By Dansu Peter
A battle of the bigwig within ranks the ruling All Progressives Congressive, APC loyal to President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has begun following a strongly worded letter, written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to President, News Proof has learned reliably
According to Sources, the All Progressives Congress has retreated to the boardroom, in search of an acceptable presidential candidate, come 2019.
A top source within the party according to The Point revealed to at the weekend that two governors – Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna, and Kashim Shettima of Borno – were now on the radar of the party.
A source within the party disclosed that Kaduna’s Nasir El-Rufai and Borno’s Kassim Shettima were being propped up by two diametrically opposed interest groups within the party.
“While the Buharists within the party may have settled for El-Rufai in case the President declines to go in 2019, the Tinubu Team are all for Shettima,” he said.
The source, who belongs to the Tinubu Team, said his group was in support of the Borno governor because he was less controversial and dogged, having weathered the storm of the Boko Haram insurgency, adding that he was also easily sellable in the South West.
He noted that Shettima was once a lecturer at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, and could speak the Yoruba language, which would be a great political asset.
A visit, last year, by Tinubu to Borno State to commission many projects executed by the Shettima administration, was described by top sources in the party as a clear indication that the governor was “being courted for a higher calling.”
It was, however, learnt that those who were rooting for El-Rufai were doing so mainly because Buhari would, any day, prefer the Kaduna governor as a successor. Besides, the Kaduna governor reportedly has some groups within the party, who are working for him, especially in the northern areas.
Obasanjo, in his letter entitled, “The Way Out,” had berated the almost three years’ administration of Buhari, faulting the President over the poor state of the economy and Federal Government’s inability to halt the wanton killings by suspected Fulani herdsmen in many states of the Federation.
The former president, as a result, asked Buhari to resist the temptation of seeking re-election next year, but retire home and become a statesman.
Though both the Federal Government and the ruling APC had replied OBJ, suggesting that the ex-president did not have a full grasp of events before writing his letter, party sources described the responses as mere grandstanding.
“We know this is a clear red card that can result in an electoral loss if we choose to re-present Buhari for another tenure,” an impeccable top source within the party disclosed.
A source particularly disclosed that last week’s visit of the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and a former party chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, to President Buhari, was only a prelude to what might be tabled before the President at a special stakeholders’ meeting of the party, to be held soon before its national convention.
The source, who opted for anonymity, owing to the sensitivity of the issue, said, “What Tinubu and Akande went to discuss with the President was the need for the party to fix an early date for its convention as against a June date being canvassed by some interest groups. In the course of the chat, they asked him to think critically and consult widely on the import of Obasanjo’s letter and act according to his conscience.
“But the President is not a kid; he has seen the direction of the wind within the party and he is not such a person who will do any abracadabra or break up the party to satisfy his personal interest. He may just have chosen to keep silent because any immediate statement on his plan for 2019 may heat up the system. His close aides have assured us that he will do the needful during the party’s convention.”
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