Tambuwal: Between appearance and reality
by Danjuma Musa
Almost everyone that politically encountered Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has deep regrets and one tale of woe or another to tell about their relationship. The one time Speaker of the House of Representatives, former governor of Sokoto state and a serving senator has acquired a reputation for political un-trustworthiness. Those who Tambuwal has betrayed include, but not limited to Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko who, in 2015, single-handedly rescued Tambuwal’s political career from oblivion; President Bola Tinubu whose stiff opposition to Mulikat Akande-Adeola (nominated by the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the position) and unflinching support ensured Aminu Tambuwal’s eventual emergence in 2011 as Speaker of the House of Representatives; Nyesom Wike, immediate past governor of Rivers State and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), who financially backed Tambuwal for the presidency in 2018; former governor Ayodele Fayose, and Femi Gbajabiamila, former Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chief of Staff to the president.
The failure of the PDP to get Akande-Adeola elected as Speaker had a devastating effect on the party in the South-west, which found itself without representation in the top echelon of the central government.
The list of top politicians affected by Tambuwal’s betrayal is longer than anyone can imagine. It includes former President Goodluck Jonathan, whose re-election bid in 2015 Tambuwal rudely torpedoed in conjunction with other members of the defunct New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP). Tambuwal, by his several actions, has confirmed the saying that a leopard never changes its spots. The Sokoto South senator, who seems to have perfected the act of betrayal, was to serve Wike a dose of his specialty in 2023 by asking his supporters to vote for Atiku Abubakar, who eventually clinched the PDP presidential ticket.
Tinubu, Wamakko, Wike, Gbajabiamila, Ayodele Fayose and several others are all unanimous that Tambuwal, who is presently embroiled in a war of attrition with his successor, Governor Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto of Sokoto state, can never be trusted to keep any agreement. Almost everyone of these accomplished men have used appellations like; a “serial betrayer ”, “a political prostitute” and “extremely unreliable” to describe their experience in the hands of Tambuwal, whose chances of returning to the Senate in 2027 is doubtful.
Tambuwal,reminds one of the famous parable of the troubled relationship between the frog and scorpion. The scorpion needed to cross a river and solicited the assistance of the frog to help ferry him across the river. The frog initially hesitated because the scorpion could at any time change its mind and sting him to death. True to his worst fears, halfway through the journey the scorpion acted true to his nature and all the dying frog could do was to ask him why. This classic story is a confirmation that some people can never change and a warning never to trust them.
Accepted, most politicians explain away their shenanigans as being largely determined by their political interest, or that of their “people”, or as they often say, that in politics there are no permanent friends, but permanent interests. But the difference between them and Aminu Tambuwal seems to be that his inordinate presidential ambition, has wholly determined his chameleonic behaviour since he joined politics. For some of his former comrades-in arms to have to viciously characterised him as a serial betrayer speaks volumes about his character.
Whenever Tambuwal, who has never hidden his burning presidential ambition, declares for the 2027 race; he should expect Jonathan, Tinubu, Fayose and Wike (who fights to finish) to take their pound of flesh. And he would only be reaping bountifully the fruitage of what he had sowed over the years. In politics, IOUs (I Owe You) can always be favourably redeemed or fully paid back in kind because the average politician, like an elephant, never forgets.
A sign of what awaits Tambuwal is former governor Fayose’s lavish celebration of the defeat of Tambuwal’s governorship candidate in the 2023 elections. Hear Fayose: “I’m so excited, particularly by the loss of Sa’idu Umar, Tambuwal’s candidate in Sokoto. You see, when a man is a traitor, there is always a payback time. He betrayed the party in 2015. He ran back. He betrayed Asiwaju. He betrayed Wike that sponsored him in 2019. This is payback time, and I appreciate the people of Sokoto for voting against Tambuwal”.
Tambuwal has no doubt acquired a serious image problem and indeed owes some explanations to the Nigerians who had hitherto considered him a ”new breed” politician that could make a big difference. He needs to explain why he has constantly betrayed his benefactors like Senator Wamakko and President Tinubu. Senator Tambuwal should equally be worried about the effect of the startling revelations from the Justice Muazu Abdulkadir Commission of Inquiry that is looking at his eight years as the governor of Sokoto State, which he clearly left worse off than he met it. Nigerians would no doubt be much more scandalised by the emerging reports of his tenure as governor, where projects were routinely abandoned after full payment, than by his un-trustworthiness. That report would no doubt be the final nail in his political coffin.
It’s a shame that Tambuwal failed himself and some messiah hungry Nigerians who thought they had finally found a Moses that would lead Nigeria to the promised land. To have squandered the opportunities presented to him on a platter of gold must be disappointing to those who had invested some hope in him because, in the first place, they did not know him. According to Sambo Bello Danchadi, the Sokoto State Commissioner of Information and Orientation, “Aminu Waziri Tambuwal was a “spectacular failure who didn’t leave any landmark achievement on which Nigerians can evaluate him or that the people of Sokoto State can remember him for beyond having occupied the exalted positions of Speaker of the House of Representatives and governor of Sokoto State”.
Clearly, Aminu Tambuwal is a poor political strategist, going by the deep political holes that he has dug himself into. Someone that has been a speaker and governor who ought to understand the enormous powers of a governor, it smacks of political suicide for Tambuwal to sponsor adverse media campaigns against Governor Ahmed Aliyu, and his wife. It would be recalled that Tambuwal had unfortunately refused to officially hand over to the governor, in a bid to ensure that the governor failed. Like the one and only former President Olusegun Obasanjo would say; only a big fool would argue with the barber giving him a haircut.
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While Governor Aliyu.has not shown any interest in tele-guiding the Justice Muazu Abdukadir commission of inquiry beyond finding out what actually happened in Tambuwal’s eight wasted years, Tambuwal’s continued media attacks could push the state government to meticulously implement the report of the inquiry. Reports that the government is reportedly in possession of the Supreme Court judgment in the case between Rotimi Ameachi and Wike which would help them avoid the pitfalls that Wike had in his efforts to nail Ameachi should worry Tambuwal.
While in 2015 Tambuwal sold the dummy that he needed an immunity because he feared that Jonathan would unleash the anti-corruption agencies after him for making governance hell for him, this time around the threat of consequences for his alleged mismanagement of public funds seems real and not speculative. If there was ever a time that Tambuwal needed an immunity, it is now. Unfortunately for him, senators do not enjoy immunity. In 2016, Senator Bukola Saraki, the then Senate President, was tried on a 16-count charge for alleged corrupt practices by the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
The odds are politically, financially, and legally stacked against Tambuwal, who has no hiding place. Unlike in 2018 and 2023 when he ran for president as governor, in the 2027 elections, he wouldn’t have access to the resources of the state and paraphernalia of the office to run. Worse still, he has a formidable opposition waiting to take its pound of flesh. And whatever political pretensions that he had projected to Nigerians about his political base, the resounding defeat of Saidu Umar, his governorship candidate in the 2023 elections on the platform of the PDP has totally demystified him. Wike based his description of Tambuwal as a paper weight on his narrow victory in the 2019 elections. Wike said, “A sitting governor who won his election with a mere 342 votes is not on ground”. Many people believe that Governor Aliyu won the 2019 governorship elections.
Consumed by ambition, Tambuwal would certainly throw his hat in the ring, but it would certainly be a mission impossible for him to run for presidency without a solid home base. Only former President Obasanjo has successfully accomplished that feat due to the overwhelming support from the other sections of the country outside his South-west zone.
The demolition of Tambuwal might seem slow, but his legion of opponents are daily chopping away at his support base. The resounding defeat of Saidu Umar his governorship candidate in the 2023 elections had only confirmed beyond any doubt that the Senator Wamakko political family is in firm control of Sokoto State politics and that Tambuwal was a only pretender.
Facts are emerging that Tambuwal was a dismal failure as a speaker, but got away with it because of lack of political attentiveness. In 2015, Nigerians were more interested in kicking out Jonathan that they closed their eyes to the failure of the likes of Speaker Tambuwal. His failure as governor further confirmed that he was overrated
Senator Wamakko being a father and a perfect gentleman might easily forgive Tambuwal his political transgressions, same with Governor Aliyu despite the former governor making good his threat to make the state ungovernable for him and the name calling by Shafi’u Tureta his media aide which was intended to pitch him and his wife against the people of the state, but the same can’t be said about Wike who doesn’t forget political betrayals in a hurry. (BLUEPRINT)
Musa writes from Kaduna.
