2109: Buhari’s Threat to throw in the Towel Pitches Him against the Cabal

By Uche Mbah
The first wave of the defection tsunami that exploded in the face of the All Progressives Congress central government has so jolted President Muhammadu Buhari that he was considering throwing the towel towards 2019 presidential elections, this Magazine has been informed. Recently, there has been massive defection from the All Progressives Congress, APC, to majorly the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in both upper and lower legislative chambers. Governors and the state Houses of Assembly were not left out. After the defection, President Buhari invited the remaining APC Senators to Aso Rock for a meeting. Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Senator Olusola Adeyeye of Osun state and Senator Sanni Yerima of Zamfara state were absent, though it is not clear why they could not make it.
With threats from Uche Secondus that more people will be defecting from the APC to the PDP, President Buhari was said to have been distraught and was overheard complaining that if the trend continues, he may be forced to make a National Broadcast to the effect that he will no longer be interested in the 2019 presidency, due to age and ill health, and therefore will have to step aside for the party to chose another candidate. This according to sources was supported by his wife, who is seeing a possible humiliation at the poles due to nose diving of his popularity index. But the Chief of staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, and the vice presidential candidate under Moshood Abiola, Babagana Kingibe, were said to be vehemently against it. Kingibe, who is known to have been eyeing the presidency through the validation of June 12, is said to have opposed the idea on the ground that if that happens, the whole arrangement may not favor him. The Posthumous award to Abiola was said to have been engineered partly by Kingibe’s schemes. He was said to have convinced Buhari that the masses are still for him despite the defections. To confirm this< Buhari was said to have embarked on wide ranging consultations of different ethnic groups and grassroots mobilizers. Last week, he invited some ijaw elders for a closed door meeting.
He then was said to have given instructions to his media handlers to put on hold any campaign for the presidency on his behalf until he is able to sort himself out and make up his mind.
Interestingly, his wife, Aisha Buhari, who was previously estranged from him due to political power plaqy from the cabal, has now fully reintegrated herself in Aso Rock. Only recently, she was rumored to have sent the almighty Mamman Daura, the shadow president who lived in Aso Rock even though he has no political appointment, packing from Aso Rock. Daura, an Uncle to Buhari, was arguably the most powerful man in Nigeria currently. During the period Buhari was in Medical tourism in London, it was alleged that no one was permitted to visit him in the UK hospital without Daura’s nod. He is the father of the current Directorate of State Security, DSS boss.
Aisha has been able to compel her husband to approve domestic staff for the office of the wife of the president-an office that is different from the office of the First lady only in name. In fact, the picture of Aisha was next to that of the president-a breach of protocol-in the conference room used by Buhari and the Senators. It was not clear where the meeting was held, though reports indicate it must have been at the conference room in the office of the wife of the president. Buhari, as part of his campaign promises, had vowed that he will scrap the office of the first lady if he wins. With this, the last of the campaign promises has been flouted.