Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu was present at the recent birthday celebration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (OBJ) who clocked 78 years. Part of the celebration was a football match in which OBJ was reported to have scored two goals. I wonder then, why some people are saying that at 72 General Muhammadu Buhari lacks the physical strength to rule the nation.
But that is not the thrust of this piece. What fascinated me about the whole birthday celebration was the way Tinubu showered glowing praise on OBJ at a party organised to mark the day. I was wondering if it was really Tinubu that was talking, going by the frosty relationship that was believed to have existed between the duo some years ago, especially when one was the president of Nigeria and the other the governor of Lagos. This made me to conclude that Nigeria's kind of politics is peculiar.Who would have expected Tinubu and his troops to grace a party in honour of OBJ? Or who could ever think that OBJ will endorse the candidature of a Buhari who contested against him at one point and against his party's candidates on two other occasions? But that is the Nigerian political landscape for you where everything is unpredictable. And so, I decided to come up with some of my reasons for asserting that Nigeria's politics is peculiar and indeed intriguing.
- Governors Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Rauf Aregbesola, Segun Oni and Kayode Fayemi are now in the same party. Oyinlola and Aregbesola on the one hand, and Oni and Fayemi on the other hand used to be bitter foes.(Though anytime I see Segun Oni in the All Progressives Congress' (APC's) fold, I usually think he has come to his ilk. I really think he is not cut out for the People's Democratic Party (PDP)).
- Chief Olusegun Obasanjo publicly tore his membership card of the party that brought him to power for eight years, and of which he used to be the Chairman Board of Trustees (at a time he was made the life chairman of the BOT before the regulation was changed.)
- Governors can have their planes grounded and their entourage prevented from travelling for belonging to the opposition. Ask Governors Rotimi Amaechi and Adams Oshiomole.
- The Speaker of the House of Representatives, the number four citizen of the nation, was stopped by armed policemen from entering into the House Chambers to preside over proceedings of the House.
- Numbers have continually been proven to have no meaning. Federal might has always conferred majority status on those it is backing. That is why 16 is more than 19 in Nigeria. That is why seven members of Ekiti State House of Assembly can gain control of the House and impeach the speaker who had 18 members on his side.
- A recording purported to reveal how the last gubernatorial election in Ekiti State was rigged came to public notice and nothing has been done about it. In fact, one of those allegedly involved in the act was nominated for ministerial appointment by the president.
- Reuben Abati, the president's spokesman, used to be one of his harshest critics but he is now the administrations' number one defender.
- Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau who was governor of Kano State for two terms on the platform of the All Nigeria's Peoples Party (ANPP) is now a member of PDP and a minister in the current PDP government while Mallam Rabiu Musa Kwankwanso who also was elected twice as governor of Kano State (He is the current governor of the state) on the platform of PDP is now in APC, a party that was formed by ANPP and other parties.
- Political thugs assaulted High Court judges presiding over political cases in Ekiti State and the perpetrators of the reprehensible acts are walking free.
- Militants are given official recognition and saddled with the responsiblity of the armed forces. These militants also go around campaigning for and with the president.
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