By Gideon Njoku
It has been revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari agreed, in 2015, that APC Chieftain, Bola Tinubu would succeed him in office as President in 2023.
This revelation came from a man who should know. He is no other than Rufai Hanga.
Hanga, a politician of note, was the founding Chairman of Buhari’s defunct political party, the Congress for Progressives Change, CPC.
Buhari had contested for the office of the President under the CPC and failed. But he won in 2015 when, thanks to Tinubu, the CPC merged with Tinubu’s ACN, and a couple of other fringe political parties to form the All Progressives Congress, APC.
According to Tinubu in an angry statement when he lost the Vice Presidential slot, Buhari had offered him the position, but he rejected it. That was when he, allegedly, nominated Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who was his Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, during his tenure as Lagos State Governor.
But a couple of people, including former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, faulted Tinubu’s narrative. They said he did not reject the offer, but was stopped from taking it because of their opposition to a Muslim-Muslim ticket which they felt will not be acceptable to many parts of the country.
But According to Hanga, Buhari made another commitment to Tinubu. He revealed an agreement to hand over power to Tinubu in 2023.
He said the agreement to hand over to Tinubu which he described as an “open secret”, remains the only reason why Tinubu has not dumped the APC. Hanga did not say why Tinubu would have dumped the party, but he said that but for Buhari’s agreement to hand over power to him in 2023, Tinubu would have left the APC after Buhari’s first tenure.
Hanga, in an interview with Dailly Post, disclosed: “This is an open secret. There was an implied agreement. Even in law, there is an implied and expressed act. If something is expressed, there are no two ways about it.
“There was an implied agreement that he, (Tinubu),would take over. That is why he didn’t back out after the (Buhari’s) first tenure.
“If Tinubu knew that he would not benefit, he would have backed out during Buhari’s first tenure. But he knows there was an agreement.”
Although Tinubu has not openly acknowledged his interest in 2023, he has not disowned the open campaign for him to run for the Presidency by a good number of his associates. He already has endorsements from a couple of Yoruba Traditional Rulers, including the Ooni of Ife.
But a former Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, in a recent interview, insisted Buhari would never allow Tinubu to succeed him.
Asked why, Lamido said that it is because Tinubu would rubbish Buhari’s tenure by outshinning him, and Buhari wouldn’t allow that.
Meanwhile, the South-east is saying it is its turn to produce the President in 2023, having not produced any since the return of democracy in 1999. It is strongly speculated that a number of South Easterners who defected to the APC had that in mind.
Dave Umahi, Ebonyi State Governor, had cited the delay by the PDP to zone the Presidency to the SE, as his reason for defecting to the APC. As it is, it is not likely that the APC would do so.
But time will tell.
