BoT chairmanship: Tinubu, Atiku renew rivalries

In from Olumide Olaoluwa …

Former Vice President Abubakar Atiku and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Asiwaju Bola Tinubu are back in the battlefield.

The two prominent APC chieftains are battling for the Board of Trustees (BoT) chairmanship of the ruling APC.

Tinubu, according to investigations, entered the race after initially backing former interim chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande. He was said to have decided to offer himself to neutralise the towering influence of some forces within the party.

Atiku, on his part, had always been a frontline candidate for the position. The post was reportedly ceded to him before the National Assembly leadership crisis.

Though advisory, the office of BoT chairmanship is expected to wield enormous influence in the party.

Many interest groups within the ruling party believe that whoever controls the BoT will have more than passing power in the hierarchy of the APC.

The two old war-horses have always been at daggers-drawn since 2007 when Tinubu sponsored Atiku to emerge the presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

Atiku lost the contest to the late President Musa Yar’Adua but reportedly felt Tinubu did not pull enough weight to back his candidature.

He returned to the PDP in 2009 despite several obstacles before finding his way back to the progressives fold in 2014.

Atiku’s main grouse, it was learnt, was how Tinubu backed President Muhammadu Buhari during the presidential primary of the APC in Lagos.

His camp believed that the former Lagos governor facilitated the choice of President Buhari despite the massive injection of funds into the project by the former vice president. This, it was gathered, was why Atiku stayed away from the presidential train during the nationwide campaigns in the run-up to the election.

When the National Assembly elections came into view, Atiku opted to back Bukola Saraki as Senate President to seize control of the second arm of government. This underscored why Saraki and his supporters went straight to the Turaki of Adamawa’s Abuja residence after his election for a courtesy visit.

The camp of the former Lagos governor felt slighted while Atiku’s supporters were jubilant.

To counter Atiku’s influence, the Tinubu’s camp decided the race for the BoT chairmanship must be won at all costs.

A source close to the Jagbaban as he is fondly called said the former senator has declared the battle “as a fight to the finish.”

Both camps have been mobilising support and canvassing reasons why their principals deserve the slot.

The Atiku’s camp reasons that Tinubu produced Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and APC’s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.

They said he has been given enough.

Tinubu’s aides, on their part, said Atiku produced Saraki as Senate President and cannot be trusted because of his constant switch of party allegiance.

They say the former Lagos governor should be pacified with the post after his candidate for the House of Representatives speakership, Hon. Femi Gbajabimiala, lost to Yakubu Dogara.

It was learnt that President Buhari is more disposed to a Tinubu’s chairmanship of the BoT based on the support he garnered from the South West.

Read also: APC may placate Tinubu with BoT chair

The zoning formula also supports Tinubu as the North had filled many leading posts in the APC.

President Buhari (North West); Senate President Saraki (North Central) as Senate President and Speaker Dogara (North East) are already holding leading posts in the sharing formula.

This leaves the South with only Vice President Osinbajo and Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun in the scheme of things.

The ruling party is likely to constitute the board any time from now, following the recent ratification of the process by its National Working Committee (NWC). With this, both camps are perfecting their strategies to clinch the prize.

Although chieftains of the party are said to be more favorably disposed to the seat going one way, the other party is not giving up easily in the fight to emerge winner, and have more control over the party in the race to 2019.

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