REMI TINUBU SET TO TAKE OVER FROM GOVERNOR FASHOLA IN 2015

Lagos Governor Emeritus and the National Leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is one politician that has perfected the act of politicking in the country. Jagaban Borgu, as Tinubu is fondly called, assumed popularity right from the days of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), when he served as a backbone for many politicians fighting for freedom from military rulers and since then, the sky appears not to be enough to limit the leading light in the camp of the opposition in the country.

When in 2007, Tinubu informed his associates and political colleagues and subordinates alike that he was going to sponsor his erstwhile Chief of Staff, Babatunde Raji Fashola as governor of the coastal state, only few of them took him serious. But the rest is now history as Fashola is spending his second term as the Governor of the state, courtesy of his godfather.

The latest news from the lord of Bourdillon is that his wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu might be the next occupant of Lagos House as she is being tipped for the exalted position of Lagos Governor in 2015 after Fashola must have finished his second term.

The groundwork for this was said to have played itself out, when some eminent people in the state paid a visit to Tinubu to call his attention to a trend that had been going on in the state for many years now.

Sources close to the celebrated politician, whose party has formed an alliance with the likes of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), and a faction of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA),  said his visitors had played into his hands with a request that it was time a Christian was made the Governor of Lagos State.

“Tinubu listened attentively to them, when they got to his house that fateful day. He is a man, who always listens attentively before making comments. When they told him that he should do something about presenting a Christian as the next guber candidate of his party ACN/APC in 2015 since Muslims have always been occupying the post, Tinubu did not argue with them. The next thing he told them was that it was even better and that his wife, Oluremi can fit into the position as she is a bonafide Christian,” said a source.

This, our source maintained rattled the visitors as they were hit below the belt and had been obviously defeated by a man, whose words are laws in South West politics.

Informants stated that none of the ‘August’ visitors could argue with Tinubu as doing so would have meant the end of their political career and that no one dares question the authority of the man, whose efforts have re-claimed the south west for the ACN after the ‘hurricane’ of 2003, which swept the party from the south west states, save for Ondo State, which is now under the Labour Party.

Our impeccable sources maintained that Tinubu had been nursing the ambition of installing his wife as Lagos Governor after getting her into the senate in 2011 and to prevent the kind of crisis that the party experienced in 2007, when he chose Fashola amongst the numerous people vying for the post.

‘Since Oluremi is his wife, nobody would have the gut to fight Tinubu over his decision as a lot of people have been nursing the ambition of becoming the governor of the state after Fashola. Remi will serve as the alternative for the party and a way of unifying the numerous politicians that are nursing the Lagos State governorship ambition from the ACN/APC,” said a source.

The news is coming days after Tinubu installed his first child and daughter, Folashade Ojo-Tinubu as the Iyaloja of Lagos after the demise of his mother, Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji, who was the Iyaloja of Lagos and President, Nigerian Association of Market Men and Women.

Tinubu is said to have told his closest pals and political associates that he was not prepared to support any outsider for the post of the Lagos Governor in 2015, but would rather present his beloved wife, Remi, who is currently representing Lagos Central Constituency in the Senate.

Surprisingly, Senator Remi Tinubu had dismissed an initial report that she was being tipped to become the next governor of Lagos State, saying Lagos is not for people like her.

Mrs. Tinubu, while addressing the media few weeks back had said that governing Lagos State was not for the “tender-hearted,” saying that she would prefer to become the nation’s vice president instead of a governor.

She said, “Truly, it is never my ambition to run for the governor of Lagos State. My husband did it for eight years and I was not an outsider to it. It is not a job for the tender hearted. It is a lot of work to govern Lagos. I don’t think I have the strength to govern the present state of Lagos.

“There is still a lot of work to be done for Lagos; it’s not a child’s play. I don’t have such ambition. Maybe, I can be the Vice-President, not the governor.”

She said, “My concern is for the young and the old. What kind of Nigeria do we want to leave for the younger ones? A good parent will always want to leave an inheritance for the children. What kind of inheritance or legacy do we want to leave for our children?”

A source in the ACN maintained that events of the next few weeks would make the issue clearer, but that it is certain that Asiwaju Tinubu is not taking chances to ensure that the next occupant of the post ‘would do what we want him/her to do and promote the interest of the party with much zeal.’