I wish Tinubu could see what's coming — Mailafia

Tinubu’s presidential ambition described as a wild-goose chase/Image by the Guardian. 

It was considered the beginning of the downfall of the PDP, but it appears the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) never learnt from the experiences of its rival party.



The issue of zoning has left the APC split on which part of the country should produce the next president come 2023. And one of the top figure likely to be on the receiving end of the whole drama, is the very National leader of the party.

In an interview with PUNCH, former deputy governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Obadiah Mailafia, said the former Lagos State governor Bola Tinubu is on a wild-goose chase if he thinks powers from the North would sacrifice their own interests for his.




He said recent statements credited to Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai on zoning arrangements for the office of president, is a clear message that the North has no plans to relinquish power any time soon.

“The 1999 constitution does not require ‘zoning’ as such. However, I believe that evolving constitutional conventions and norms lead us ineluctably in that direction,” he said.


“Governor Nasir el-Rufai is evidently a man of ambition, and often susceptible to grand self delusions of the order of Bonaparte. Obasanjo in his memoirs describes him (el-Rufai) as someone who is loyal only to himself.

“At a dinner lecture in Lagos recently, he fired salvos at the lion of Bourdillon, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The latter, we all concede, has this extraordinary clairvoyance and percipience for identifying talents and mentoring them for leadership. But Jagaban Borgu has been abjectly naïve.



“He does not know that they just want to use him and crush him. He would be wise to be wary of those whose traditions of rulership allows them to give their daughter to you in marriage only for the sole purpose of finding out your innermost weaknesses, the better to destroy you.”

He said it appears that Tinubu does not seem to understand “the kind of political animals he is dealing with.”


“He doesn’t realise that the game-plan is to exploit to the fullest his political and financial capital and to forebear with him until such a time as they are in a position to run him aground,” Mailafia said.

He added that Tinubu has the right to aspire to become president but “the north will not relinquish power any time soon.”