By Augustine Akhilomen

With few days to the Presidential election, there appears to be fracas within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) camp, after the party’s Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, went on a second tirade at the Moshood Kashimawo Abiola stadium in Abeokuta, Ogun state capital last Wednesday.

This time around, Tinubu hinted that the hardships occasioned by fuel scarcity, the naira redesign policy and the debts incurred by the government are meant to dim his chances in the 2023 election.

Recall that Nigerians are grappling with months-long fuel scarcity that has impacted life and businesses, compounding the already bad state of livelihood in the country.

Besides that, the CBN announced the redesign of naira notes and new cashless policy late last year, a set of monetary policies that has pitted the apex bank governor against politicians. The central bank gave a January 31 deadline to phase out the old naira notes, a decision which has been extended to February 10.

The stage and location of Tinubu’s outburst are symbolic as it brings back the memory of MKO Abiola who was denied the apex political seat in Nigeria. Like Abiola, Tinubu is running a same-faith ticket with the running mate being a person from the northeastern extraction.

Tinubu made the damning allegations at a stadium named after MKO Abiola and like the Epetedo declaration, Tinubu’s tirade was meant to unsettle the holders of power. At the Abeokuta rally, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu chastised major players in the Buhari administration, while charging at the same time, the voters to support him en masse during the polls.

Tinubu said the developments are deliberate attempts by mischief makers to cause disaffection among the citizenry towards the APC. He said the naira redesign is part of the conspiracies and mischief from certain elements within the corridors of power, who want to frustrate the citizenry.

“They don’t want this election to be held. They want to sabotage it (elections). Will you allow them?” Tinubu asked the teeming supporters at the rally, to which they responded “No.”

“Even if they said there is no fuel, we will trek to vote. They have a lot of mischiefs; they could say there is no fuel. They have been scheming to create a fuel crisis, but forget about it.

“Relax, I, Asiwaju, have told you that the issue of fuel supply will be permanently addressed. Whoever wants to eat the honey embedded in a mountain won’t worry about the axe. Is that not so? And if you want to eat palm kernel, you would bring stone and use it to break it, then the kernel will come out. It’s not easy to…

“Let them increase the price of fuel, only they know where they have hoarded fuel, they hoarded money, they hoarded naira; we will go and vote and we will win. Even if they changed the ink on Naira notes. Whatever their plans, they will come to nought. We are going to win. Those in the PDP will lose (won ma lule).

“I am homeboy, I have come here, you will not be put to shame, we will take over the government from them, the traitors who wanted to contest with us. They had no experience.

“The great Nigerian youths, the great Nigerian students, the confident Nigerian youths. This is a revolution. This election is a revolution. They are plotting, but they will fail. They said fuel price will increase and reach N200 per litre. Go and relax. They don’t want this election to be held, they want to scuttle it. Will you allow them?”

However, Tinubu’s outburst has been described as an attack on President Muhammadu Buhari, who doubles as the petroleum minister. Buhari, who has failed to solve the lingering fuel scarcity challenge, has repeatedly said that the CBN governor Godwin Emefiele, has his backing in his policies.

Responding to Tinubu’s allegations, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, said the APC candidate is frustrated that he would not be able to induce voters with money due to the CBN’s policy.

In a statement by his Special Assistant, Public Communication Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said Tinubu is pained that the CBN’s cashless policy and currency redesign would curb vote buying and enhance the credibility of next month’s election.

“Even though the CBN policy affects all 18 political parties, Tinubu is the only one frustrated because his plan to deploy bullion vans and bribe poor voters and security agents on the day of election has failed woefully.

“Also frustrated by President Muhammadu Buhari’s unwillingness to attend some of his insipid rallies, Tinubu launched an attack against the President who doubles as the Minister of Petroleum.

“It is funny that Tinubu is just commenting over the fuel scarcity which started in different parts of the country as far back as February 2022. In Lagos, where Tinubu claims to be the landlord, the state has been witnessing fuel queues since last November. It is therefore dubious of Tinubu to try to extricate himself from the failures of his party because elections are 30 days away,” Shaibu said.


He added that Tinubu is making spurious statements because he knows he wouldn’t win, which makes him paranoid.



“Tinubu’s paranoia is clearly getting the best of him. He has gone from attacking the leader of his own party to Igbos and northerners all because he believes they are not supporting his failed Presidential ambition.

“For a man who claimed to have single handedly made Buhari President, it is funny that he is now running from pillar to post all in a bid to save what is left of his failed campaign”.


In the same vein, one of the spokespersons of the Atiku/Okowa Campaign Organisation, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement, said it was strange that Tinubu wanted the world to believe that his caustic remarks against Buhari were intended for Atiku and the PDP, when neither Atiku nor PDP was involved in the monetary policies or the failure to arrest the horrifically unending fuel crisis.

He noted that Tinubu also knew that Buhari approved the redesigning of the naira and that issues of distribution of the naira notes were vested in the APC-controlled federal government and not the PDP, even as he pointed out that it was clear that Tinubu’s verbal assaults against Buhari was the “official position of his confused, disoriented and disorganised campaign organisation.”

Continuing, he said, “The Campaign says it is indeed pathetic that in less than 24 hours after Tinubu stood on the public stage at his Presidential Rally in Abeokuta, Ogun State, to accuse the Buhari administration of creating fuel scarcity and redesigning the naira to scuttle the 2023 election, he is turning around to blame the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for his woes.

“It is important to remind Asiwaju Tinubu that in accusing the ‘powers that be’ of creating fuel scarcity and hoarding the naira to truncate the election, he knew that President Buhari is the Minister of Petroleum Resources and that all agencies of government in charge of prospecting and distribution of petroleum resources are under his (Buhari) office.

Meanwhile, the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC),yesterday, said its candidate, Bola Tinubu, did not mention, blame or accuse President Muhammadu Buhari of being responsible for the current challenges in the country

Director, Media and Publicity, APC PCC, Bayo Onanuga, in a statement, said Nigerians should no longer be in doubt about those working in cahoots with fifth columnists in the system to inflict avoidable pains on the hapless people for political end.

“For the record, Asiwaju Tinubu during the APC campaign rally at Abeokuta on Wednesday, in his statement, did not mention, blame or accuse President Muhammadu Buhari for the current challenges in the country.

“The CBN officials, including Governor Godwin Emefiele have said many times that enough new Naira notes have been supplied to the banks, yet, our people complain that they have not been able to get the new notes. In recent days, many ATMs are either not working or when working they are dispensing the old notes, just a few days to the January 31 deadline.”

“Our presidential candidate only re-echoed what is well-known and acknowledged, even by President Buhari himself at different fora. That there are fifth columnists in and outside of government, who often throw spanners in the works against good intentions and programmes of the government.”

Many observers believed that the latest outburst made by the former Lagos governor may have a direct impact in terms of the support he was supposed to get from President Muhammadu Buhari. Some are indeed of the opinion that it would surely work against him at the polls.

Even so, Kaduna State governor, Nasir El Rufai’s on Wednesday’s Channel TV’s Sunrise Programme, re-echoed what Tinubu said, that some elements in Nigeria’s Presidential Villa are working against Bola Tinubu. The governor said those individual elements are hiding behind President Muhammadu Buhari’s desire to do what he thinks is right.


His words: “I believe there are elements in the Villa that want us to lose the election because they didn’t get their way; they had their candidate. Their candidate did not win the primaries. They are trying to get us to lose the election, and they are hiding behind the president’s desire to do what he thinks is right. I will give two examples: this petroleum subsidy, which is costing the country trillions of Naira, was something that we all agreed would be removed. In fact, I had a discussion with the president and showed him why it had to go. Because how can you have a capital budget of N200b for federal roads and then spend N2 Trillion on petroleum subsidy? This was a conversation I had with the president in 2021 when the subsidy thing started rising. He was convinced. We left. It changed. Everyone in the government agreed, and it changed.

“The second example I will give is this currency redesign. You have to understand the president. People are blaming the Governor of the Central Bank for the currency redesign, but No. You have to go back and look at the first outing of Buhari as president. He did this; the Buhari, Idiagbon regime changed our currency and did it in secrecy with a view to catching those that are stashing away illicit funds. It is a very good intention. The president has his right. But doing it at this time within the allotted time does not make any political or economic sense.”

Observers are however of the view that even though there are people within the APC working against the ambition of the presidential candidate, Tinubu should have handled it maturely so as not to fall into their trap. Not a few people were of the opinion that it was a wrong move for Tinubu to be openly accusing his own party for sabotaging him. “He should have been more circumspect and pragmatic in handling it”, says Tunde Ajayi, a lawyer.

Ajayi said knowing full well the influence of an incumbent president, there should have been a better way of letting the party leaders know that his campaign is being sabotaged. “The APC candidate is now in a dicey situation. He has to use all his political skills to navigate through this difficult time and remaining days of the campaign”, Ajayi said.