Onyebuchi Ezigbo
The founding National Chairman of the defunct
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and a
prominent Kano politician, Senator Rufai Hanga,
yesterday doubted the possibility of the former
Head of State, General Muhamm adu Buhari (rtd)
emerging as the presidential candidate of the All
Progressives Congress (APC).
In an interview with journalists in Abuja, Hanga
also said some factors and intrigues might
prevent both the former Vice-President Atiku
Abubakar and Kano State Governor, Rabiu
Kwankwaso, from picking the presidential ticket of
the opposition party.
Speaking on the politics of the APC presidential
candidacy, the Kano- born politician, who had
worked closely with Buhari to float CPC just
before the 2011 general election, said from the
look of things, Buhari appears to be losing
grounds to Kwakwanso in the North-west.
“I can tell you that Buhari did not move to APC
with the genuine CPC structure. All those CPC
structures are with us and we went with them to
the PDM. And that is why when we decided to
put a stop to our relationship with the PDM,
more than 15,000 members brought back their
membership cards and dumped the party.
“So you see the posture and unfortunately, I am
not happy about it, but that is why Buhari is in
deep trouble because he did not move to the APC
with the real CPC structure. It is a naked fact that
Buhari is greatly disadvantaged and no matter
what anybody says, he would not win under a free
and fair primaries,” he said.
However, efforts by THISDAY to get Buhari’s
spokesman, Yau Darazo, to responsed failed.
However, one of the key political associates of
Buhari in the CPC and leader of the APC in the
South-east, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, responded to
Hanga’s assertions, insisting that Buhari is the
de facto candidate of the APC.
Okechukwu said though Hanga was entitled to his
view in a democracy, he should know that Buhari
is the signpost of the anti-corruption war, pro-
people programmes and egalitarian society the
APC is constructing for Nigeria.
“I am surprise that Hanga is feigning ignorance to
Buhari’s vote bank of 12 million that was
exhibited in 2011 presidential election via a micro
CPC, a vote bank, which only needs supplement
from other members of the broad based APC.
Hanga is making an assumption that since Buhari
does not have the money to share, that the APC
leadership and membership will be carried away
by ‘stomach infrastructure’; that is a wrong
assumption.
“Buhari is the de facto candidate coming through
consensual agreement, especially now that
President Goodluck Jonathan has almost locked
down South-south and South-east. Buhari
accordingly is the only person who can lock
down North-west and North-east, “ he said.
But Hanga who apparently lost a bitter struggle to
retain Buhari’s favour noted that even as things
stand, the former general had not been able to put
any of his loyalists in the APC organ at the
national or state level.
“If Buhari had gone with his people, they would
have had positions within the APC, but I do not
think that Buhari has got even a messenger in the
party at the national level, Kano or any of the
state.
“And even in Katsina State, his home state, there
is still trouble because elections took place and
his people could not win because all the
politicians that would have made him hold the
structures and win in these places are with us.
“This is why I maintain that the APC is not a
merger but an acquisition. A merger is supposed
to be based on equal partnership. It is a pity and
my heart bleeds over his present ordeal. Though
he has no structure in the party, he has the
masses.
“Unfortunately the masses cannot do anything for
him if he has no party structure with which to run
as a presidential candidate. It is a naked fact that
Buhari is greatly disadvantaged and no matter
what anybody says, he would not win under a free
and fair primary.
“Buhari does not have a political structure, in
politics, you have to have a structure for you to
make any impact. However, if he can be made a
candidate, he has a lot of followers who strongly
believe in his ability rightly or wrongly who want
him to become president because they believed
once he becomes president he will arrest all the
richmen and all the ills of the country will
disappear.
On the possibility of the Kano State Governor
stepping in to clinch the APC ticket, Hanga said
Kwankwaso would find it very difficult to win the
presidential election.
“Kwankwaso is not a presidential material. I am
an experienced politician, not a bootlicker or
someone who will like to sing praises in order to
get patronage. I speak the truth. I believe in
Nigeria and I want Nigeria to be governed well. If
you are looking for a president who will be a true
Nigerian and effective in office, Kwakwanso is not,
“ he said.
He said because Kwankwaso is in the good
books of former President Olusegun Obasanjo,
the Kano-born politician will not be able to agree
to any truce between him and Atiku, thus making
it difficult for any consensus agreement.
According to the former CPC chieftain, Atiku
should not be deceived by the much publicised
make-up between him and Obasanjo, adding that
the former president will still not support his
wining the APC ticket.
Hanga, who said his assessment was from a
neutral point of view, assured his supporters that
he would soon decide which way to go as far as
politics is concerned.
“For now, we are at the point of decision-making,
trying to assess the situation and to choose
where to go. No, do not make any fast
conclusions about our moving into the PDP yet. I
just cannot go into a party that I am not invited to
or recognised. I will rather stay out and be
neutral,” he said .

www.thisdaylive.com/articles/buhari-cannot-win-apc-presidential-primary-says-hanga/188666/

hanger? Lola who art thou?

Buhari is the de facto candidate of the APC.
Buhari is the signpost of the anti-corruption war, pro-people programmes and egalitarian society the APC is constructing for Nigeria.

Beautifully written!

God bless General Muhammadu Buhari!

Who cares

If they like they should choose Tifnubu. One thing for sure is that APC is destined to lose.

Funny u... Hanga the hungry lion... Are you God?

Funny u... Hanga the hungry lion... Are you God? I see this as notice me!

I support Hanga, Buhari will not get the APC ticket.

Buhari has been losing elections since 1997 he is a programmed loser who can never win any election in this country again. GEJ till 2019

You need a political structure even if you are Julius Caesar