2023: ‘Anti-Tinubu Cabal Wanted Jonathan As President’

National vice chairman (North West) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mallam Salihu Moh Lukman, has hinted that members of a cabal within government circle who are not card-carrying members of the party wanted former President Goodluck Jonathan or governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, as presidential candidate of the party for the 2023 presidential poll.

Lukman’s revelations have given credence to recent allegation that some powerful persons within the seat of power were undermining the presidential bid of the APC presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, had last week alleged that there was a coordinated plot by forces in the Presidency to frustrate the APC presidential candidate.

Corroborating the governor’s position, Lukman said Tinubu who eventually emerged APC presidential candidate was not in the list of the favoured aspirants to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari during the party’s presidential primary in Abuja.

According to him, Senate President Ahmad Lawan was picked and presented to the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) as a fall back option to court the sentiment of the North.

The former director general of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) noted that the plan to pick a favoured successor for Buhari started in April 2022 with individuals who he said were non-card carrying members of the party as masterminds of the plot.

He noted that after failing to impose one of the trios of Jonathan, Emefiele or Lawan as the consensus candidate, they have “unleashed Mr Emefiele’s so-called cashless policy to damage the APC and the candidature of Asiwaju Tinubu”.

In a statement he issued on Tuesday, Lukman said, “It may also be important to remind Nigerians that the scheming around emergence of a so-called consensus candidate was ridiculously stretched beyond the APC to include people like former President Goodluck Jonathan and Mr. Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria.

“These were never members of the APC. But with the active collaboration of some influential people outside the APC such as Chief Nduka Ogbaigbena, publisher and owner of Thisday Newspaper and Arise Television, some sophisticated mobilisation of so-called ‘hundred eminent businessmen, political, media and civil society leaders, including 14 current governors, 13 former governors as well as three former senate presidents’ commenced around April 2022.

“Gradually, this scheming shifted and was entrenched within APC. By May 2023, when the party began to sell its nomination forms to aspiring candidates, forms were purchased by some APC leaders for former President Goodluck Jonathan and Mr. Godwin Emefiele.

“Eventually, when these schemers couldn’t succeed in popularising both former President Jonathan and Mr. Emefiele as possible contenders to emerge as consensus Presidential candidates for APC, the Senate President, Sen. Ahmed Lawan was recruited and promoted. It is on record that Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, on the eve of the Convention that elected Asiwaju Tinubu as the Presidential candidate of the party, announced to NWC members that Sen. Ahmed Lawan was the consensus presidential candidate of the party.

“Members of the NWC together with Progressive Governors rose against that move and again thanks to President Muhammadu Buhari, the contest for the Presidential candidate of APC was thrown open and Asiwaju won with a wide margin.”

The APC chieftain explained that Lawan became a fallback for the cabal after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) settled for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as its presidential flagbearer, all in a bid to secure northern votes.

He said, “Part of the dummy that was promoted within the APC to attempt to popularise the choice of a Northerner, Senator Ahmed Lawan as a consensus candidate was that since PDP had elected Alh. Atiku Abubakar, a Northerner as its Presidential Candidate, we needed to also elect a Northern so that we can win the votes of Northerners.

“This is completely inconsiderate of the popular agitation for power shift in the country. It is also insensitive to the potential instability that the choice of another Northerner emerging as President of the country could cause. Ahead of the APC National Convention, APC Governors from the North had already declared their opposition against a Northerner emerging as APC Presidential candidate.”

Corroborating El-Rufai’s stance that there is a plot by Aso Rock cabal to frustrate Tinubu, he said, “Of course, there are forces within the APC that are also not comfortable with the possibility that Asiwaju Tinubu will be the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“Schemers that failed to produce either Mr. Emefiele or former President Jonathan or Sen. Ahmed Lawan as consensus candidate of APC have unleashed Mr. Emefiele’s so-called cashless policy to damage the APC and the candidature of Asiwaju Tinubu.

“But like they failed in the case of consensus presidential candidates, they are also failing in their intrigues to damage the APC and the candidature of Asiwaju Tinubu. Like Asiwaju Tinubu emerged as the Presidential candidate of APC despite their machinations, Asiwaju Tinubu will also become President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, God willing.”

Lukman however assured that the North West geopolitical zone was fully behind Tinubu, saying in spite of opposition within and outside the party, he will win the landslide in the forthcoming presidential election.

He said even though certain individuals are averse to the aspiration of Tinubu, it won’t stop his victory at the poll.

He added that the record of commitment to Nigerian democracy, party building and capacity of the presidential candidate of the party was unparalleled when compared to other candidates in the forthcoming election.

He pointed out that democracy is beyond periodic elections, adding that since the formation of APC in 2013, the struggle to build the APC as a democratic, progressive and accountable institution had been a priority agenda.

Lukman said, “Looking at the Nigerian political landscape and compared to all the other parties and candidates for the 2023 Presidential elections, APC’s and Asiwaju Tinubu’s record of commitment to Nigerian democracy, party building and capacity is unparalleled.

“Meeting public expectation is about being accountable, which is beyond elections. The candidature of Asiwaju Tinubu therefore is beyond the 2023 elections; it is about matching the hopes of Nigerians to develop our country and the reality of being faced with the challenge of building the foundational institution of every democracy, which is the political party. That is the founding vision of APC, it remains the pillar of every electoral contest in APC since 2015, and it shall remain so!.”