…as OBJ’s Third Force mobilises support for Col. Umar
- Buhari shouldn’t re-contest-Northern leaders, others
Following a strongly worded letter, written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to President Muhammadu Buhari, the ruling All Progressives Congress has retreated to the boardroom, in search of an acceptable presidential candidate, come 2019.
A top source within the party revealed to The Point at the weekend that two governors – Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna, and Kashim Shettima of Borno – were now on the radar of the party.
Obasanjo, in his letter entitled, “The Way Out,” had berated the almost three years’ administration of Buhari, faulting the President over the poor state of the economy and Federal Government’s inability to halt the wanton killings by suspected Fulani herdsmen in many states of the Federation.
But the President is not a kid; he has seen the direction of the wind within the party and he is not such a person who will do any abracadabra or break up the party to satisfy his personal interest. He may just have chosen to keep silent because any immediate statement on his plan for 2019 may heat up the system
The former president, as a result, asked Buhari to resist the temptation of seeking re-election next year, but retire home and become a statesman.
Though both the Federal Government and the ruling APC had replied OBJ, suggesting that the ex-president did not have a full grasp of events before writing his letter, party sources described the responses as mere grandstanding.
“We know this is a clear red card that can result in electoral loss if we choose to re-present Buhari for another tenure,” an impeccable top source within the party disclosed to our correspondent.
WHAT AKANDE, TINUBU TOLD BUHARI
A source particularly disclosed that last week’s visit of the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and a former party chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, to President Buhari, was only a prelude to what might be tabled before the President at a special stakeholders’ meeting of the party, to be held soon before its national convention.
The source, who opted for anonymity, owing to the sensitivity of the issue, said, “What Tinubu and Akande went to discuss with the President was the need for the party to fix an early date for its convention as against a June date being canvassed by some interest groups. In the course of the chat, they asked him to think critically and consult widely on the import of Obasanjo’s letter and act according to his conscience.
“But the President is not a kid; he has seen the direction of the wind within the party and he is not such a person who will do any abracadabra or break up the party to satisfy his personal interest. He may just have chosen to keep silent because any immediate statement on his plan for 2019 may heat up the system. His close aides have assured us that he will do the needful during the party’s convention.”
THE SHETTIMA, el-RUFAI OPTIONS
Yet, another source within the party disclosed that Kaduna’s el-Rufai and Borno’s Shettima were being propped up by two diametrically opposed interest groups within the party.
“While the Buharists within the party may have settled for el-Rufai in case the President declines to go in 2019, the Tinubu Team are all for Shettima,” he said.
The source, who belongs to the Tinubu Team, said his group was in support of the Borno governor because he was less controversial and dogged, having weathered the storm of the Boko Haram insurgency, adding that he was also easily sellable in the South West.
He noted that Shettima was once a lecturer at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, and could speak the Yoruba language, which would be a great political asset.
A visit, last year, by Tinubu to Borno State to commission many projects executed by the Shettima administration, was described by top sources in the party as a clear indication that the governor was “being courted for a higher calling.”
It was, however, learnt that those who were rooting for el-Rufai were doing so mainly because Buhari would, any day, prefer the Kaduna governor as a successor. Besides, the Kaduna governor reportedly has some groups within the party, who are working for him, especially in the northern areas.
WE’LL SHOP FOR REPLACEMENT – AREWA YOUTHS
Meanwhile, vociferous National President of the Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, Alhaji Shettima Yerima, has lent credence to the need for a new leader to emerge come 2019, saying the AYCF has set the necessary machinery in motion to shop for another President ahead of the next election.
He lambasted the Buhari administration, saying its scorecard was nothing to write home about.
“We are not happy with the situation. We expect that, by now, things should have changed for the better in accordance with the APC mantra; but, right now, the problem is increasing. There is no particular agenda that this government has actually put in place that is of any advantage to us, whereas the country needs more attention at a time like this.
“Yes, the North East issue; that we are getting support from foreign donors, is not enough, due to abject poverty and hunger all over the land, and our own (in the North) is even worse than any part of the country. Certainly, this cannot continue, and unfortunately, all our efforts to draw the attention of the Federal Government to the problems have always hit a brick wall, as they have tagged us ‘enemies of government.”
He also berated the roles being played by el-Rufai, the Kaduna State governor, and Yahaya Bello, his Kogi State counterpart, under the Buhari administration.
Bello, he said, was a clown, who found himself in power and started behaving abnormally.
“Those governors who endorsed Buhari for a second term have 1001 problems in their respective states, which they are incapable of solving, as many of them are not supposed to be governors,” he added.
Yerima, as a result, noted that the North was already looking beyond the APC in its determination to get another president for the country next year, stressing that the person would be young and vibrant.
THE PROPOSED THIRD FORCE
Yerima’s revelation that the North would look beyond the current political setting to shop for a successor to Buhari next year, according to investigations, is part of a Third Force agenda being reportedly mooted by Obasanjo, who is said to be currently consulting stakeholders across the country, with a view to forming a mega party intended to undermine both the APC and its main rival, the Peoples Democratic Party.
According to sources, a former military governor of Kaduna State and a stormy petrel, Col. Abubukar Umar, had been contacted by the Obasanjo group to warm up for a presidential race.
Sources further revealed that Obasanjo had reached out to Tinubu, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce and Senator Shehu Sani.
While Tinubu is expected to rally all his team in Yorubaland, which include governors and their cabinet members, Murray-Bruce and Sani are expected to galvanise radical groups from their South-South and North-West zones, respectively.
At press time, consultations with other notable political leaders were said to be in progress.
What Tinubu and Akande went to discuss with the President was the need for the party to fix an early date for its convention as against a June date being canvassed by some interest groups. In the course of the chat, they asked him to think critically and consult widely on the import of Obasanjo’s letter and act according to his conscience
MORE NORTHERN LEADERS REACT
However, northern leaders have continued to react to the moves to stop Buhari from re-contesting. One of the leaders, Dr. Junaid Muhammed, described the move as timely.
He said, “If, indeed, there is a search in the North or in other parts of the country for a candidate to replace Buhari, then it is a perfect, clear, rational, reasonable and a good thing for the country.
“I encourage it because Buhari has been a monumental disaster to the North and to the country, and I believe the only way to solve Buhari’s problem – because he has now become a problem – is to ease him out of power; because, nobody wants him to be humiliated.”
Speaking in the same vein, a former National Chairman of the Alliance for Democracy, Comrade Adamu Song, said the move by prominent politicians to replace the President was a right step.
“My view is that we are in a democratic government; everybody has the right to canvass for what he feels is ideal. So, people canvassing for Buhari’s replacement are right, even though, at the end of the day, the Nigerian electorate will decide who becomes the President,” he observed.
As for the National Publicity Secretary of the mainstream Arewa Consultative Forum, Anthony Sani, the North would determine Buhari’s replacement or otherwise based on the President’s performance at the end of his four-year tenure.
This middle-line position was also maintained by renowned northern elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, who told our correspondent, “Let us wait for the election and see how many people will opt for the position (to replace Buhari); whoever that has the capacity, is free to contest (against the President).”
OBJ LACKS MORAL PEDIGREE’
In its reaction, however, a group of young Nigerians, mostly composed of northern youths, said, while it was not out to defend Buhari, it took exception to Obasanjo’s style of criticising the President, saying OBJ had no moral pedigree to position himself as the man who could solve Nigeria’s problem through periodic letter writing.
The group, Intellectual Young Leaders Network, under an upcoming political group, Young Progressive Congress, described Obasanjo’s advice to Buhari as “a test for self-relevance and political gimmick, to appear to have reached his political apotheosis.”
The group added, “We vehemently condemn such maladroit style, as an ideal way of getting our problems resolved. The Open Letter approach to advising incumbent leaders by Chief Obasanjo is a riled gimmick to appear in his apotheosis, which is a misadventure, sourced from the genesis of the leadership problems Nigeria is facing today.
“While many of the issues raised are of paramount importance and may be substantially verified for the Buhari administration to reflect on and retrace its steps, we find it very parochial that an ex-President would craft destructive and guised confusion in a government that Nigerians ought to have the ultimate hope for their survival.”
The group, nonetheless, said it was committed to ensuring that more young Nigerians ascended to leadership positions in the country, describing the dominance of the political landscape by the old generation of Nigerians as counter-productive, both to national development and general growth.
‘PRESIDENCY, NOT NORTH’S BIRTHRIGHT’
In his reaction, however, the National Secretary of the Campaign for Democracy, Comrade Ifeanyi Odili, said, while Obasanjo’s letter came at the right time, he found the idea of beckoning on the North to produce the next President as “highly repugnant and nauseating.”
The Delta State-born Odili, who has also declared his presidential ambition, but has yet to reveal on which party platform, said, “The Presidency is the common patrimony of all Nigerians and not the birthright of certain northern oligarchs, who will stay in the confines of their rooms and decide where to zone it.
“In 2019, the President can emerge from any part of Nigeria; and not necessarily from the North as being bandied
all about.”
