Federal lawmaker and Director General of Tinubu Campaign Organisation, Honourable Abdulmumin Jibrin caused a stir in the camp of the former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as the former dropped hint of his plan to dump the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Jubrin in a message on his Facebook wall said he has done his best for the APC and “it is time to move on.”
The APC chieftain who represented Kiru and Bebeji, the two local governments in his Kano federal constituency before he was ousted by a pronouncement of the Court of Appeal from the Ninth National Assembly promised to announce his new political platform very soon.
“I will announce the new political party I will be joining in 24 hours by the grace of God. I will give more details soon.”
A source however told Nigerian Tribune that the former Chairman, House Committee on Finance is set to join the New Nigeria Peoples Party led by former Kano state governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso.
The source said Jubrin who belonged to the APC faction led by former Kano State governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, took the decision following the Supreme Court judgement on Friday giving recognition to the faction loyal to Kano State governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
Meanwhile, Minister of State, Education, Honourable Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba submitted his Expression of Interest and nomination forms at the weekend.
Sunday Tribune checks revealed that Honourable Nwajiuba was the first to pick the All Progressives Congress Presidential form ahead of its presidential convention. He was also the first to return the form.
A former lawmaker from Imo State who represented Nkwere Federal Constituency, Honourable Chidi Nwogu, submitted the form on behalf of the Education Minister.
Nwogu told newsmen that the seemingly intractable face-off between the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities, (ASUU) and the federal government was not the making of Nwajiuba and would not in any way undermine his chances if he emerged as the standard-bearer of the ruling APC.
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Nwogu dismissed the ASUU strike as a Labour issue and said he was confident that the Federal Government would soon resolve the impasse for students to return to the classrooms.
He said: “The ASUU strike is not peculiar to Minister of State for Education, it’s a Labour issue and those things have been sorted out but it shouldn’t deprive him of doing what he wants to do.
“Good governance is not all about ASUU strike. There are also so many other areas he has gotten praises. So, it’s not all about the ASUU strike but a lot of people are making it political.
“The president has assured that it will be resolved and I don’t have the capacity to talk about that. We are just supporters and we are just here to hand over the forms.”
Honourable Nwogu said the Minister of Education was not bothered about the number of aspirants for the APC Presidential ticket as he expressed confidence that given his age bracket and intellectual acumen, the party delegates would vote for him.
“It doesn’t matter, we are very confident that we have a candidate who is very clean and not corrupt. What the youths want is just a candidate of the old and the modern. A young candidate, intellectual and good capacity. We are very confident to win.”
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