President Muhammadu Buhari’s bid for the All Progressives Congress’ presidential ticket in 2019 appears to be a settled deal. But in this report, Senior Deputy Editor, TAIWO AMODU, examines the forces battling for relevance in the power game to project him as the ruling party’s standard-bearer.
INCUMBENT President Muhammadu Buhari’s desire for a fresh mandate in 2019 has moved beyond the realm of mere speculation or conjecture. At the party’s last National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja, the president had restrained the governors from proclaiming him as the party sole’s presidential candidate in the forthcoming general election. It was a deft intervention that kept the party chieftains, some of them nursing a presidential ambition, guessing.
But Buhari, last month, offered his numerous die-hard supporters cheery news as he removed all doubts to his intention to seek the APC ticket again in 2019. Speaking at an interactive session with Nigerians last month during his visit to Abidjan, the capital of Cote d’Ivoire, for the fifth European Union-African Union (EU-AU) Summit, President Buhari explained to the gathering of Nigerians resident in Cote d’Ivoire why he visited the country in company of certain governors.
He said: “First, I want to apologise for keeping you for too long sitting; this is because I insisted on the governors attending this meeting. This is why I came along with them so that when we are going to meet you, when you are going to meet the rest of Nigerians, if you tell them that their governors were in the accompany of the president, I think that will be another vote for me in future. I’m very pleased that they were able to turn up.”
On his return to the country, he stormed Kano State as a guest of Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje to commission projects initiated by his host. He succeeded in making political gains from his visit to the state that gave him the highest number of votes in the last general elections.
Sunday Tribune checks revealed that there is a seeming unanimity among the party stakeholders for a fresh ticket for Buhari, though they are, however, divided on modality of his emergence. While the governors are desirous of a proclamation to confer sole candidacy on the incumbent president, certain chieftains of the party led by former Lagos State governor and national leader of the party, Senator Bola Tinubu crave for a transparent presidential convention.
Leading the camp of the governors is the Imo state governor and chairman of the APC Governors’ Forum (APCGF), Rochas Okorocha. Governor Okorocha has a strong ally in his Kaduna State counterpart, Nasir el-Rufai. The latter had stunned the nation while Buhari was recuperating from an undisclosed ailment by revealing the existence of a group, the Buharists, whom he noted would have compelled President Buhari to run if he was not willing. He claimed the group is made of up serving governors, ministers and certain chieftains of the ruling party anxious to ensure that President Buhari sought a fresh mandate in 2019.
He said: “As far as 2019 is concerned, my position is that the president is looking very well. He is recuperating very fast. My hope and prayer is that he will contest in 2019. Everything that our group is doing, and we have a group; we have Buharists among governors, ministers. Our group wants to ensure that President Buhari runs in 2019. If he chooses not to run, he will tell us which direction to go.”
The APCGF had since been countered by Tinubu. Speaking last month in Akure after a meeting with leaders of Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, the former Lagos governor frowned at what he called the sycophantic approach by the governors to adopt Buhari as an automatic candidate, which he noted could subvert democratic tenets.
“No governors can appropriate the power of endorsement to themselves. Buhari is a believer in the process. The Buhari I know believes in the rule of law. We wanted him even before the last convention and primary of the party and Akeredolu is here standing with me, he was not the governor then. He was one of the leading delegates that voted properly and Buhari was a clear winner.
“We followed all the constitutional provisions and an individual or group’s opinion does not really matter at this stage, Buhari will want a normal process. Buhari that I know, who says he will lose at any convention? But if the national body, the NEC and all of us as members, endorsed him as our single candidate, we will not be violating INEC regulations, we will not be violating our party’s constitution.
“What you are hearing is just a campaign by other people who might like to do so. Buhari has not excluded anybody, and he has not infringed on anybody’s ambition if there is. We cannot be sycophantic about it,” Tinubu stated.
Further investigation revealed that while the former Lagos State governor has no preferred candidate other than Buhari for the party’s ticket, he is suspicious of an orchestrated plot by the governors to proclaim themselves as the new kingmakers or alternative power force within the APC.
A party chieftain told Sunday Tribune in confidence that the former Lagos state has no choice but to play along with the alternative power block in the party, the APCGF, in their endorsement of the incumbent president. He further noted that the governors would be bringing delegates for the convention and they would determine who gets what.
He said: “Asiwaju knows he has to be circumspect even if he has issues to settle with the president. Among the governors in the South-West, only Akinwumi Ambode and Akeredolu will be seeking for fresh tickets. Between these two, only Governor Ambode can be said to see Tinubu as his benefactor.”
Oyegun NWC clears coast
The chairman of the APC national working committee, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun is known to be fiercely loyal to the Presidency. He has survived several plots to remove him as a result of the backing he enjoys from the latter.
The national chairman of the party has hit the ground running, canvassing a fresh mandate for his benefactor, even when Buhari was having a health challenge in the United Kingdom.
“The job is so enormous that one term cannot do it. The job is so enormous that two terms cannot do it. Even after President Buhari’s tenure, we still need people like him to continue in office. So, my prayer is that God gives him robust good health and once he enjoys that, of course as an individual, I will work that he comes back for another term.”
The APC NWC is, however, divided between the Buharists and those loyal to Tinubu. The list of Buharists include Chief Oyegun, Emma Eneukwu and George Moghalu and Senator Osita Izunaso; national chairman, national vice-chairman (South-East), national auditor and national organising secretary, of the party respectively.
In the camp of Tinubu are Mai Bala Buni, the national secretary of the party from Yobe State and Senator Lawan Shuaibu, former national secretary of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria.
Shuaibu is the deputy national chairman (North) and he played a prominent role in the uncertain days of the APC merger process as a trusted foot soldier of Tinubu. Others in this camp are Chief Pius Akinyelure and Chief Segun Oni; national vice-chairman (South-West) and deputy national chairman (South) respectively.
Investigation revealed that the present national working committee would have completed its tenure before the party conducts its presidential convention. Therefore, a fresh elective national convention to be held in the first quarter of 2018, offers the Presidency an ample opportunity to take effective control of the ruling party’s national secretariat ahead of its presidential convention which might likely hold in the fourth quarter of 2018.
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