Unequivocally, everyone knows the role of Tinubu in making sure that the party’s mandate, in 2015, goes to Buhari amidst his fellow contenders; Atiku and Kwankwaso. No Southerner from the West stood against Buhari as it was planned that the primaries should be worked in his favour.
The support didn’t end at his emergence during the primary, it even went stronger during the tussle of the general elections. Efforts were put in place which led to a less than one year party disposing the ruling party from the seat of power.
Similarly in 2019, when Buhari sought for re-election, Tinubu didn’t turn his back on him. Even, the infamous name he got as the “Bullion Van” was as a result of an action he displayed which emanated from his undying support for Buhari in 2019. While Buhari’s kinsmen, Atiku and Kwankwaso, built forces together to dispose him, Tinubu stood solidly behind him. And, just like the 2015 triumph, 2019 was also a record of the same status.
Coincidentally, the vital role Tinubu played in the political journey of Buhari in both the 2015 and 2019 general elections, yielded an incarnate in his favour. It was Tinubu-for-Buhari in 2015 and 2019. Now we have the replica, El-rufai-for-Tinubu in 2023.
From the primaries of the Progressives till date, El-rufai’s undying support for Tinubu is unquantifiable. From inception, owing to the aids he provided towards Tinubu’s huge number of votes from Kaduna State, many Nigerians speculated that he made those stunts because of his interest in the Vice Presidential slot.
In vitiating such ideology that people hold in respect of his genuine struggle in favour of Asiwaju, even after the primaries, the support keeps growing stronger day-by-day.
Even when some of the so called Arewa elders who couldn’t stand by justice, fairness and equity, spew the venom in them in an attack towards El-rufai, the doggedness in him didn’t fail, even a bit. His types are those whom people fondly address as the ‘Dattijon Arewa’
Yusuf Danjuma Yunus is a student of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Kaduna State and can be reached via yunusand82@gmail.com.
