If not handled properly, a brewing supremacy battle between the dominant Hausa-Fulani bloc of the incoming ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC) and the South-West bloc of the party will snow-ball into a major crisis.
A source within the APC, told Western Post that immediately after the conclusion of the presidential election, the Northern elements in the party began covert moves to checkmate the overwhelming influence of Tinubu.
They were said to be perturbed by Tinubu’s domineering attitude and started moves to cut him to size before he hijacks the party. Tinubu played a prominent role in the merger that led to the formation of the APC and the eventual emergence of Buhari as the party’s presidential flag bearer.
The subtle moves to whittle down Tinubu’s influence was a carefully crafted plot by one of the staunch Buhari loyalists, who was recently elected governor in one of the Northern states.
The architects of the plot are justifying their actions to sideline Tinubu because they see him as a threat and an obstacle to their plans of fostering a Northern agenda on the party.
Recently, the Convener, Majeobaje Movement, a Yoruba socio-cultural group that supported Buhari in the last election, Chief Akintayo Akin-Deko, spoke of the growing discomfort of the North with Tinubu’s influence.
Akin-Deko said: “Already, we are getting complaints from the Federal level that there is a threat to Yorubalize National politics”.
Political watchers have before now predicted a clash of interests between the two factions in the party, saying the Buhari-led northern faction, which is historically conservative and believes in maintaining the present old order, which favours them, while the South-west bloc, led by Tinubu, has always been progressive-minded.
Others say Buhari’s silence on the need to restructure the country speaks volumes about his resolve to carry on promoting the Northern agenda in running the country.
There are insinuations that Tinubu and the Yoruba APC leaders may have played into the hands of Buhari and the Northern ‘hawks’, who had never hidden their desire to capture power by all means. They are now set to scheme out the Tinubu group and ultimately incapacitate them politically.
Meanwhile, there are strong indications that the South-East geopolitical zone might be sidelined in the zoning formula of the APC as regards the position of Secretary to the Government (SGF) of the Federation because of Tinubu’s endorsement of Chief Audu Ogbeh for the position.