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2023: Tinubu, El-Rufai Shadow Boxing Goes To Next Level
By Emmanuel Aziken
Assertions that the sponsor of the campaign materials projecting a 2023 presidential aspiration of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is a Kaduna based politician has opened up fresh issues within the top leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
The linkage to the Kaduna politician was made by The Nation newspaper which incidentally is purportedly owned by Tinubu. The sponsor according to the report sponsored the production of the campaign materials out of mischief to cause discord between President Muhammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Tinubu.
The newspaper, however, stopped short of naming the particular politician and thereby sending tongues wagging over who could have inspired the plot.
The Nation wrote that the campaign materials supposedly made in Dubai were traced to what the newspaper described as a faceless group named “Asiwaju Reloaded Ambassadors.”
The group has been disowned by Tinubu.
His Media Office, in a terse two-paragraph statement signed by Tunde Rahman, said: “We have seen pictures of fez caps, T shirts, shirts and even leaflets with Bola Tinubu 2023 embossed on them purportedly by a faceless group which christened itself ‘Asiwaju Reloaded Ambassadors Nigeria’.
“Neither the group nor its souvenirs are known to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
El-Rufai and Tinubu In Recent Times
| May 4 | El-Rufai in a lecture at the Bridge Club teaches Lagosians how to oust godfathers |
| May 13 | El-Rufai at the Presidenital Villa says he has no regrets over his how to remove godfather lecture |
| May 31 | El-Rufai throws support for Femi Gbajabiamila’s speakership ambition, says it is President Buhari’s project. |
| July 10 | Tinubu disowns Asiwaju Reloaded Ambassadors |
| July 12 | The Nation links Kaduna politician as sponsor of Asiwaju Reloaded Ambassadors |
“We hereby, through this medium, categorically deny any knowledge of the group and dissociate Asiwaju Tinubu from the group’s unsolicited and unwarranted materials.”
The only known person who had in the past been seen as antagonistic to Asiwaju Tinubu resident in Kaduna is Governor Nasir El-Rufai who is also believed to have a presidential ambition.
However, given the governor’s well-known outspokenness it would be surprising that the governor would use such subterranean means to undercut Tinubu in a presidential contest.
El-Rufai had in early May at a function organized by the Bridge Club in Ikoyi,
“Godfatherism. This is Lagos. Let me tell you something sir; you know, Kaduna State used to be like that. There were three or four politicians in Kaduna that you could not become anything unless you had them on your side. Those were the godfathers of Kaduna politics and you had to carry them along and you know, the three words, ‘carry them along’ mean paying them regularly.
“The key is to go to the people. The card reader and the biometric register have given us the tools to connect directly with the people. I assure you if you do that for the next four years, connecting with the people; the tin godfather, you will retire him or her permanently. But it is hard work; it requires three to four years of hard work. So, if you want to run in 2023, you should start now.”
If Governor El-Rufai believes that he is the one that was referred to in the report by The Nation many will not be shocked to see him respond to the insinuation.
However, given the fact that the same governor has demystified the godfathers in his state, he has by his admission become the only pre-eminent political figure in Kaduna State.
That is why the guess a good guess may be that the person insinuated as the sponsor of the supposedly faceless “Asiwaju Reloaded Ambassadors” could be the one who defeated the godfathers in Kaduna State.
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