12 days to the inauguration of President-elect Mohammadu Buhari as
Nigeria's substantive President.
Impeccable sources within the party told PUNCH over the weekend that
some ex-governors, Buhari's associates and mutinous party members from
the South-West are trying to whittle down the influence that the
national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, will have on the
incoming government.
Tinubu, the party's undisputed leader in the South-West, is widely
feted as the force behind the merger of all the major opposition
parties in the country which led to the emergence of the APC as
Nigeria's major opposition party.
On several occasions, Buhari, who defeated President Goodluck Jonathan
in the March 28 presidential elections, winning 15,424,921 votes to
Jonathan's 12 853,162 votes, has also acknowledged the efforts of the
former governor of Lagos State, fondly referred to as Jagaban by his
admirers.
However, multiple sources within the party toldSUNDAY PUNCHthat the
relationship between the duo might have become strained in recent
times as some forces within the party are bent on making Buhari to see
Tinubu in another light.
Some powerbrokers within the party, some of whom are trusted by the
president-elect, are said to be mounting pressure on him to reassess
his ties with the APC national leader. These powerbrokers are also
said to be questioning Tinubu's and the South West's contributions to
Buhari's election victory.
Recently, at a public function, the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwanu Akiolu,
gave indications of the strained relationship between the duo, even as
he asked people to pray that Tinubu's "labour" would not be wasted.
"All Lagos residents should pray that the labour of Tinubu should not
be in vain. A lot of things have been happening now. Some people have
been telling Buhari all sorts of things. Awujale (Paramount Ruler of
Ijebuland) and I have decided to meet Buhari because Lagos and South
West states must benefit from the General Buhari administration," he
said.
Reliable sources within the party however told our correspondent that
the gang up against the party leader started before the party's
victory at the elections.
One of the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told
PUNCH that those opposed to Tinubu within the party first moved
against the national leader during the APC's national convention in
June last year.
According to him, some ex-governors and other high-ranking members of
the party backed a former governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva,
against Tinubu's candidate, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.
The source, who is an associate of the national leader, said, "Even
before Buhari emerged as the party's presidential candidate, some
people in the party, particularly the governors and some ex-governors,
wanted another candidate as chairman. They were totally opposed to
Odigie-Oyegun who was Tinubu's choice. They believed that if they
succeeded in getting their man as the chairman, they would have more
control of the party, but they failed."
The source added that the same scenario played out during the party's
presidential primaries. "It is not a secret: initially, the same group
of people in the APC were totally opposed to Asiwaju's choice of
Buhari. They wanted either former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar or
Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State. When you look at it
critically, their choice of these candidates then was not based on any
fundamental reason but just to oppose Tinubu and gain more ground in
the party. It is funny that some of them who now move around with
Buhari were totally against his candidature as APC's flag bearer," he
said.
But the source ended his chat with our correspondent by saying, "We
are optimistic that Buhari and Tinubu will manage their relationship
well. They will not allow anyone to come between them."
Another source within the party cited an incident during Buhari's
February Chatham House event in London as an example of the high level
intra-party politics playing out within the party.
The source said both camps jostled to take the credit for producing
the speech delivered by Buhari at Chatham House knowing that the
speech would give the then APC presidential candidate a huge mileage
within the international community.
The source said just before the event, a senior party member who is
also a former governor of a South-West state, had rushed in to write
the President-elect's speech. The said ex-governor also presented the
speech to the president-elect.
Read more at PUNCH:
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