EndSARS Protests: Why APC Governors Shunned Tinubu

Only one of the 19 governors who are members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has visited the leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, weeks after the #EndSARS protests.

Daily Trust reports that aside the attacks on his business interests, including two media outfits, the former Lagos State governor was in the eye of the storm during the #EndSARS protests.

The former governor was under intense fire as he was accused of being one of the sponsors of the protest.

Speaking during a Channels TV programme, Tinubu said some people lied to the presidency that he was behind the protests.

Multiple sources around the national leader and party sources, said the governors did not visit Tinubu, “because of the body language of the president.”

All the South-West governors – Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo); Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun) and Gboyega Oyetola (Osun State) were in Lagos. They only visited the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

Also during his visit on Thursday, Kaduna State Governor Malam Nasir el-Rufai only visited Sanwo-Olu, a development that is raising dust in Tinubu’s camp.

The only governor who has visited Tinubu is the Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum who went with his predecessor, Kashim Shettima.

Also, the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, led some South-West Ministers to commiserate with Tinubu on Sunday. The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu visited the APC national leader yesterday.

Tinubu had previously received the South-West and Kwara senators.

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It was observed that the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) did not issue any official statement to commiserate with Sanwo-Olu and Tinubu as it did when Governor Isiaka Adeboyega Oyetola of Osun State was attacked by hoodlums on October 17, 2020.

The NGF spokesman, Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, didn’t react to a text message sent to him seeking to know the reason why the forum didn’t issue any statement on it.

Meanwhile, those in Tinubu’s camp said that the governors who visited the Lagos State governor should have, out of courtesy, paid a visit to Tinubu.

“The governors didn’t visit Asiwaju despite the fact that his business interests were also targeted. It is part of the game playing out ahead of 2023,” said a source.

But a chieftain of APC, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, who spoke with Daily Trust, said it didn’t mean anything if the governors or any other politician did not visit Tinubu since he is a private citizen.

Though he stated that courtesy demands that the commiseration should have been extended to him, Igbokwe, a former publicity secretary of the party in the state, added that since the visits were official the right person to visit was Sanwo-Olu who is the sitting governor.

DAILY TRUST