Buhari, Tinubu And Aisha’s Strategic Role In The Transition

The news that President Muhammadu Buhari was staying back in the United Kingdom for another one week after the end of the coronation of His Majesty, King Charles III for the purpose of keeping an appointment with his dentist was shocking to many.

The president had travelled penultimate Wednesday, three days ahead of the coronation for the one in a lifetime event that drew presidents from across the world. Those presidents like Joe Biden who thought that they would be swallowed up in the crowd simply delegated to others to represent them.  Biden indeed sent his wife.

Having done his best as he has repeatedly confessed, and Nigeria remaining in the hands of kidnappers, bandits, and the economy in lethargy, it was perhaps uncharitable for anyone to have denied the outgoing president the opportunity of catching this last global limelight, at least for posterity. After all, with Buhari in the country the hundreds of school children in the hands of kidnappers in Yauri, Kaduna, Chibok and many others were not released.  

However, your correspondent had thought that with the event over that the president was back and settled in Nigeria. It was the press statement from Femi Adesina about the president staying back to check on his teeth for another one week that got many, including your correspondent to know that Buhari was still in the UK.

How the presidential spokesman managed to believe that Nigerians would be enthralled with the news of the president waiting for one week to attend to his teeth is unbelievable. Perhaps the spokesman thought that many Nigerians would have appreciated the president for not wasting fuel on the presidential jet to go to and fro London twice within one week.

But in the real sense, does it sound reasonable that the president of a nation bedeviled by bandits, kidnappers, fluctuating currency, inflation and all sorts of negatives would stay back in a foreign country for one week to attend to his teeth?

Even more shocking is the fact that one of the president’s kinsmen nay, relative, runs one of the best dental practices in the country in Abuja. I am informed that Buhari had prior to his emergence as president attended to his teeth at the dental practice in Abuja and Kaduna.

How the administration would explain that the presidential jet would have to pay one more week for parking charges and other allowances due to the travelling crew and aides on account of the presidential teeth, beggars belief.

Well in his absence the country appears to be adjusting to life without him.

It was shocking that the National Working Committee, NWC of the All Progressives Congress, APC issued a statement on the zoning of the four presiding officers’ of the National Assembly without a reference to consultations with Buhari.

The statement issued from the National Secretariat that was few years years ago named after Buhari spoke of consultations among party leaders and the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. It was shocking that no reference was made about Buhari, the incumbent.

It was not surprising given the way and manner that former Buharists have been gravitating towards Tinubu and running away from the incumbent.

Few would remember how some governors once famed as Buhari’s devotees dragged the president to court over the Naira Redesign policy last February, and with it, destroyed what many had believed would be one of the veritable legacies of his government.

Nigerians are also seeing how political actors from across tribe and tongue are rapidly adopting to the Asiwaju signal cap as reflective of the new sheriff in town.

Governor Abdullahi Ganduje who had years ago been known for donning the Kwakwansiyya cap is one of the foremost, now pushing the Asiwaju cap into a national phenomenon.

The apparent determination of the political class to push Buhari aside is not totally surprising.

Tinubu, the new sheriff in town won the APC ticket despite what many saw as the stout opposition mounted by the Buhari camp. Even after winning the ticket and as Buhari sought to erect a legacy of free and fair elections, the incumbent president was wholly crushed into submission by the network of political alliances weaved by Tinubu.

Despite the humiliation he suffered in the eight years of the Buhari administration when he did not have much influence, especially in the appointment of ministers and key operatives of government, Tinubu is not expected to be vindictive. One of the good positives that Tinubu is reckoned to have is of not suppressing repentant antagonists.

Tinubu indeed, will always have at the back of his mind that though Buhari was not supportive of his aspiration, but that a key member of the Buhari household was fully supportive.

The role of Mrs Aisha Buhari in playing the spoiler role to the many plots and intrigues laid against Asiwaju by the Buhari camp may one day come to light.

Indeed, for a woman who was globally consigned to the kitchen and the other room, history would reckon her as a great political strategist who deployed charm and chastity to recompense the man who she believes more than anyone else gave her husband his life ambition.

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