Former President of the Southern Kaduna People’s Union (SOKAPU), Dr. Jonathan Asake, dismissed the opposition coalition against the Tinubu administration, saying its leaders were only fighting personal battles because they were out of power.
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During an interview with The Sun, Asake, who is a member of the Labour Party, when he was asked what his view about the coalition was said that, northern elites had a tradition of complaining whenever a southerner became Nigeria’s president. He recalled that the coalition which produced the APC and ousted former President Goodluck Jonathan was driven mainly by the desire to remove him, not to offer better leadership.
While attacking Nasir el-Rufai, Dr. Jonathan Asake said that el-Rufai was the one who championed the Muslim-Muslim ticket because he knew that Tinubu, as a southern president, was a Muslim, and it would have been normal and traditional to balance the ticket with a northern Christian.
However, according to him, el-Rufai stood firmly against the emergence of a Christian vice president, thereby breaking the long-standing tradition, because he believed he would personally benefit from it. Asake explained that el-Rufai expected to be chosen as vice president, but instead, Kashim Shettima, another Muslim, emerged.
Asake argued that since el-Rufai was not a beneficiary of the “evil” he orchestrated, he had now become a wounded lion. He listed four opportunities el-Rufai had missed: first, he was denied the vice presidency despite promoting the Muslim-Muslim ticket; second, he was not appointed Chief of Staff in Tinubu’s administration, which he believed he helped bring about; third, he was not made Secretary to the Government of the Federation; and fourth, he was not given a ministerial appointment. According to Asake, these disappointments turned el-Rufai into a wounded lion who now went about with hatred, focusing only on removing Tinubu instead of genuinely addressing Nigerians’ suffering, insecurity, and other national challenges.
He maintained that right-thinking Nigerians would see the coalition as insincere from the beginning because of the people driving it. He lamented that they were dragging into it someone like Peter Obi, whom he described as a clean man of integrity with a clear vision and someone the masses believed in.
Asake stressed that if Obi were given the ticket, Nigerians would rally behind him because they desired focused leadership. However, if the coalition failed to hand him the ticket, he asserted that whichever party did so would automatically attract the support of Nigerians.
He said, "So, el-Rufai wasn’t a beneficiary of the evil that he laid down, therefore, he has become a wounded lion. Four things he has missed- One, he brought in Muslim-Muslim ticket thinking that he was going to be a vice president; he did not become a beneficiary
"Secondly, he thought he was going to be a made a chief of staff in the administration of Tinubu that he believed he brought about, he did not get that one. Thirdly, he did not get the secretary to the federal government, and fourthly, and wasn’t made a minister."
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