As the dust raised by the Edo Gubernatorial election begins to settle, the verdicts are also coming out like ant infested wood when light has reached its hollow.
The outcome of the election has spurred many assertions and conclusions from political analysts, armchair critics and neanderthal pundits.
Many have averred that the outcome of the election where the All Progressives Congress (APC) was roundly defeat and trounced by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) marks the beginning of the end of political career of two dominant and irrepressible figures — Bola Tinubu and Adams Oshiomhole.
In his piece, Gbenga Demola-Ojo countered the pervasive notion that the election result is the final nail in the political coffin of Tinubu.
His piece is reproduced below.
What exactly did you people expect Tinubu to do on Edo? Campaign for Obaseki? He did exactly what any real, loyal and responsible party leader would do. He supported his party’s candidate. That is what he has always done, and that has always been the difference between him and some of these others, particularly in the utterly dysfuntional party that they call the APC. Many of them, including past and serving governors, do not mind to cut their noses to spite their faces.
Moreover, in the past two days, I can’t count the number of times I have read “Tinubu is finished” and I wonder, over what?!
In 2007, he led the AC to field governorship candidates in the Osun, Ekiti and Edo. At the end of the day, Obasanjo’s INEC said they all lost. Then, we heard “Tinubu is finished”. But then, the man rallied his troop and they all went to the tribunal, including Mimiko of the Labour Party in Ondo. The four of them retrieved their mandates. Tinubu was not finished. By 2011, his ACN captured Oyo and Ogun, making his haul in the SW total. He was not finished.
Since then, we have had a thousand and one instances and events after which we would hear that wishful refrain “Tinubu is finished”. Yet, he keeps on and on, coming back and coming back, such that after Buhari, there is no other political figure in Nigeria that is more of an issue than Tinubu. It is difficult to imagine that he left political office more than thirteen years ago, along with people like Odili, Lucky Igbinedion, James Ibori etc.
Now, like I have said before, Tinubu has his faults and shortcomings and they are, perhaps, legion. But he has proven over and over again that he is a master of the game. Many of those who are imagining themselves as his waterloo were “manufactured” by him. The others are simply in the category of his junior mentees. They only need to look at the likes of Obanikoro, Femi Pedro and Adeseye Ogunlewe, and they would calm down.
I don’t know yet what to make of his rumoured presidential bid, which as far as we know, he is yet to confirm. He actually, more or less, repudiated it. What I know, however, is that with him, “being finished” has a positive ring.
If God spares his life, he would most likely, still be a huge factor and a big issue in 2023, whether or not he runs for office, like him or hate him
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