Even though the 2019 presidential
election is about 18 months away, JESUSEGUN ALAGBE takes a look at how
it is already causing cracks within the ruling All Progressives Congress
party
Subtly, former Vice-President Atiku
Abubakar has started making known his intention to run for the
presidency in 2019 and in doing so, he has somewhat turned himself into
an opposition figure for his own party, the All Progressives Congress.
Recently, in an interview he had with the Voice of America in Hausa, the former Vice-President criticised the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
In the interview, Atiku complained that
he had been dumped by the Buhari-led government, despite spending his
resources on ensuring that the President got to power in May 2015.
The former Vice-President had said,
“Honestly speaking, I’m still a member of the APC; I was part of all the
processes, including campaigns until success was achieved.
“But sadly, soon after the formation of
the government, I was sidelined; I have no relationship with the
government; I’ve not been contacted even once to comment on anything and
in turn, I have maintained my distance.
“They used our money and influence to get to where they are, but three years down the lane, this is where we are.”
Interestingly, Atiku’s comments came out
only a few hours after the Minister of Women Affairs and Social
Development, Senator Aisha Alhassan, declared her readiness to support
his bid for the presidency against President Buhari should he (Atiku)
decide to contest in 2019.
The Taraba State-born minister had, in a
leaked video on social media, endorsed the former Vice-President for
the 2019 presidential election.
The minister, who spoke in Hausa in the
video, had referred to Atiku as, “Your Excellency, our father and our
president by the grace of God, come 2019.”
She had added, “Before you are your people, your supporters for life, the people of Taraba State.”
Those who watched the leaked video might
perhaps not have believed that a serving minister in the cabinet of
President Buhari would declare her support for another chieftain of the
party.
But Alhassan, in an interview with the BBC Hausa Service,
confirmed that she would support Atiku in 2019 because “President
Buhari has not told anybody that he would contest the 2019 presidential
election.”
But even if Buhari would contest,
Alhassan said she would support Atiku because since her civil service
years, Atiku had been her mentor and godfather.
“He (Atiku) has remained so even now
that I have joined politics. There is a reason for every political
relationship,” she had said.
Expectedly, the duo’s actions have
caused some uneasiness among top members of the party, with the lawmaker
representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, Senator Shehu Sani,
telling Alhassan to resign from the Buhari administration in order to
start campaigning for her benefactor (Atiku).
One of those also furious over
Alhassan’s comments was Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, said to
be one of the closest friends of the President.
The governor wasn’t even shy to say he
and some other party chieftains never wanted Buhari to appoint the
minister into his cabinet in 2015.
Political pundits believe Alhassan
couldn’t have openly declared her support for Atiku for the 2019
presidency if she didn’t have the backing of other people in the party.
“It is just a matter of time before we
start seeing clashes among Buhari’s and Atiku’s supporters because of
2019,” a lawyer and social commentator, Mr. Daniel Onyebuchi, said.
He suggested the minister’s comments
showed that there were some “strong” hands making some moves behind the
scenes which caused Alhassan to have made her pro-Atiku comments.
Onyebuchi said, “No matter how naive a
politician Alhassan was, she wouldn’t have come out to declare her
support for someone who is not even in the cabinet. She’s an insider
declaring her support for an outsider.
“Many people think she doesn’t know what
she’s doing, but she does. She is not a dumb person. The person we are
talking about here was a former governorship aspirant, Attorney General
and Commissioner for Justice of her state. She was the first woman to be
appointed as the Secretary, Federal Capital Territory Judicial Council
and so on.
“So when she came out to make the
comments, it showed she had seen the writing on the wall. The
development only proved what we had been seeing right from the outset:
the APC is a divided party, full of people with different missions and
purposes. There is no unity there.”
Consequently, the National Working
Committee of the party was said to have planned discussing Atiku’s and
Alhassan’s outbursts at a meeting during the week.
However, the meeting didn’t hold as
planned as it was learnt that some of the party chieftains were divided
as to whether or not Alhassan’s comments were worth deliberating upon.
Aside the latest outbursts, Atiku had as
far back as 2016 started making some statements which seemed to create
an impression of failure of his party and the President Buhari-led
Federal Government.
Since last year, the former
Vice-President has been one of the most vocal voices calling for a
restructuring of the country, which Buhari had said was not on his
administration’s priority list.
The Minister of Information and Culture,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had on June 9, 2017 said restructuring was not on
the Federal Government’s priority list.
It was probably after the calls for
restructuring became intense that the party eventually set up a panel
some weeks ago, headed by el-Rufai, to look at the definition of the
subject.
A United States-based political
scientist and founder of the Youths Must Shine, Mr. Femi Matthews, said
Atiku’s call for restructuring showed that he was “practically” not on
the President’s side.
He said, “If you have been observing the
comments of the former Vice-President since, you would see an element
of disgruntlement. He is not happy; his wings are clipped and the only
way he felt he could fly was to start opposing his own party and the
President.”
On August 2, 2017, the former
Vice-President, had criticised the APC (and the Peoples Democratic
Party) of lacking internal democracy, accusing the party of over the
years refusing to hold vital meetings.
“In the absence of those meetings and
elections, their existing leadership, often under the direction of the
executive at the state or federal level, fills the void. That’s not
party building but party bullying. And it’s certainly not a way to
democratise parties and aggregate their members’ opinions, interests and
aspirations,” he had said.
The former Vice-President, had also on
September 11, taken a swipe at Buhari, asking him to fulfil his promise
of providing security to Nigerians.
A day later, Atiku again said he could fight corruption better than Buhari.
The former Vice-President had added, “It
is sickening to continue to regurgitate allegations of corruption
against me by people who have failed to come forward with a single shred
of evidence of my misconduct while in office.
“People who lack initiative, personal
resourcefulness and ideas about wealth creation always assume that a man
cannot build himself without stealing.”
Meanwhile, as Atiku has somehow started
his presidency campaign, President Buhari’s supporters have also not
gone to sleep, with el-Rufai; Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle
Amosun; Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, among others, saying
recently that they had endorsed the President for the second term should
he decide to contest.
El-Rufai had said after Alhassan’s
pro-Atiku comments, “I am governor today by the grace of God, (and)
because President Buhari called me and said ‘go and run for Governor of
Kaduna State.’ 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.”
While campaigns for 2019 are subtly
going on for Buhari and Atiku, political observers believe it wouldn’t
be long before those in the camp of a national leader of the party,
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, also start coming out.
A political scientist and social
commentator, Mr. Hassan Abiodun, said it would be wrong for anyone to
think “Tinubu is sleeping.”
He added, “We are not yet in 2018 and we
are already seeing all these. I tell you, by next year, lots of
intrigues will take place in the APC. Some people might be thinking
because the North seems to be in control of the party, Tinubu can’t do
anything.
“But by now, even the dumbest politician
should know that Tinubu in a way wields a strong influence in Lagos and
even in the entire Southwest. Tinubu might seem to be sleeping now, but
I think he’s making his own calculations too.”
Abiodun’s submission might perhaps be
the reason why Sani recently asked Buhari to reach out to Tinubu because
“he (Tinubu) could “drown” the President.
Sani had made a veiled reference to
Buhari and Tinubu in a Facebook post last Saturday, warning that the
latter had a damaging political capacity.
The post had read, “The Lion Monarch
should reach out to the aggrieved but silent Lagoon Lion so that he
doesn’t explode like the hippo. The Lagoon Lion controls waters that can
drown.”
The senator had confirmed that “The
Lagoon” represented Lagos, while “The Lagoon King” was in reference to
Tinubu, a former governor of the state.
Meanwhile, Abiodun said it was
unfortunate that the APC was focusing its attention on the 2019 election
when it had yet to deliver on its 2015 campaign promises to Nigerians.
He said, “Everything that has happened
in the past one week — from Atiku’s outbursts, to Alhassan’s comments,
to el-Rufai and other governors canvassing for Buhari while we are still
in 2017 — shows that the party is not serious about governance.
“It is even more unfortunate because the
party has not been able to unite itself all these years. There are
various factions with different missions. This could be why the party is
not delivering on its promises.
“When you have persons working for the
interest of individuals rather than for the interest of Nigerians, it
means something is wrong with our system. Even if the party wants to
think of 2019, it shouldn’t be distracted from serving the electorate
who brought it to power in the first place.”
Also according to Matthews, it was wrong
for the APC to allow 2019 presidential election take centre stage when
the party had yet to meet all its electoral promises.
He said, “It is shameful that many
Nigerian politicians still think the citizens are fools in this age. I
plead with Nigerians, especially the youth, to be conscious of those who
are good at governance and those who don’t know what they are doing.
“The latter do little or nothing at
governance, dwelling much on politicking, while the former are those
whose actions show that they have the interest of the people at heart.”
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