Buhari Vows To Be Neutral As Ex-Aides Battle Tinubu

The Buhari ministers and aides who have joined or are associated with ADC include former minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; former attorney general and minister of justice, Abubakar Malami; former interior minister, Rauf Aregbesola, former minister of youths and sports, Solomon Dalung as well as former media aide and board chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Lauretta Onochie.

Also, a former minister of aviation, Hadi Sirika was fingered as part of the coalition but he dismissed claims that he was still in the APC and loyal to Buhari.

Apart from the ministers and aides, other prominent APC leaders who held political offices during Buhari’s tenure that also joined ADC include former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, former APC national chairman, John Oyegun; former APC national secretary, John Akpanudoedehe.

Buhari’s men have been justifying their recent political action, citing bad governance and hardship as the reasons.

Amaechi, a former governor of Rivers State, had said he was in the opposition alliance to challenge Tinubu in 2027 because of worsening economic hardship in the country.

The former founding member of the APC who stated this in an interview with the BBC recently, lamented the current state of the nation, emphasising the need for a political coalition that could bring about real change.

“If the government is failing the country, you don’t just go along because you’re in the same party. You know that’s not right…people are dying. People are starving. I myself am feeling the effects of hunger,” he said.

“We’re thinking that if we come together and win the election, the country will certainly witness change…the farmer-herder crisis persists, and kidnapping for ransom is still rampant.

“I’ve always said that Boko Haram is not a religious crisis. Many of those involved are doing it out of desperation and hunger,” he had said.

Also, Aregbesola, who was equally Tinubu’s commissioner when the latter held sway as Lagos governor, is the interim national secretary of the ADC.

The former Osun governor had in his acceptance speech said: “the ANC (of South Africa) is not perfect but it stands for something. It was forged in resistance, sharpened by vision, and led by men and women who believe in justice, dignity, equality, inclusivity of all interests and true freedom. It has character. It has soul.

It is therefore a true platform for the expression of their aspirations.

“Sadly, in Nigeria today, we cannot say the same about many of our political parties. Our political landscape is plagued by parties that lack ideological depth. They are empty shells emerging and splitting, not over policy or principle, but over power and personality. There is little regard for the people, and even less for the country.”

Onochie is another fierce critic of the Tinubu administration, especially on social media. She was dropped as a member of the NDDC board she had been tearing into the APC led administration, joining in declaring that Tinubu didn’t make her boss president in 2015.

Meanwhile, the core Buhari loyalists in the APC are from the defunct Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) bloc.

In May this year, leaders of the bloc declared “their unwavering” loyalty to APC and President Tinubu’s administration ahead of the 2027 general election.

The group, led by Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, the former governor of Nasarawa, distanced itself from a faction of the defunct CPC reportedly led by El-Rufai and Malami.

However, it was learnt that the exit of the former Kano Governor, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, as APC national chairman, might not be unconnected to moves to give the CPC bloc a sense of belonging and stop more of them from joining the coalition.

Justifying his joining the coalition, former Buhari’s minister, Dalung, told LEADERSHIP Weekend, said the alliance was to address the challenges bedeviling the country through strengthening governance.

“We are now dealing with a coalition which is a tsunami. The coalition is a tsunami that is why when it was unveiled, the political space was rattled.”

The former minister, who said he is an active member of the coalition, said its target is to get good governance.

“There are three issues. The coalition is not talking about speculation. We have not even discussed the issue of interest, we are discussing the country, the challenges confronting the country. So when we get to the bridge we will know how to confront it,” he said.

Series of attempts to get the presidency’s reaction to the unfolding event proved abortive as calls and messages sent to its spokesmen were not attended to.