There are strong indications that President Muhammadu Buhari is making fresh moves to woo the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Punch reliably learnt on Friday that before the President’s
recent moves, the relationship between the duo had not been rosy.
Findings showed that
Buhari decided to reach out to Tinubu to seek his support for the control of
the APC.
It was gathered that
Tinubu was not happy with the appointments the President had been making since
his inauguration on May 29 last year.
Investigations revealed
that among those the APC leader had tipped for appointments under the Buhari
administration were a former Commissioner for Finance in Lagos State, Mr. Wale
Edun, and a former Commissioner for Budget and National Planning, Mr. Yemi
Cardoso.
A member of the APC
National Working Committee, who confided in Punch, said that Tinubu had been
loyal to Buhari.
According to him,
Tinubu was fighting Buhari’s battle when he decided to support Senator Ahmed
Lawan and move against Senator Bukola Saraki for the senate presidency.
The national officer
stated that Buhari was aware of the fact that Tinubu had been loyal to him
since he (Buhari) joined the presidential race.
He said, “You will
recall that Tinubu was initially supporting George Akume for the senate
president position, but he switched over to Lawan when it became obvious that
that was the man the President preferred. Also, many APC members are aware that
Tinubu lost out in ministerial and many of the appointments made by the
President.”
Another prominent
member of the party told Punch that Tinubu had been maintaining what
he described as a “siddon look” attitude towards the President before
now.
He said prominent
members of the party were worried that the president failed to consider the APC
leader’s candidates for appointments.
A Presidency source,
who confirmed the recent moves by Buhari, said that the President was not
unaware of what the APC national leader did for him.
The source stated that
Buhari’s reaching out to Tinubu was borne out of the alleged subtle moves by
some elements in the party, including a former Kano State Governor, Dr.
Rabiu Kwankwaso, to reposition themselves for the 2019 presidential race.
The former Kano State
governor was alleged to have launched his 2019 presidential ambition during his
visit to Kano early this month.
The Kano State chapter
of the APC had, at a press conference in Kano, said that it was probing the
former governor’s “misconduct,” adding that there was no presidential vacancy
in the party.
But Kwankwaso, in a
statement signed by his Chief of Staff, Yunusa Dangwani, said the former
governor did not launch any presidential campaign.
Explaining the
governor’s visit to Kano, the aide said, “It is appalling and rather
unfortunate that the good gesture of Senator Kwankwaso has been mischievously
interpreted wrongly.”
Although former
Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has been a loyal APC man, Punch correspondents
gathered that chieftains of the party were aware that he was not uninterested
in the presidency.
-Punch
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