\u201d power to him\u2013as he expects Buhari would. You\u2019d be entertained by the fight that would break out between the two idiotic camps that are friends today. Save this somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So Tinubu had lots of warning that the fate that has befallen him now was a foregone conclusion. He ignored it and chose instead to legitimise the worst civilian regime in Nigeria\u2019s history. He deserves his fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well,the next predictable phase in the unfolding drama is for Tinubu to turn the Lagos news media against the Buhari regime\u2014 and for his mindless loyalists to clash with Buharists in a contest of idiocy. That would be an entertaining spectacle to watch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Farook Kperogi The political coalition between Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s CPC and Bola Tinubu\u2019s ACN has all but collapsed. There was nothing even remotely surprising about it. In previous columns, media interviews, and social media updates,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polity-politics-governance"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/towncryyers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/GET-4-932x598-1.jpg?resize=932%2C598&ssl=1\")
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