Fashakin: Buhari Would Contest APC Primaries

 

Rotimi Fasakin

By Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

Forrmer National Publicity Secretary of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Mr. Rotimi Fasakin has said that nobody can stop the former military head of state  Major-General Mohammadu Buhari(rtd, from testing his popularity at the presidential primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Fasakin who in an interview Wednesday with some journalists in Abuja said, only the decision of the party members at the presidential primaries can alter the CPC's leader's plan to run for 2015 Presidency.

Against the background of claims by  Internal sources have confirmed that the APC was already working on the calculations that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal could be convinced join the fray with a view to presenting him as the party’s candidate in 2015, Fashakin said there was to suggest that Buhari will jettison his ambition.

A reliable source which confirmed the move, said some APC leaders were working on Tambuwal because on the basis that he is younger with an appreciable appeal across party lines, adding that one thing that is going from him is that he is from the north-west which is the highest voting bloc today in the country.

However, Fashakin told reporters that there was no time such an arrangement precluding Buhari from running was made.
The ex-Spokesman of CPC who  insisted that he has an inside knowlegde about the initial agreement on the merger, described the  purported arrangement to oust Buhari and Tinubu as  a ruse.
“We need to tell you we all know that the said arrangement is mere propaganda to stop General Buhari from again testing his popularity but it will not work.

“Let me tell you, come 2015, General Buhari will participate at the APC  presidential primary and nobody can stop him, I repeat, he will contest and no one can stop him from doing so”, Fasakin said.

The insistence of the leader of the CPC that he would contest the 2015 presidential election has put the newly registered  APC on the edge.

According to sources in the APC Buhari's uncompromising posture is at variance with an earlier understanding that he and the former governor of Lagos state, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu regarded as principal promoters of the merger arrangement that gave birth to the APC, would forgo elective office in order to give the new party ‘semblance of a new beginning.

However opposition stalwarts who expressed their concern over the development, said any move to dissuade the former head of state from commenting on  his 2015 ambition have always been rebuffed by him.

“Our earlier thinking was that the two leaders,(referring to Buhari and Tinubu should provide leadership for the new party and groom an acceptable candidate that will beat PDP’s Goodluck Jonathan, because from all indications, the PDP will present him.

“By our calculations, a younger and vibrant politician should run as our candidate so as to give the PDP a good fight; but from the way things are, we are stocked in between telling Buhari out rightly not to run and allowing him to continue with some ripple effects coming our way later", he added.

 

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