Veteran journalist and columnist Sam Omatseye has narrated how President Bola Tinubu’s relationship with his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, went sour before the former ascended power.
Omatseye said Buhari and his cabals plotted against Tinubu because they did not want him to become president.
Speaking on Edmund Obilo’s podcast State Affairs, the columnist said the ex-president didn’t want Tinubu to succeed him because he was afraid of the former Governor of Lagos State.
“Buhari didn’t want him because he was afraid of him. The people around him didn’t want him. Remember that after Buhari became president, within a year, there was an estrangement between Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Muhammadu Buhari, and the story even went so far as to state that they wanted to remove his pass to the State House. That probably happened or didn’t happen. I’m not sure of that, but that was the level of the estrangement,” he said.
According to Omatseye, when Buhari realized his second-term ambition may not be realized without Tinubu on his side, he became his friend again to secure his re-election.
“He knew that if Bola Ahmed Tinubu did not come to his side, his desire for a second term would be difficult because the structure and the genius of Bola Tinubu might immobilize his capacity to get a second term. So he befriended him again for the second term. It was after the second term was guaranteed in an election that he decided to plot against him,” he narrated.
Omatseye explained that the removal of Adams Oshiomhole as the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was part of the plots against Tinubu.
According to him, the removal of Oshiomhole, who was perceived to be Tinubu’s ally, was a ploy to take over the party structure and reduce Tinubu’s influence and power in the party.
“One of the first things they did was to take over the party structure, that is, the party’s top brands, from him because he found that Adam Oshiomhole was his man. And if Adam Oshiomhole is the head of the party, it will be difficult.
“It was not him alone. Some governors didn’t want that to happen; they didn’t want Asiwaju to still ride high in the party. Of course, the cabal around him and the men around Buhari didn’t want him. So they removed Oshiomhole,” he said.
