The political battle that nearly ended President Bola Tinubu’s governorship of Lagos State in 2003 has resurfaced, with the Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication to the African Democratic Congress presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, claiming that the former vice president intervened to protect Tinubu’s political career.
Phrank Shaibu made the claim on Friday while responding to a discussion surrounding the political relationship between Atiku, Tinubu and former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
According to Shaibu, Atiku persuaded Obasanjo not to remove Tinubu from office at a time when the former President was leading a political offensive against the Alliance for Democracy, which controlled much of the South-West.
Tinubu served as Lagos State governor from 1999 to 2007, first under the Alliance for Democracy and later the Action Alliance.
The dispute between Tinubu’s administration and the Obasanjo-led Federal Government intensified after Lagos State created 37 Local Council Development Areas in addition to the 20 constitutionally recognised local government areas it inherited.
Obasanjo’s administration rejected the creation of the additional councils and stopped the release of federal allocations to Lagos State, demanding that the Tinubu government revert to the original 20 local government areas.
The Lagos State Government challenged the withholding of the funds in court, with the Supreme Court ruling that the Federal Government’s decision to withhold the allocations was unlawful.
Despite the judgment, the funds remained withheld for the rest of Obasanjo’s tenure and were later released under the administration of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
Shaibu, however, argued that the political pressure on Tinubu went beyond the dispute over local government administration, alleging that Obasanjo was determined to dismantle the AD’s hold on the South-West ahead of the 2003 elections.
He said five of the six AD governors in the region lost their seats during the election, while Tinubu retained Lagos.
In a post on X on Friday, Shaibu said Tinubu’s survival was not accidental, but the result of Atiku’s intervention.
He wrote, “President Olusegun Obasanjo was determined to break the Alliance for Democracy’s control of the South-West. The political offensive succeeded almost completely: five of the six AD governors were swept out of office. Bola Tinubu, then Governor of Lagos State, was the only one left standing.
“That exception was not accidental. Lagos did not escape because Obasanjo suddenly lost interest, lacked the political machinery or abandoned the South-West project. Tinubu survived because Atiku Abubakar intervened on his behalf and persuaded Obasanjo to leave Lagos alone.”
Shaibu further claimed that Atiku’s intervention ensured that Tinubu was able to secure a second term as Lagos governor.
“Put plainly, when the Obasanjo political machine was determined to finish the AD across the South-West, Atiku drew the line at Lagos. He stood between Tinubu and the same political fate that befell the other five AD governors, and that intervention preserved Tinubu’s second term,” he said.
He described the episode as a significant moment in the political history of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic, arguing that it should not be erased because of present-day political differences.
“That is not folklore. It is a defining episode in the political history of the Fourth Republic. Before anyone attempts to rewrite the relationship between these men, one fact must remain firmly on the record: when Tinubu’s political future was under threat in 2003, Atiku was the man who intervened to save it,” Shaibu said.
He added, “History may be inconvenient, but it does not disappear because its beneficiary now finds it politically embarrassing.”
