Mix-up in APC as Tinubu raises alarm of sabotage

There are indications of mix-up in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2023 general elections, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, raised alarm of sabotage of his presidential ambition.

A source from the ruling party, who sought anonymity, was of the view that allegations of sabotage was strange to APC leaders, especially, when President Muhammadu Buhari is personally involved in the campaign of the party’s presidential candidate. The party source added that such allegation of sabotage that is linked to policies of government may be misleading. He said that President Buhari has promised the world that he would conduct free, fair, credible and transparent elections in 2023.

Meanwhile, Tinubu was reported to have said that government policies on the redesigning of some naira notes, notably, N200, N500 and N1,000 notes and the short period for swapping of the old notes with the new ones, including the lingering petrol scarcity and the increasing pump price of petrol per litre, were targeted at him, to frustrate his presidential ambition. The APC candidate, however, vaunt that despite the sabotage, he will win the presidential election in February.

National Daily gathered that President Buhari is not willing to comprise the credibility and transparency of the 2023 general elections so as to leave an enduring legacy of transparent elections as he inherited in 2015 when he departs office in May 2023.

Besides legal and policy measures to ensure credible elections, like signing of the Amended Electoral Act, National Daily gathered President Buhari had given strict order to Chief of Defence Staff of the Nigerian military, General Lucky Eluonye Onyenuchea Irabor, to ensure adequate security before, during and after the 2023 general elections. The military, National Daily further gathered, had been purportedly given presidential order to shoot at sight any trouble maker during the electioneering period.

National Daily investigation showed that President Buhari is not ready to comprise the 2023 general elections on the alter of partisanship or party affiliation. The President was said to insist on hard work for election victory, and, according to a party source, “that is the reason he is personally involved in the APC presidential campaign in some states.”

Moreover, National Daily gathered that loyalists of Tinubu, particularly, those in the National Assembly, had initially, purportedly moved against the Governor of  the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, to forestall the redesigning and short swap period of three Naira notes of N200, N500 and N1,000. They were said to have discovered that Emefiele had the support of President Buhari on the monetary policy. At this point, according to our party source, the APC presidential candidate commenced the outburst of sabotage allegation, even though in an innuendo, he attributed his petrol scarcity sabotage to the People Democratic Party (PDP), a party that does not control the federal government. There are, therefore, concerns within the ruling APC that Tinubu may be indirectly or covertly making his outburst against President Buhari in the petrol scarcity and new Naira notes exchange instances.

Meanwhile, Tinubu’s outburst of sabotage may be germane since the petrol scarcity and Naira notes swapping are inflicting more hardship on Nigerians, causing relative disaffection with the APC and the party government.