By Uche Mbah
The recent All Progressives Congress, APC, convention which was marred by violence while the president, Mohammadu Buhari, and National Leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, were giving their address, has become a pointer to what will be in 2019 elections. The conventions, held at Eagle square Abuja, was covered by massive deployments of security forces. But this did not prevent the violence that was unleashed at the venue while the security agencies looked on. At a stage, the media was shut out and National radio and Television stations were ordered to suspend live broadcasts to prevent the embarrassment resulting in the live broadcasts of the show of shame.
But perhaps the most poignant fact was the fact that the nPDP, which embodied former PDP members that decamped from PDP to APC in the wake of the 2015 presidential election that resulted in a swing vote for the current ruling party, and which, once again wants to decamp out of the APC again, has been shown to have become like children crying for their parents attention. President Buhari has refused to personally negotiate with them, and has always detailed vice President Yomi Osinbajo, to do the interface with them. This was due to the fact that he has been advised that their threat has become ineffectual for one basic reason: their decamping will be counterproductive to them because they will automatically lose influence. “By leaving PDP in the first place, they gambled away the political structure they built within the party without rely building new structures within their new enclaves. That was the main reason for their marginalization in their new party. Their moving back again to PDP, for example, will be counterproductive because their positions of influence has been taken over by new kids in the block”, said and ZAPC Chieftain to this Magazine last week. he also cited that fact that the Senate president, Bukola Saraki had to rely on the structure still held by the current deputy president of the senate, Ike Ekweremmadu, to perfect the coup that brought him to power in the Senate.
His presidential ambition, which he has never hidden, has become a source of concern for the presidency, who have done so much to neutralize him. In recent times, sponsored research into his business deals went viral on social media. The police has allegedly been used to harass him and he had tried to use his influence at the National Assembly to his advantage. But his decamping back to PDP will not spell well for him, even though he still has all political structures in Kwara state under his control. This the Federal might has tried to break through their major alignments through the police investigations, and, according to sources, the speech goof of the Inspector general of Police in Kano, which was allegedly doctored by political forces against him to make him look bad and incompetent, emanated from the Saraki camp.
The foreclosure of the presidency to president Buhari has put many of them into quandry.The first to move out was the serial decamper, Atiku Abubakar, who left for PDP. But it is becoming clearer that he may never get the ticket as the Presidential flag bearer of the party, particularly as the Former party chairman of the PDP, Ahmed Makarfi, has announced his interest. This allegedly made Atiku angry, and he was reported to have quipped: “They want to use my money to sponsor Markarfi for the Presidency.” He was last week paid a Nichodemous visit by former Kano state governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, whose structure has been weakened by the current Kano state governor, Umar Ganduje, and he has been one of those with presidential ambition marooned in the APC.
