To say that President Muhammadu Buhari is stuck between the rock and a hard place is an understatement. He may have traveled to London for his routine medical checkup, but I doubt if the two weeks leave he took will be enough for him to clear the headache that his political associates threw at him.
Barely 24 hours after he left for the UK, the APC was fully engulfed in fire that threatened to consume its prospect of not only producing a presidential candidate that will seek to retain power under its flag in 2023, but the complete destruction of the party through selfish and unwarranted fights among stalwarts and gladiators who have drawn daggers and are at each others’ throat.
It is certainly no secret as to what the fight is all about and which camps logged heads. For long, some APC Governors belonging to a certain camp were not comfortable with the way the acting Chairman of the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committe (CECPC) and Governor of Yobe State, Alhaji Mai Mala Buni went about carrying out the assignment.
The Palace coup staged against Buni by a group that later turned out to be headed by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State kick-started the open fight when it annointed Niger State Governor Abubakar Sani Bello as the new acting chairman of APC’s CECPC who wasted no time in swearing-in the Party’s 36 new states’ chairmen and the FCT.
El-Rufai later took to the media to explain their action against the holidaying Buni with his family in Dubai. He told Nigerians in a Channels TV live programme that President Buhari had before leaving the country, endorsed Bello to take over the mantle of the party and make sure that the scheduled March 26 convention takes place without a hitch.
To that effect, the Kaduna State Governor revealed that the new acting chairman had reduced both the number and membership of sub-committess announced earlier by Gov. Mai Mala Buni. “We trimmed it to manageable size from the about 1700 members, which is nearly half the capacity of what the Eagle Square could accommodate,” he said.
The new APC leadership also extended letter of invitation to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to witness the Party’s National Executive Council (NEC) emergency meeting, to which INEC not only declined attendance, but also dropped a bomb on the group by stating that it only recognises Buni as the acting Chairman – a development that meant major setback for El-Rufai’s group and a winning endorsement for the Yobe State Governor.
As at yesterday, reports had it that the fight had shifted to London where the warring party were competing for the attention and endorsement of President Muhammadu Buhari. The statement by INEC has legal implication and pundits are of the opinion that the President will have no choice, but to allow Buni to preside over the convention as scheduled.
The question is, what does El-Rufai want by staking his integrity and all, by going to war with the Buni-led convention organizing committee? It is all about 2023 and the Kaduna State Governor had for long been allegedly nursing the ambition of ruling this country (though he denied it), and that, the first step is to become vice president.
But the major stumbling block is the Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who is the leading candidate for president in the APC for 2023 and would definitely not pick him because of the Muslim-Muslim ticket taboo within the party’s fold. Thus he is hoping for a non-Muslim candidate that will pick him as vice president.
Indeed El-Rufai’s challenge to the Jagaba did not start today, but way back in early 2019 immediately after the President had won his reelection. Problem started when loyalist of the Jagaba expressed disappointment that the Vice president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo lost his polling unit during the presidential election. The APC got only 187 votes, while the PDP won that Unit by landslide – 384 votes. APC candidates for the Senate as well as House of Representatives had also lost to the PDP at the Vice President’s 033 Unit located on Victoria Garden City, Lekki.
I remember writing an article about the saga titled: “APC: THIS HOUSE MUST NOT FALL.”
In it, I recalled saying: “The feud between the Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufa’i and the National leader of the APC, Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu, if anything, tells us about the looming battle for 2023 within the hierarchy of the ruling party.
“It is to say the least, too early and too unhealthy for our cherished Party and to the duo who are potential viable candidates to take over stewardship of this country from President Muhammadu Buhari at the end of his second term.
“Both Malam and the Jagaba are politicians that I respect most for their immeasurable contributions towards national development and in the making of the APC – a platform that Nigeria needed at a time when the country was on the verge of collapse from misrule by the PDP.
“In the run up to the formation of the APC, I had the privilege of holding two private, strategic political meetings with Governor El-Rufa’i at his Aso Drive residence and series of pre-merger talks with Chief Bola Tinubu at his Abuja residence as well, together with other state governors of the legacy parties at which I represented Governor Nyako of Adamawa State.
“These are two great patriots that love Nigeria and care immensely about the unity and prosperity of our dear nation. It therefore came to me as an absolute surprise to read the comments attributed to Governor El-Rufa’i criticising his friend, chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“I do not want to rekindle the dying issue, and of course credit for that goes to the Jagaba for his extraordinary patience by refusing to rebutt. Otherwise, the matter would have escalated to a level that will not only destroy their esteem standing in the eyes of Nigerians, but will affect the fortunes of the APC in producing the next president or even worse, annihilate the alliance between the North and the Southwest.
“This house must not fall.”
The President’s dilema is not just about who does he support as presidential candidate between the Jagaba, the man who made it possible for the ACN to come into alliance with the CPC and subsequently the APC and garnered winning votes for him both in 2015 and 2019, or does he support his loyal vice president or a loyal Minister, the Right Hon. Rotimi Ameachi?
If you think those questions are tough, let me remind you that the battle for the chairmanship of the party is not yet over. Does the President support Sen. Umaru Tanko Almakura, from his CPC stock or does he support Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, the man being marketed by the El-Rufai group.