President Buhari Moves to Make Peace with Bola Tinubu

President Muhammadu Buhari is trying to pacify the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, with ministerial appointments, following crisis over National Assembly leadership.

Sources close to the ruling party confirmed to Tribune that Buhari has learnt that Tinubu is unhappy about the current trends in the National Assembly and the president intends to calm down the national leader of the party.

Tinubu’s camp is said be displeased with the president for failing to back the election of candidates of the APC for the positions of Senate President and Speaker of the House of Reps. It was gathered that Tinubu is angered by the fact that Buhari did not make good his promise to address APC lawmakers at the ICC on June 9, leading to the election of Bukola Saraki as Senate President. 

It was also learnt that Tinubu’s supporters named Buhari’s men in the uprising that shut out the party’s national leader from the last National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party, held in Abuja. While Tinubu is not a member of NEC legally, no one made matter out of that until Buhari was sworn into office. Some supporters of the former Lagos governor suggest that the presidency might have given his backing to the group of ex-governors, who threatened to storm the meeting if Tinubu was permitted at the venue. 

Meanwhile, it was revealed that Buhari has decided to calm down Tinubu, so that the APC would not break up under his watch. A source said the president was planning to give the national leader four ministerial positions, to reward him for the loss of Speaker and Senate president. It was also learnt that Buhari’s late rally of Senator Ahmad Lawan group and loyalists of Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila was stopped out of his confidence that Tinubu had to be lodged to further unite the ruling party. 

But insiders added that there are some party members from the North who were of the view that Buhari could continue to call Tinubu’s bluff, having assumed the position of party leader. 

A former security chief and another retired secret service agent, were said to be heading the crew of Buhari loyalists advising the president to call Tinubu’s bluff. The source said: “A number of some hardliners in the party are insisting that Buhari should ignore anything from Tinubu, believing that the party can do without him.”

But it seems Buhari is finally ready to make peace because without Tinubu he would still be in his farm.