By Osigbesan Sultan Luqman
*President May Quit ‘Like Mandela’ After First Term
*APC Power Blocs In Stealth Battle To Pick Successor
*Saraki, Dogara Fire First Shots Towards 2019
*PDP Fancies Quick Comeback Amid Ruling Party’s Crisis
In a decision that could break the hearts of millions of his admirers – but likely to cement his status as a Nigerian elder statesman and put him in the growing pantheon of Africa’s iconoclasts of democracy, President Muhammadu Buhari – subterranean claims in the All Progressives Congress (APC) have it that the President might waive his right to seek a second term in office in 2019, opting instead to leave the stage for a younger presidential candidate in the APC.
According to multiple sources in the APC who pleaded anonymity for fear of sanction from the party, “this knowledge of the one-term presidency, which gained strong traction in the party after the President spoke recently in his usual honest candour in Johannesburg, South Africa that there is a limit to what he can do at 72, is at the heart of the crisis in the APC, the first public shots of which were fired at the inauguration of the 8th National Assembly. The July 9 bullets are still ricocheting in the party and more shots will be fired all the way to 2019.”
However, the sources assured that “the struggle for the control of the APC will not in any way hold back the President from delivering the change he promised the nation. Contrary to claims in some quarters, the power struggle is not aimed at the President. Nobody can hold President Buhari to ransom by the positions they occupy either in the party or the National Assembly. He is a man of impeccable integrity, our own Mandela loved by millions of Nigerians who will side with him against any power hungry individual or bloc in our party, and we all know this in the party. And I can assure you that despite the crisis, the President is very determined to work assiduously in the next four years to build the foundation of a new Nigeria for his successor and next generation of leaders to build a superstructure of the Nigeria of our dream.”
It would be recalled that President Buhari, “speaking extempore, because he wanted to speak from the heart” to the Nigerian Community in South Africa on Monday June 15, was widely quoted to have said that he wished he had “became Head of State when I was a governor (of the defunct North-East when he was 33). Now at 72, there is a limit to what I can do.”
“I can tell you that despite the best efforts of the President’s media machine’s claim that he had been taken out of context by the press, the speech has only buoyed the various power blocs in the APC to dig in deeper into the one-term agenda. Like former President Nelson Mandela of South Africa, the prevailing thinking in the power blocs making up the APC is that the President may not present himself for a second term in 2019, especially with his ‘Jo’burg Declaration’, and nobody wants to be caught napping in this game. As all good politicians are known to be, we all have our eyes on the next elections in 2019. These power blocs are determined to gain control of the party’s machinery not just for now but with a view to the producing President Buhari’s successor in 2019, if the President eventually waived away his second term bid,” one source said.
‘A Complex Political Chess Game Is On’
According to party sources who spoke with The Dream Daily, “the race for the 2019 presidential polls is on in the APC and it involves the CPC/ACN/ANPP blocs who are in control of the party’s national executive apparatus. There is also the bloc led by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the New-PDP bloc, which has broken into at least two factions. In a complex political chess game, the APGA bloc of the party is playing a waiting game and is yet undecided where to pitch their tenth, even as the bloc wants to secure the vice presidency slot for 2019 for Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State.”
The source continued: “In case the President decides not to seek re-election, the Atiku bloc wants the former vice president to have a last shot at the Presidency in 2019 when he would be about 72 years old – the same age as President Buhari today. Their claim is that Atiku is the next senior figure to President Buhari in terms of public office held by the party’s elder statesmen.
“It is also fitting to allow Atiku to run for the Presidency in 2019 as a mark of respect and reward for his immense contributions to opposition politics since he dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which in no small way led to the formation of the APC and the party’s capture of the Presidency for Buhari. As an attractive catcher, they are dangling the single term carrot for Atiku, saying that the former vice president will also not seek a second term in office if elected President in 2019 because he will be too old at 76 in 2023. ”
Meanwhile, The Dream Daily gathered that the New PDP bloc in the APC has split into factions following what transpired at the National Assembly on June 9, leading to the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki as Senate president and Hon. Yakubu Dogara as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Sources told The Dream Daily that the Atiku bloc enjoys the support of the New PDP splinter group led by Senate President Saraki, “who could also be drafted into the race if Atiku’s candidature fails to fly with our party men.”
But the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC)/ACN/ANPP bloc “wants the presidential ticket of the APC to remain in the North-West, with a younger candidate from the zone going for the Presidency in 2019 alongside a vice president from the South, preferably the South-West where I think Asiwaju Bola Tinubu could come in or a former governor from the region. The thinking is that Vice President Osinbajo will also be persuaded to go with President Buhari so that the party can enter the presidential elections with two fresh candidates,” said a source.
“Names being put forward from the North-West to succeed President Buhari, if he decides not to run in 2019 include former Speaker of the House of Representatives and current Governor of Sokoto State, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal and former Governor of Kano State who is now a Senator, Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso. Of course you know that Senator Kwankwaso, though a member of the New PDP bloc, is opposed to the emergence of Saraki as Senate president,” the source stated.
PDP Plots Comeback
Evidently spotting a gaping chink in the APC’s seemingly impenetrable armour, chieftains of the PDP still standing after the brushing battles of this year’s general elections are poised to drive the lance into the ruling party’s apparel, with a view to regaining the Presidency in 2019.
A source in the PDP told The Dream Daily that the party’s grandees “highly experienced in the art of politicking at the national level are amused by the crises in the APC. We are also planning, strategising day and night to seize the opportunities these should bring up along the way to win the 2019 presidential race.”
The source who does not want his name in print as he was not authorised to speak with The Dream Daily, said: “Our party (PDP) leaders are watching developments in the APC with keen interest. They know what to do and they are doing it. In the crisis situation which the APC have plunged themselves you saw what our party’s votes did in the election of Senator Saraki and Honourable Dogara at the National Assembly. If not for President Buhari, left to themselves the APC would collapse. If you remove the President’s factor today, the APC cannot beat us. The PDP will bounce back on the robust opposition we are going to give the APC and ride to the presidency on the ruling party’s crises from now till 2019; you just wait and see.”
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