By Akinwale Kasali
The All Progressives Congress, APC, National Leader and frontline Presidential Aspirant, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Presidential ambition has been dealt a big blow.
The Director General of his 2023 Presidential Campaign, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has left him, and dumped the ruling APC.
Announcing his exit from the APC fold on his Twitter Handle, Jibrin, said: “I have done my best for APC. It’s time to move on. I will announce my new political party within the next 24 hours Insha Allah. I will make a formal statement in due course,” he tweeted.
Surprisingly, Jibrin had earlier on Friday and Saturday tweeted twice respectively, suggesting he was committed to the aspirations of Tinubu and that of Kano State governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje on the platform of APC.
Jibrin, a former Federal Lawmaker at the House of Representatives, where he represented represented Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency of Kano State under the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in 2011 before decamping to the newly formed political party in Nigeria, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014, was later re-elected into the House of Representatives in 2015.
Speculations are rife that he left the APC for two reasons. Jibrin, one school of thought insisted, was taken aback by the number of Presidential aspirants from the South West who came out to challenge Tinubu.
Said a source: “He thought it was going to be easy for Tinubu. But the number of aspirants from Tinubu’s Zone who came out, and are still coming out to challenge him took him aback. He has a strong feeling Tinubu could be humiliated at the Presidential Primary slated to hold in a few weeks time.”
Another school of thought said Jubrin was no longer sure of a Presidential backing for Tinubu. He is, also, not sure that the Notth would allow a power shift to the South. The fact that the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan is coming out, confirms that. He gave up because he would hate to fight a lost battle, and did not want to battle the APC from within.
Jubrin, an academic, business man, was born in Kano. He began his early professional career in the media by working with the Century Research and Communication Limited and later in the construction industry. After a stint at the communications company and some experience under some building construction companies, he moved on to establish his own company, Green Forest Investment Limited in 2003.
Jibrin later became the Managing Director and subsequently Chairman/CEO Green Forest Group Limited, with subsidiaries in Energy, Property Development, Investment, Agriculture, Construction, and Engineering. He was also Chairman (Nigeria) of Turkish Construction giant, TASYAPI between 2010 and 2011.
He taught International Relations at the Nasarawa State University, Nigeria and authored publications in the field of International Relations viz- The new face of Nigeria’s Foreign Policy, Nigeria’s Role in Peace Keeping Operations in Africa.
