Things are looking up for Muhammadu Buhari, two-time presidential
candidate (2003 and 2007) who is currently aspiring to occupy the highest office in Nigeria come 2011.
Already, efforts to sell him berthed across the Atlantic penultimate week.
Pastor Tunde Bakare of Latter Rain Assembly, Lagos, led a powerful delegation of reformists to meet with Nigerians resident in the United States and United Kingdom on the need for them to join the campaign for the emergence of a president capable of fixing Nigeria.
Buhari’s presidential ambition ahead of 2011 election was the main agenda.
Bakare had last month endorsed Buhari for the presidency in a powerful speech in which he indicted the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for holding Nigeria down and called on Nigerians to back the “best of the North and the best of the South” to lead the country out of the mess he claimed was foisted on it by reactionary ruling class.
Save Nigeria Group (SNG), a platform with which Nigerians ended the stalemate over the constitutional crisis provoked by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s unexpected long medical sojourn in Saudi Arabia and his failure to hand over to then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, has also bought into the Buhari for President agenda....
Bakare returned to Nigeria from the 10-day trip last week, basking in the joy of widespread acceptance that reportedly greeted his delegation which held series of consultations with various Nigerian groups and personalities across the Atlantic.
But just as the group is tidying up the project outside the country, the move to mobilise other major opposition parties, especially, to endorse Buhari is beginning to prove difficult as Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) is said to be uncomfortable about the entrance of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) into the alliance.
This is attributable to what an insider called the betrayal the former head of state suffered in the hands of some ANPP stalwarts, especially its former chairman, Edwin Ume-Ezeoke and Kano State Governor, Ibrahim Shekarau who backed the party’s participation in the Government of National Unity (GNU) after the flawed 2007 presidential poll.
Buhari, the ANPP Presidential candidate in the ballot, was in court challenging the declaration of Yar’Adua as President when the ANPP joined the GNU, sparking condemnations and allegations of betrayal by many Nigerians.
The CPC, sources said, suspects that ANPP’s participation in the process may be a ploy to weaken it or in the alternative, another attempt to spy for the ruling PDP.
Another setback of the initiative is the current refusal of some Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) chieftains, especially former Lagos Governor Bola Tinubu who prefers former Sokoto Governor, Attahiru Bafarawa – whereas former Governors Segun Osoba (Ogun); Niyi Adebayo (Ekiti) and Bisi Akande (Osun) are more comfortable with the retired general who they believe, is more known and loved across board.
Regardless, the Bakare group held two town hall meetings both at the John Hopkins University in the United States and in London where prominent Nigerians resident abroad weighed the Buhari’s candidature.
The town hall meeting was held in collaboration with some Nigerians in the Diaspora who have already signed on to the initiative.
The Bakare group was said to have told Nigerians abroad about the need for them to join the initiative to salvage the country by rallying behind Buhari’s candidature which many citizens believe, is the most credible of the packs jostling to occupy Aso Rock next year, including incumbent President Jonathan.
Sources confirmed that various interactive meetings are being held back home to mobilise support for the project which may culminate in a massive multiparty national movement akin to various platforms deployed to chase out the military.
The Bakare group was said to have explained to Nigerians abroad that Buhari alone has the knack and the integrity to move Nigeria forward.
“We had assurances from Nigerians, most of whom had become successful abroad but prefer to remain outside, that they would mobilise themselves on the need to support a candidate who can fix Nigeria and put it back on the right track,” a source privy to the deliberations across the Atlantic told Sunday Independent.
The Bakare group was also able to get assurances from the Diaspora Nigerians who want to return home, but are afraid of the consequences of poor governance by successive governments, deprived of the legitimacy to pull through.
The delegation, the sources added, held at least two town hall meetings with Nigerians abroad on the possibility of starting a mass movement of Nigerians to mobilise support for the emergence of Buhari in whom many of them have expressed confidence to take the country out of the woods.
Meanwhile, it emerged at the weekend that the Bakare group has since commenced grassroots mobilisation of Nigerians back home, a part of which was the well-attended meeting it held in Benin penultimate Friday with some key politicians across the political divides.
REJECTS TINUBU
The ACN had requested a working arrangement with the CPC leadership, which would have paved the way for the two parties to adopt Buhari as their presidential candidate. The move was conveyed through fiery Lagos-based pastor of the Latter Rain Assembly and Convener of the Save Nigeria Group, Tunde Bakare, who led a delegation to the former Head of State.
But after a series of meetings held to solemnize the arrangement, Sunday Sun learnt that Buhari and the CPC leadership asked to be left out when it got to issue of who becomes the running mate to the former Head of State. Much as the CPC presidential aspirant would have loved the arrangement, close sources revealed to our correspondent that the choice of the former Lagos State Governor, Senator Bola Tinubu, as the running mate did not sit well with Buhari.
Buhari reportedly told the meeting that he could not run for the Presidency on a Muslim/Muslim ticket because it would work against him. When reminded of the late Moshood Abiola and Babagana Kingibe Muslim/Muslim ticket for the aborted June 12, 1993 presidential election, which the duo won with a landslide victory on the platform of defunct Social Democratic Party, Buhari was said to have told them that the situation in 2011 would be different from what obtained in 1993.
Sunday Sun sources further informed that Buhari explained that he was already seen as a religious bigot, which he said his detractors threw up because of his principled stand on some issues and that for him to run for the election on a Muslim/Muslim ticket would mean giving his opponents something to latch on to during the campaigns.
The CPC National Publicity Secretary, Dennis Aghanya, however, said although there have been discussions with other parties, the talks were only on the 2011 elections and that issues on the presidency were not to his knowledge.
He explained that if any party wanted a relationship with the CPC that would produce Buhari as joint presidential candidate, “it only goes to show that they recognize his (Buhari’s) worth and capability as one among equals who has what it takes to lead Nigeria out of doldrums and the mess into which the present ruling party has thrown the country for almost 12 years.”
Speaking in the same vein, the ACN National Secretary, Usman Bugaje, also confirmed discussions with various political groups, including the CPC. He stated that the democratic environment necessitated meetings and discussions with everyone. “Even you if come, we will discuss. It is a matter of interest,” he said, but refused to say whether the talks between Buhari and Tinubu had collapsed.
The ACN had mooted the idea of adopting Buhari as its presidential candidate despite the entry of the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and the former Sokot State Governor, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, into the party and declaring their interest in the presidency on the platform of the ACN.
However, Bafarawa’s exit from the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) may have unsettled the party as it claims the former governor was still its member. A national leader of the party told Sunday Sun in confidence that Bafarawa was still carrying the DPP registration card and that as chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, he needed to resign formally, which he had not done.
The source said the defection of the former Sokoto governor to the ACN did not mean that DPP had ceased to exist, adding that it remains a solid party and that Bafarawa was just an individual member who could join any group he wants.
Comments