• Forecloses Muslim-Muslim ticket
There are strong indications that the main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) may not look the way of its two main presidential aspirants, former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for presidential candidacy.
New Telegraph gathered from authoritative sources that a Strategy Committee of the party headed by the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, has advised the party to jettison the idea of fielding either Buhari or Abubakar.
Rather, the committee wants the party to look in the direction of a northern Muslim governor if it really wants to challenge the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan who is likely to emerge the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential flag bearer.
The suggestion is contained in a two-page document titled “Memo to His Excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu: 2015, implications of Muslim/Muslim Ticket and the Burden of APC Presidential candidate” distributed to select party leaders at a meeting last Saturday, April 26.
The meeting took place at No. 26, Bourdillon Street, Ikoyi, Lagos and was attended by 15 party leaders, including the Interim National Chairman, Bisi Akande; Interim Deputy National Chairman, Aminu Bello Masari; Fashola; Tinubu; Saliu Lukman, Director General of Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF); Murtala Usman Aliyu; former Bauchi State Deputy Governor, Garuba Ghadi. Others are former governors of Abia and Edo states, Ogbonnaya Onu and John Odigie-Oyegun respectively as well as Senator Olubunmi Adetunbi and Hon. Femi Gbajamila.
Former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nasir el Rufai, could not attend apparently because he was still mourning his daughter. El Rufai is a die-hard Buhari man who is likely to oppose the report. According to New Telegraph source, Fashola, while leaving the meeting for another function, urged participants to study the documents carefully. On Buhari’s chances, the report noted that after three attempts, a fourth outing, if not well handled, could be disastrous for the party.
The report argued that Buhari was more prone to media attack over his human rights credentials and religious zeal notwithstanding his perceived uprightness and trustworthiness. On Atiku, the report said: “There are lots of suspicions on Atiku’s personality as a politician.”
Like in Buhari’s case, the report noted that even though Atiku is believed to have “deep pockets”, there are lots of baggage of suspicions among the political class, with the international community being wary of him.
The report advised the party to rather “consider working for the emergence of a Muslim presidential candidate of Northern extraction from among the present Northern Governors.” Among other contents of the document are that a Muslim/Muslim presidential ticket for the party can negatively affect the party’s fortunes, especially in the South-West where it currently enjoys almost 100 per cent support. The ticket, the document warned further, would make it easier for Jonathan and PDP to secure the support of European countries and the United States.
The report dismissed the 1993 Muslim/Muslim ticket when Chief M.K.O Abiola and Babagana Kingibe won the presidential election on the Social Democratic Party (PDP) platform, noting that the situation now is different; the country being more polarized religiously.
The report, however, berated the former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode for unnecessarily sensationalising the Muslim/ Muslim ticket even when the party had not taken a decision. New Telegraph source said that the report was not thoroughly deliberated on as participants were not keen to make their views known in the absence of Fashola and the Ekiti State governor, Kayode Feyemi, Chairman and Secretary of the committee respectively.
Tinubu and Onu reportedly favoured waiting for Fashola to come and defend his report at a new date.
Source: New Telegraph
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