Osuntokun: El-Rufai By no means Acquired Over Tinubu’s Desire For Ribadu

A former Director-Normal of the Labour Social gathering Presidential Marketing campaign Council, Akin Osuntokun, has claimed that the long-running political rift between Nasir El-Rufai and Nuhu Ribadu was fuelled by Bola Tinubu’s resolution to again Ribadu over El-Rufai within the build-up to the 2011 presidential election — a improvement he says El-Rufai “by no means actually bought over”.

Talking in an interview with Come up Information on Tuesday, Osuntokun stated the roots of the rivalry stretch again to the ultimate years of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration and the succession battle that produced Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

Osuntokun, who served as Obasanjo’s political adviser, disclosed {that a} nine-member caucus arrange in 2006 to design the President’s exit technique had reached a near-consensus to current El-Rufai as a most well-liked successor — a transfer Obasanjo rejected.

“Individually, we had been near the President. That was a type of father-son relationship,” Osuntokun recalled. “When he determined to place collectively an exit technique, he then convened us into a proper caucus, 9 of us.”

The caucus, chaired on the time by then Lawyer-Normal Bayo Ojo, was tasked with guiding the transition course of and figuring out a successor. In keeping with Osuntokun, the group finally settled on El-Rufai.

“We resolved that we must always push this on him,” he stated. “It was a consensus — virtually.”

He added that Ribadu, then Chairman of the EFCC, was absolutely aligned with the proposal.

“Oh sure. He was really one of many fundamental motivators. He and El-Rufai had been like this — they had been 5 and 6. They had been fairly shut. Being from the North, very excessive profile, and each of them very environment friendly and efficient public officers. Nasir’s report within the FCT and Nuhu as chairman of the EFCC — they had been fairly shut. So it was a achieved deal so far as we had been involved.”

“He suspected that we had been going to provide you with El-Rufai,” Osuntokun stated. “Like he instructed us, he stated he is aware of El-Rufai greater than us. He didn’t wish to be harsh on Nasir by not contemplating him. He simply stated, ‘You guys are naive. You don’t know what I learn about him.’”

In keeping with Osuntokun, Obasanjo finally selected Yar’Adua, citing his credentials and longstanding relationship with the Yar’Adua household.

“In the event you had been to select from the pool of governors from the North, Umaru had virtually one of the best credentials. He was a extremely disciplined particular person, with relative integrity and credibility,” he stated.

He added: “The President at all times recalled that when he was going to run the presidential primaries in 1999, the primary governor to declare for him was Umaru Yar’Adua. He additionally had that relationship with the Yar’Adua household. The picture of Shehu Yar’Adua was at all times on his thoughts.”

Osuntokun dismissed ideas that the 2006 episode triggered a fallout between El-Rufai and Ribadu.

“No, in no way,” he stated.

He defined that the caucus had assumed Yar’Adua would retain them inside his political fold.

“We felt that Umaru as president was going to undertake us the identical method — that we had been going to be with him. So it wasn’t a tough end result so far as we had been involved.”

Nonetheless, relations with the Yar’Adua administration deteriorated.

“Umaru didn’t need us close to him. He wasn’t well-disposed in the direction of us. That destabilised the group,” Osuntokun stated, including that each El-Rufai and Ribadu finally went into exile amid political strain and investigations.

“That led to an increase of their political profile due to the way in which they had been handled.”

The decisive rupture, Osuntokun stated, got here years later when Bola Tinubu — who had simply accomplished his tenure as Lagos governor — sought to again a northern presidential candidate.

“He wished to assist a member of the youthful technology from the North, whom he might put his South-West assist behind,” Osuntokun defined.

Tinubu, he stated, commissioned a public opinion survey.

“The outcomes clearly favoured Nuhu. The opinion ballot gave Nuhu 45 per cent, El-Rufai 7 per cent. It was on that foundation that Tinubu reached out to Nuhu and adopted him as a candidate.”

Ribadu subsequently emerged because the presidential candidate of the ACN.

Osuntokun believes that call left a long-lasting mark on El-Rufai.

“I believe that created dangerous blood with Nasir — that the ranking elevated Nuhu above him. And I believe he by no means actually bought over that disappointment.”

Even El-Rufai’s later emergence as a two-term governor of Kaduna State didn’t resolve the stress, he added.

“No, he didn’t recover from it,” Osuntokun insisted. “In the event you examine the 2 of them, he had the higher hand by changing into governor of Kaduna State for eight years whereas Nuhu was languishing within the political wilderness. However then 2023 got here.”

He famous that Ribadu had by then consolidated his relationship with Tinubu.

“Nuhu solidified his relationship with Tinubu. He had change into his confidant all via that interval. Tinubu had already appointed Nuhu as Nationwide Safety Adviser, which is a really highly effective place.”

Osuntokun additionally alluded to El-Rufai’s failed ministerial nomination, suggesting it deepened suspicions.

“I believe that was a wrestle,” he stated. “He then started having what, to me, appeared like an obsession with Nuhu Ribadu — virtually each time discovering a strategy to hyperlink him with no matter issues he had.”

Whereas expressing reluctance to dwell on inner issues, Osuntokun stated he felt compelled to make clear the historic context.

“As a matter of reality, I don’t like speaking about a few of these issues that we have now achieved collectively,” he stated. “However I believe issues have gone too far.”

Boluwatife Enome 

Times Nigeria