Not quite. Used, yes but APC cannot retain power if it dumps the Yorubas unless the Igbos agree to be used. But APC may have served its purpose. Let me explain.
One thing we know for sure is that APC is a political vehicle purpose built by the Fulani and the Yorubas for Fulani presidency of Nigeria.
After creative reengineering of the Nigerian electoral space, the road to Aso Rock is designed to be paved by either the Yorubas or the Igbos for a Fulani candidate from the NW or NE.
Give it to the Fulani. No tribe in Nigeria equals their political Intellifence Quotient. The British left Nigeria with a legacy of contrived Northern domination by padding the electoral numbers in favor of the North. Today, the numbers are so padded that a Fulani, armed with the numbers from the NW and NE and SW can be elected to the Presidency without winning a single Igbo vote.
With the way they have packaged Nigeria’s electoral space, Igbos are now politically irrelevant and the Yorubas and Hausa Fulani can determine who holds the apex job between themselves working together.
But there is a problem. The Fulani not just covets, but needs the apex job especially at this moment in history to consolidate the political and economic gains made by the most consequential Fulani leader since Ahmadu Bello in the person of Mohammadu Buhari.
The permutations have started. The current VP, a Yoruba man, has been politically caged, his staff whittled down, his statutory role diminished, and showers of death rained down upon him to procure his total quiescence. His political sunset has long begun.
This week, Tinubu, the co-founder and brains behind APC, a Yoruba strong man, political godfather, and presidential aspirant has been tossed aside like a raged doll. Seeing all the role he played in 2014 and in 2019 to ensure the success of the APC presidential ticket, he will go down in history as the third Yoruba leader to be used and ignominously dumped by the Fulani in furtherance of their political interests.
First was Awolowo who was a willing tool in Biafran genocide with the hope that he would someday rule Nigeria. He was used and dumped.
Then came Abiola, a darling of the North who had ingratiated Northern military rulers and worked to facilitatea chain of Northern coupists in power. He was imprisoned by same Northern Generals and left to die in jail after wining a free and fair election for the Presidency.
Smart as the Yorubas are, the verdict of history is that they have always been serially used and abused as tools for Fulani hegemony. Tinubu failed his history lessons and just relived it.
But the question is: can APC retain Aso Rock for another Fulani president without the support of the Yorubas? The answer is that it would be extremely dicy because no matter what they do, the Igbos are weary and really prefer self determination.
The chicanery would have gone like this: nominate a Fulani Presidential candidate and an Igbo VP and promise the Igbos that after 8 years, it would be their turn with hope that the Igbos will be mollified by that taqiya.
If the Igbos won’t play ball, and the Yorubas can’t be President after waiting in the wings for 8 years, are we seeing the beginning of the end of APC as the ruling party? Yes.
But the wily Fulani does not care about the political vehicle and though APC may be abandoned in the seas, their relentless permutations will most likely be rewarded by a Fulani/Igbo ticket in power under PDP.
As it stands, if the NW and NE switch to PDP, the Fulani can ride a patchwork of SE and SS and NC support here and there with Tinubu safely retired after serving as a political footstool that is no longer needed.
Given that the Fulani are a demographic minority in Nigeria, say what you will, they know their political onions. A diasaffected and underperforming Yoruba tribe will rend the air with strident cries of Odua Republic but the Fulanis yanked the chains of Awolowo, Abiola, and now Tinubu. The soul searching is theirs or they will continue to be footstools for the Fulani.
Nor should the Igbos vaunt over the heads of the Yorubas. They have only tested the apex job for six tumultuous months and as things stand, likely never will. So keeping it all real, the Southern lady of means keeps serving her Northern master just the way the British designed it.
