Ahead of 2023 Presidential Elections: Panic Grips APC as PDP Musketeers Sharpen Strategy

Bala Mohammed, Bola Saraki, Aminu Tambuwal Push for Consensus Candidate

Despite what has been described as grandstanding by the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) party in Nigeria, palpable fear is said to have gripped various cadre of the party in the countdown to next year’s presidential elections.

Top on the list of the worries is that contrary to the impression of the party emerging from its convention, last weekend, the cracks in the party have now been deepened following the imposition of candidates which, many party faithful, had adjudged as undemocratic.

Party insiders who pleaded anonymity disclosed that many pioneer members of the party now rue their exit, as they complain that the APC has now been hijacked by those referred to as ‘strangers’, implying those who joined particularly from the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

However, a more potentially serious challenge is the aggressive move by some presidential aspirants from the PDP to achieve the emergence of a consensus candidate from the party. The move, which is spearheaded by the trio of former Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki (North Central), Bauchi State Governor Senator Bala Mohammed (North East) and Governor Aminu Tambuwal (North West) is said to have created serious panic within the APC.

Though, the three are pushing their consensus agenda even against a groundswell of opinion among southern political leaders for a power shift to the south, the move is being considered by the APC leadership as the most formidable challenge to the party’s plan to retain power in 2023.

To the APC, irrespective of the zone that produces the PDP candidate, the current move is bound to unify party members in the countdown to the presidential contest.

The APC is also said to be jittery that by their action, the three presidential aspirants are signaling the electorate that the PDP is a united party and a serious alternative movement where the individual presidential aspirants are ready to sacrifice personal ambition for the collective good of Nigerians. This is said to contrast sharply with the situation in the APC where, despite obvious opposition, some party leaders consider it their manifest destiny to push their presidential ambition.

It is not clear how the consultation for a consensus candidate will end but what is obvious is that the PDP is eager to guard against allowing the presidential election to slip through the party’s finger.

It will be recalled that the three musketeers: Bala Mohammed, Aminu Tambuwal and Bukola Saraki took the political space by surprise when they announced plans to push for a consensus candidate. Since then, they have held three meetings, starting with a conclave in Bauchi, a visit to Governor Ortom in Makurdi Benue State, and further consultations with former the Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in Abuja on Monday.

It was gathered yesterday that the musketeers plan to engage presidential candidates from the southern zones of the country, notably the South East, with the sole purpose of establishing an effective strategy for reclaiming the presidency which the party lost to the APC in 2015.

An aide of one of the presidential aspirants who did not want her name in print, told True Vision that though her principal was moved by the suffering of Nigerians to heed calls, from well-meaning Nigerians, to throw his hat into the ring, such a decision was without prejudice to the ultimate party position. To him, any of the PDP candidates should be able to prosecute the PDP’s grand strategy to roll back the frightening insecurity, pernicious poverty, youth restlessness and disquieting fractionalization that are precipitously pushing Nigeria towards the unenviable status of a failed state.

True Vision authoritatively gathered that the next port of call of the musketeers would be the residence of former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim who, with Peter Obi, former Governor of Ogun State, are considered front-rummers from the South East. But there is of course, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa also from the South East whose presidency project has been running aggressively under the banner of the New Nigerian Group.