No sooner had the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced Senator Oluremi Tinubu, wife of the All Progressives Congress National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as winner of the Lagos Central Senatorial District election than a video showing her express her intention to become Deputy Senate President when the 9th Assembly convenes went viral.
In fact, many of her constituents had started addressing her as the incoming DSP. But if the permutations and intrigues that have since played out after the elections are anything to go by, it is safe to say that the former Lagos State First Lady will have to wait till another dispensation for her aspiration to see the light of day. Unless some eerie forces come to play and cause some disruption of seismic proportion, the 9th Senate would be having Senator Ahmed Lawan to preside over its affairs from today while Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, the man who was a thorn in the flesh of the immediate past Senate President, Bukola Saraki, will be deputising, thereby effectively sounding the death knell on Remi Tinubu’s ambition.
TheCapital has learnt that though the three-term Senator Remi has formidable forces on her side to help her actualise her ambition, the dream was truncated on the altar of sacrifice and the overall interest of her party, the APC. In its bid to maintain geo-political balance, the party decided to cede the position of the DSP to the South-South where Omo-Agege is from. Another major factor that checkmated Remi’s ambition is Femi Gbajabiamila’s quest to become the Speaker of the House of Representatives. She was said to have been the sacrificial lamb to ensure Gbajabiamila coasts home to victory. According to an insider, the political family of Asiwaju was given the slot of Speakership or settle for the DSP. Asiwaju was said to have settled for Gbajabiamila to become the Speaker so as not to project himself as self-centred.
Remi Tinubu has been persuaded to support the party; and as a ranking senator, she has been pencilled down to chair and to be chosen as member of several ‘juicy’ committees. It remains at the real of speculation though, it is being rumoured that she might become Lagos State first female governor come 2023 after the expiration of Governor Babajide Sanwoolu’s first term. Reports say that there is quiet understanding that Sanwoolu only has the support of Lagos political establishment for one term.
