A gigantic test of wills is rocking the All
Progressives Congress just 12 days to the
inauguration of President-elect Mohammadu
Buhari as Nigeria’s substantive President.
Impeccable sources within the party told
SUNDAY 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 told
SUNDAY PUNCH that 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 SUNDAY 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.
He said, “Not knowing that a speech had been
prepared, the national leader asked if Buhari’s
speech was ready. He was told that the ex-
governor had written it and given it to Buhari.
Tinubu was not happy because he knew nothing
about the speech despite being one of the
party’s top strategists. He asked that the
speech be sent to him as a condition for him to
attend the event. When he eventually got it, he
turned it down because he felt the speech did
not represent Buhari’s and the APC’s ideals
properly.
“He then asked a team of experts to write
another speech for Buhari. Asiwaju had to
explain to Buhari why he felt the initial speech
written by the former governor was not good
enough.”
Asked why some of the party leaders appeared
to be vehemently opposed to Tinubu, the source
said, “Most of the people that have a grouse
with our national leader believe he is too
controlling and he’s not allowing them have a
say. But they can express their grievances
through better ways,” he said.
But as the inauguration day draws near, sources
say the selection of ministers and top
government officials for the new government is
the newest phase of the battle of influence that
is rocking the party.
The source said, “The battle has now shifted to
the selection of Buhari’s new cabinet. Many of
those opposed to Tinubu in the party have
presented themselves and others as candidates.
(Some of these people are from the South-
West).
“There is another sub-group made up of
northerners, mostly, Fulanis. They have been
touting themselves as Buhari’s closest
associates since he won the elections. We’ve
heard them say that the North was the
dominant factor in Buhari’s win and that even
though the South-West voted for him, the North
donated the majority votes.
“But they are making a mistake because if
President Jonathan had won all the South-West
states, Buhari’s victory would have been hard to
come by. They also forget that it was on the
platform of the APC that Buhari emerged
President. If not for the merger, Buhari wouldn’t
have won. He tried to win on the platform of
the CPC in 2011, but it wasn’t successful.
“Having seen that their tactics of spreading bad
rumours about Tinubu to Buhari is not working,
they are now playing the ethnic card to divide
them. Sadly, some of our ex-governors from the
South-West and South-South have joined them
to play this ethnic card.”
When asked how the national leader of the
party was fighting back, another highly-placed
source within the party said Nigerians should
wait for the list of ministers.
“We are not in government yet but some people
are making trouble underground. Anyway, the
ministerial list will put them in check. They are
following Buhari all over the place and trying to
cause disaffection between him and Tinubu but
it will yield nothing. Unfortunately for them,
Buhari is not likely to have ministers of states
so it narrows their chances of getting
appointments. Some of our party members
particularly from the South-West are in for a
surprise when the ministerial list is out.”
Contacted on Saturday, a former National
Publicity Secretary of the defunct Congress for
Progressive Change, one of the parties that
formed the APC, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, said
Tinubu was bound to have opposition from
within the party due to his political influence.
He reminded those who were challenging his
authority in the party that the former Governor
of Lagos State was one of the arrowheads of
APC’s formation and the party’s victory at the
2015 general election.
Fashakin said, “In any gathering of human
beings, you are bound to have people showing
disapproval and disaffection about others; that
is normal. The APC is not an exception. It is
usually like that. Some people will say ‘what is
his own? He is having too much influence. Is it
only him?”
He, however, asked those who were opposed to
Tinubu to consider the positive roles he had
played in the party.
“During the electioneering, the PDP knew the
people that were strategic to its electoral
misfortune and the need to go after such
individuals. One of them was Asiwaju Bola
Ahmed Tinubu. Did you see the hate
documentary that was produced and aired to
disparage him at that time?
“The individuals talking now (against Tinubu)
were not put under such scurrilous attacks. Did
they experience such? Whatever they may say,
when the history of APC is written, you cannot
wish away what Tinubu has done,” Fashakin
added.
A former Minister of Petroleum and Energy,
Professor Tam David-West, one of Buhari’s
biggest loyalists, also told SUNDAY PUNCH that
there was nobody in the APC, no matter how
influential he might be, that could influence the
incoming President’s decisions.
He said, I don’t want to comment on it because
I know it is not possible. Nobody can influence
General Buhari. I know him.”
When contacted, the Director of Media and
Publicity in the APC Presidential Campaign
Organisation, Mr. Garba Shehu, described the
moves by the individuals as a party issue. “It is
a party issue, speak to Lai Mohammmed,” he
said.
The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr.
Lai Mohamed did not pick the calls made to his
phone neither did he respond to the text
messages sent to him by our correspondent.
Copyright PUNCH.

Na courage go kill pdpiggs una no dey tire b4 na buhari now na tinubu na jagaban headache go kill all of una

I don't care,apc are worse than pdp.