Buhari, Tinubu Disagree on Way Forward For Party
Sunday Vanguard was reliably informed by Presidency sources, yesterday, that
part of the reasons for the seeming prolonged process of resolving the crisis in
the All Progressives Congress, APC, may be the slightly differing positions of
President Muhammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a former governor of
Lagos State, regarded as a leader and financier of the party.
Related
Specifically, the sources disclosed that the Friday NEC meeting of the party
“brought to the open the seeming centrifugal positions of Mr. President and
Asiwaju.”
One of the sources added: “At the meeting between the governors and the
warring parties that followed the APC NEC parley, Sokoto State governor, Aminu
Tambuwal, was mandated to chair a committee of three that would come up with
possible resolutions to the crisis.
BUHARI’S POSITION
“It was an open discussion at the NEC meeting that whereas Mr. President has
consistently expressed his dissatisfaction at the truncation of the party’s
procedure for the emergence of the leaders of the National Assembly, the
position he has since taken has been one of reconciliation and not outright
antagonism to the leadership of the National Assembly.”
Sunday Vanguard was told that Tinubu’s position, which had been misconstrued
in many quarters as antagonistic, was merely a reflection of the need to
enforce party supremacy at all times.
One of the arrowheads of the Tinubu group told Sunday Vanguard: “Asiwaju is
not being rigid. He just believes it is not proper to kick off a government on
a note of disobedience to party position by members of the National Assembly.
It sends a wrong signal”.
WHAT TINUBU WANTED
Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki and President Muhammadu Buhari at the APC
NEC Meeting.
Investigations into how the Friday meeting of the APC NEC went the way it did
suggest that whereas Tinubu gave some conditions, those opposed to him ensured
that his position did not hold.
For instance, it was gathered that one of the conditions put forward by the
former governor of Lagos State was that both Senate President Abubakar Bukola
Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara “should not be invited to the meeting”.
A top APC member privy to the happenings in the ruling party told Sunday
Vanguard: “”The second condition he put forward was that in the event that the
two leaders of the National Assembly were invited, they should be made to
commit to an apology letter to the party.”
That way, it was learnt, it would be on record that both men went against the
grain of their political party.
“Unfortunately”, the top party leader said, “none of these could be achieved.
“And you should understand. This is a time when members of the party should
engage a cohesive mode rather than one that would alienate more members. It is
bad enough that we already have a crisis on our hands. To further entrench
positions would not be in the interest of the party.”
BUHARI LOYALISTS TAG WITH ATIKU
Sunday Vanguard was to further learn that already, “there is a groundswell of
coalition between some party faithful loyal to President Buhari and former
Vice President Atiku Abubakar”.
The source went on: “Mind you”, it is not for the love of Atiku. But it is
gradually becoming imperative that whoever within the party that would attempt
to ring-fence the President with people that would become malleable should be
checked”.
Indeed, it was discovered that when APC’s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie
Oyegun, held talks with the President, last week, the fears of the former were
assuaged by the latter on the insinuation that he (Oyegun) could lose his
position following his acceptance of the emergence of Saraki and Dogara as
Senate President and House Speaker.
“In fact, Mr. President told our party Chairman not to lose sleep; that the
rumours about his possible removal from office can never happen”.
Sunday Vanguard was told that that was why the party reposed a vote of
confidence in its Chairman at the Friday NEC meeting..
ISSUE OF PARTY SUPREMACY
However, one very thorny issue within the embattled APC remains the definition
of the leadership as occasioned by the new mantra of supremacy.
Privately, some of the leaders of the party, who are obviously not on the same
page with Tinubu, like Saraki; former Governors Danjuma Goje,Sani Yerima,
Kabiru Gaya; and former Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, National Chairman,
Chief Audu Ogbeh; as well as former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, are said
not to be comfortable with the connotation that presently exists on the term,
PARTY SUPREMACY.
Sunday Vanguard was told by a Tinubu loyalist – and correctly so – that the
issue of party supremacy, as espoused by the former Lagos governor and Buhari,
is good for the growth of the APC.
Verily, in the event that the APC takes a “position, that position should be
binding on all”, the Tinubu loyalist insisted.
However, other leaders of the APC are insisting on the need for the party
hierarchy to define the concept of party supremacy.
At the Friday APC NEC meeting, the issue could not be discussed because of
what a source described as “some sensibilities that were not to be ruffled”.
The growing consensus among party leaders across the three divides – Buhari,
Tinubu and Atiku – is the need for the party to quickly determine “who and
what constitute party supremacy which would be codified”
BOT CHAIRMANSHIP: THE FIRE NEXT TIME
The ruling party may be heading for another round of crisis in the contest for
who becomes its Board of Trustees, BoT, Chairman.
Whereas it was a known “fact that Tinubu, while lobbying Atiku to support
Senator Ahmed Lawan for the Senate presidency, with a possible pledge to
assist Atiku clinch the BoT slot, some loyalists of Tinubu are now proposing
that he should become the BoT Chairman”, a party source told Sunday Vanguard,
“but that may be a far shot because Oyegun is from the South and appointing
another person from the South to be BoT Chair, would not be fair. In fact,
that was why Oyegun’s job was in jeopardy because it was part of a grand
agenda”.
But this argument may not hold water because Buhari is from the North just as
Atiku is also from the North.
Source:
Vanguard
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