2023 Presidency: Tinubu, Fayemi, Fashola, others regroup as inter-ethnic rivalry deepens in APC

There appears to be no end to the internal crisis ravaging the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) despite the intervention and reconciliatory mandate of the APC Caretaker Committee led by Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State. The crisis is being exacerbated by perceived inter-ethnic rivalry between the power blocs in the party and the latent controversy over zoning of the 2023 presidential ticket of the party to the south.

While Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State maintained that the 2023 APC presidential ticket should be zoned to the south, some other APC governors and party leaders were said to be plotting on retaining the president in the north in 2023. The plot, according to party source, is beginning to raise self-consciousness among party leaders from the southwest, who constitute a major strong ally in the APC alliance.  The party source revealed that southwest APC leaders are beginning to understand the game to pitch them against themselves. The source said that the beguile promise of giving the APC presidential ticket to Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State against the presidential project of the APC national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, by some northern party stakeholders has been discovered to be mere tactics to divide the region. They were said to have resolved to re-unite and push for a southern president in 2023.

Accordingly, Asiwaju Tinubu, Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Works and Housing, Governor Fayemi, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, and others, were said to have decided to re-align and give their support to Tinubu for the 2023 presidential race. Apparently, the battleline has been drawn between the southern elite and northern elite in the APC over the 2023 presidential ticket.

The party source further disclosed that the pressures emanating from the new crisis situation in the party are compelling the northern party leaders to renew interest in former President Goodluck Jonathan for the 2023 race. It was revealed that the northern APC leaders after detailed legal consultations, found that the former president has the constitutional right to contest for a second tenure. Former President Jonathan, according to the legal interpretation on Jonathan, he has only contested for one tenure and has the right to contest for a second tenure. The 2010 inauguration, they said, was not a Jonathan tenure, but simply a fulfilment of the constitution in stepping in at the death of former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. The northern leaders, the party source said, may be using the Jonathan project to push for power shift to the south.

National Daily is following the intrigue and will bring further details in subsequent reports.