It is no longer news that there is a carefully orchestrated plan to scuttle APC’s chances at the polls, thereby ensuring that Tinubu does not win the February 25th presidential election. As revealed by the governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the individuals behind this sinister plan are some elements in the presidential villa. He didn’t mention names. But he claims even the Minister for Information, Lai Mohammed, knows who he is referring to. These elements, he alleged, are the ones behind the scarcity of the new naira notes and the fuel scarcity as well.
Why are these elements bent on seeing that the APC loses the presidential election? What do they have against the APC presidential flag bearer, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu? Why don’t they want him to become president? According to City People investigations, there are several reasons why these disgruntled individuals are working hard to ensure the party, APC, loses the election. But more importantly, that Asiwaju does not become president of the federal republic of Nigeria. According to Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, these elements are not happy that their candidates lost at the APC primary. They had tried to push forward a so called ‘anointed candidate,’ the one they claimed had the backing and support of President Muhammadu Buhari. But some APC Northern governors, led by Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, had confronted the president to confirm if he indeed had an anointed candidate, and the president said, no, he had none. And that spelt the end of the so called anointed candidates. At the APC primary, Tinubu literally crushed them by winning the primary via a landslide victory. And this has left them totally embittered and spoiling for revenge.
Some of the reasons these individuals working against Asiwaju have given for doing all within their power to thwart his presidential aspirations is that they feel Tinubu is not controllable. They would prefer to have as the next president somebody who would be willing to do their bidding, like President Buhari had done. They want somebody who would be ready to indulge them and allow them the sort of independence that the president has given to them withiun his government. Under President Buhari’s administration, these individuals influence lots of ministerial and non ministerial appointmewnts.
Going by our findings, these powerfdul individuals have their hands in a lot of major deals and rackets going on within the government. They are making stupendous money at the expense of the country. Indeed, the joke is that these elements are by far richer than the president himself. Some of them do not even hold any appointment or position within the government, but they have become so influential that very few things can happen within the presidency without their buy-in.
One of the reasons they also sell to other top northern elites is that Tinubu will not protect Buhar’s interests. They say he will not carry on with Buhari’s legacies. And the question many have asked in response to this is, what interests? Which legacies? We spoke to a top member of the APC and this is what he had to say:
“Of course, they, the ones often referred to as the Cabal, are the interests. No more, no less. They are the interests they want protected after the expiration of the Buhari administration. They want a situation where they will remain as influential as they have been under President Buhari even when a new government comes in, and that can only be possible under an Atiku government, not Tinubu. Once Tinubu emerges president, they know they would have to start packing their bags and baggages and vacate Aso-Rock. These people we are talking about here have done a lot of shady deals involving billions of naira, or even dollars, that should ordinarily send them to jail, but because they are close to the president, they have become unouchable. And as regards the legacies, sadly, there is just a few of them. I do not want to talk about the government in bad light, doing that wll be disparaging and demarketing my own party, the ruling party. But if truth be told, there are very few legacies that President Buhari will be leaving behind and we are only hoping that if and when Asiwaju emerges president, he will be able to do a lot more than the president has done.
Another farce they sell to the northern power bloc is that it is in the interest of the north that power should remain in the north. The head of these elements is a man known within the presidency to be an Islamic fundamentalist and an advocate of the dreaded ‘Fulani Agenda.’ He is a couple of years older than Mr. President and has a great deal of influence over him. And the Atiku Abubakar camp has been able to convince him that the PDP presidentialk candidate, if elected, will protect Fulani interests. He and his cohorts have been assured that they will remain as relevant and as influential as they have always been if they throw their weight behind Atiku. It is as a result of their alliance that we are witnessing the madness called naira scarcity in the country. They, in connivance with the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, hatched the plan to sell to Buhari the idea of redesigning the naira so that the CBN can mop up the billions of naira stashed outside its vaults.
Many have disagreed with the timing of the policy, wondering why the CBN has to come up with this policy with the presidential and general elections just around the corner. Already, its consequences have been felt all around the country. The people are bearing the brunt of an ill timed policy. And they are venting their anger on the ruling party. They are bitter that the government has brought additional hardship on them and they appear now more detemined to vote the APC out of power, which is why we are seeing lots of unrests in the country. And this is exactly what the Aso Rock cabal wanted. Their hope and expectation is that the people will be able to carry the resentment they feel against the ruling APC to the polls and vote them out of power. By their calculations and permutations, the only party that can benefit from that will be the PDP. As far as they are concerned, the Labour Party’s Peter Obi stands no chance of winning the election.
They appear to be winning the battle against Asiwaju. They appear to hold all the aces right now because their plan looks to be falling in place. Many of the electorates have become disenchanted with the APC owing to the present naira and fuel scarcity going on in the country. But those who know Asiwaju closely will tell you that he never gives up on a course he believes in. He will fight to the very end to make sure his lifelong dream of becoming president of Nigeria becomes a reality.
– Wale Lawal
(08037209290)
