By Tunde Olusunle
Signs that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will run a government by proxy if elected, emerged at his outing at Chatham House, London, earlier in the week. Tinubu, who has made a tradition of avoiding public speaking events in the run-up to the February 2023 elections, jettisoned the Arise Television “Townhall Meeting” organised for the major presidential contenders, Sunday, December 4, 2022. It was the latest in Tinubu’s non-appearance at similar engagements since he won the presidential ticket of his party last June.
Last August, Tinubu was conspicuously absent at the annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, (NBA). Presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and the candidate of the Labour Party, (LP), Peter Obi, honoured the invite at the conference held in Lagos. Tinubu’s running mate, Kashim Shettima, stood in for him. In September, Tinubu was again absent when presidential candidates of all the political parties endorsed the “2023 election peace pact.”
