REVEALED: How APC plans to win 2015 presidency •Moves to capture Kano, Rivers, Kaduna, others

NEWLY formed opposition political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has mapped out a formidable strategy to dislodge the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from power come 2015, Sunday Tribune can reveal.

Despite that the opposition party has, for sometime, blocked avenues of information leakage as a result of the embarrassing experience it had over the issue of its registration, some dissidents in the party who are embittered by possible flocking of PDP members into the APC unwittingly revealed the grand plan to Sunday Tribune.

According to the plan, the opposition has created a geopolitical map of Nigeria with marking of areas of its strength and weaknesses. The first approach, which is already in operation, is the targeting of the major electoral and population centres of the federation with a view to securing plurality advantage over the ruling party’s candidate in 2015.

It was learnt that the map specifically targets Kano and Lagos states, as the two most populous in the country with a likely combined strength of between 12 and 14 million votes. As the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) already controls Lagos, the opposition is reported to be investing heavily in snatching Kano from the ruling party, a reason said to be behind the ongoing push to get the Kano State governor to defect to the APC
Insight into the plan also revealed that the pressure on Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso to defect has grown so much that the governor is alleged to be in communication with General Muhammadu Buahri. A defection by Kwankwaso, it was gathered, would leave the opposition with the control of three dominant political caucuses in Kano State, namely the Buhari group, the Ibrahim Shekarau group and the Kwankwasiya group of Governor Kwankwaso.

The opposition, with such control, could then claim close to 80 per cent of the votes in the state. While the governor is yet to embrace the signals, reports indicated that collaboration may have gone far ahead as recent interactions among the trio of the state governor, Buhari and Senator Bola Tinubu indicated.

The map, aside focusing on the population centres, also reportedly identifies the core North, spreading from upper North-East to North-West and the South-West, including parts of Edo and Delta axis as zones of influence. The listed states include Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Jigawa, Borno, Yobe, Niger, Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Bauchi and Gombe, including parts of Adamawa. The document indicates that the opposition is banking on the cult, like support of General Buhari and planned defection by some PDP chieftains to its fold.

For the South, the political map is said to include the six states of the South-West, namely Osun, Oyo, Ogun, Lagos, Ekiti and Ondo, in addition to Edo and a substantial part of Delta State where the document believes opposition support is growing on a daily basis. The expectation is that the alleged marginalisation of the Yoruba in the Goodluck Jonathan-led government will dissuade any Yoruba voter from supporting him come 2015, just as the strategists also hold that the core North will politically work against the president as a group.

The optimism of the opposition on the South-West, Sunday Tribune learnt, has been strengthened by the rift between the president and former President Olusegun Obasanjo. The opposition is said to believe that the anger within Obasanjo group in the South-West will work to its (opposition’s) advantage.(Source, Sunday Tribuna, 09/06/2013)

No Vacancy in ASO ROCK till 2019.

They're not registered.

What a shallow propaganda!

Do not count your eggs b4 they are hatched. No 1 reason why they must fail is selfishness. They are not fighting for the interest of the masses nor Nigeria as a country.

This is a workable gameplan if followed to its logical conclusion. But now that it leaked, i expect a formidable counter attack from PDP. Let APC keep all cards to their chest cos their strenght lies in surprise. A master in Naija politics as Tinubu is a + for APC.

Does this plot include a plan or conspiracy on how to further divide Nigeria along ethnic lines or a love for my enemy's enemy turned friend?

How can somebody at this time still believe in the homogeneity of the so called Northern Nigeria.

What is of paramount important at this time is for parties to sell their ideologies to the populace. The believe that PDP is evil while APC is making all frantic effort to woo their so called "Evil members" into their fold make us believe that after all the acronym was never the problem, na the same people seeking power just for the lust of it.

Being progressive is not defined by party affiliation but the character of individual, but hypocrisy is sustained when you praise a previously damned opposition who would switch camp to be relevant.

In all these political calculations, the most significant factor that is greatly polarised is religious affiliation which may be the determinant factor on who (not party) wins the centre.

We are just watching, my people are becoming united by the day. If we can't get there, then we can negotiate a better deal for our region for Ndigbo to support any party until when we quit the geographic assembly in peace.

I thought it was ACN that agreed to give away the SW position in NASS to the North just to define their meaning of opposition or was their PDP brother nominee not qualified for the job?

Is the GEJ led administration investing in the SE more than the SW? How and why is this marginalisation cry-whining being used as a political tool to deceive the so called educated zone?

Anyway, tribalism is not a bad thing but bigotry is.

The expectation is that the
alleged marginalisation of the Yoruba in
the Goodluck Jonathan-led government
will dissuade any Yoruba voter from
supporting him come 2015, just as the
strategists also hold that the core North
will politically work against the president
as a group.