There is tension in the political camp of President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), over a looming face off amongst groups of political organisations supporting the president and his administration.
The Nation learnt that the Coalition of APC Support Groups and a new body, National Committee of Buhari Support Groups, recently put together by Senators Ibrahim Lawal and Habu Ibrahim, are at the centre of the looming crisis.
Reliable sources claim the president is unaware of the crisis as he is yet to be briefed by those concerned. But a presidential aide from the Southwest, worried over the possible effect of the looming crisis on Buhari’s political future, has allegedly sent a report on the matter to the presidency through the usual official channel. “But it is yet to be seen if that too got to the President,” a source said.
The Nation gathered that although the issues that led to the current face-off have been on for a while, trouble burst open last week following the hosting of the National Committee of Buhari Support Groups in the Villa by President Buhari. The development, it was gathered, angered the leadership of the Coalition of APC Support Groups, which accused Senator Ibrahim and some presidential aides of trying to supplant the coalition with the new group ahead of the 2019 elections.
It was further gathered that the leadership of the coalition, under Ambassador Lawal Mohammed Munir, Mazi Peter Okorapo and Mallam Danjuma Dattijo, as Chairman, General Secretary and Organising Secretary respectively, had before now, accused some aides of the President of denying the coalition and its members, access to President Buhari, in spite of several efforts made to secure audience with him.
They similarly accused the unnamed presidential aides of conniving with Senators Lawal and Ibrahim to float a rival organisation with the intention of supplanting the coalition with the new outfit. The Nation learnt the leadership of the coalition, which was inaugurated by the leadership of the APC shortly before the 2015 general election, had on several occasions reported the matters to the national chairman of the party.
“Not only had we reported the activities of the senators and their backers in the presidency to the national chairman of the party, several letters and petitions have been sent to the national Youth leader and national Organising Secretary of the party on the issues. But little or nothing was done until we were shocked to see these Senators leading a group of people to Aso villa rock to be introduced to the president as leaders of his support groups.
“That, to us is the climax of all the nocturnal activities we have been complaining about. Our coalition is not just a group of people supporting Mr. President. It is an accredited and registered organisation put in place and inaugurated by the party leadership itself before the election that brought President Buhari into office. We do not think it is proper for a group of people to just brush that aside and come up with a new one,” a leader of the coalition said.
Unable to bear what it interpreted to be an attempt to force it out of the Buhari political camp, the leadership of the coalition, through Dattijo, its Organising Secretary, wrote an open letter to president, detailing the disenchantment of the leadership and members of the various groups that make up the coalition with the turn of events since the APC won the presidential election in 2015.
In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by our correspondent, the coalition hoped that issues raised would be addressed with mutual understanding for the APC to achieve greater success in governance and of course for the support groups to be given their due recognition. The coalition cautioned against the ongoing attempt by some presidential aides to subvert its interests at all cost.
In part, the letter, which is now generating controversy within the party, reads, “Friday last week; 27/10/2017, we saw how Senator Ibrahim Lawal and Habu Ibrahim came to your office parading some people as members of the “Buhari Support Groups”. Sir, these Senators are liars, they do not own a group, all they did was to use the list of APC Support Groups bearing the names and phone numbers of respective coordinators to send text messages that they are a presidential committee set up by you to screen the groups (I have such messages in my phone as prove).
“In fact when those that went in desperation and belief that they were truly set up by you discovered how they visited governors, zone by zone, to collect money in your name, and they all left them. They are just one big re-energised axis of evil, seeking relevance in order to perpetrate the continuance of the traditional conception and institutions of high level corruption rather than a vehicle for cultural democratisation and experimentation with new altogether wider institutions geared towards social, moral and welfare reconstruction.
“It was the letter our secretary Mazi Peter Okorapo, wrote seeking your audience for the coalition, which briefly explained what we want to do for the groups and how we intend to do it, that was hijacked by someone in the admin section of your office and passed over to these senators who tried to implement it. The truth therefore, remains that we are APC Support Groups, who worked and campaigned for the party that brought you to power and our loyalty remains with your government which of course remains the government of our party, the APC. I would not be wrong to assume that Mr. President will not hope to outlive the party.”
The coalition also complained that its leadership and members have been abandoned by the President. “The Coalition of APC Support Groups is in structure and practice necessarily the only strong arm of APC with jurisdiction and modus operandi to constantly counter these challenges and bring in system relevant behaviours to both our party and government but, the wheel of both leadership of CASG and coordinators of all groups is left rusty and abandoned.”
Reacting to the allegations raised by the Coalition, a member of the National Committee of Buhari Support Groups said it is not true that the new organization is meant to supplant the Coalition. Our source, a chieftain of the Committee from Oyo State, said the organisation came aboard primarily to work towards Buhari’s re-election for a second term in 2019.
“It is seriously out of place to say we are created to push some people out of the party. They are APC Support group, we are Buhari Support group. Where is the clash? We both want to support. Why are they raising dust? Our own aim is primarily to ensure the re-election of President Buhari in 2019. What is their own current mission? That is what they should openly say and not raise unnecessary dust,” he said.
Efforts to reach Senators Lawal and Ibrahim yielded no fruit but The Nation gathered that worried by the unfolding drama between the two groups, the national leadership of the party may have waded into the matter with a view to resolving the differences before the matter gets out of hand. “The party is on top of the matter. It will all be resolved amicably soon,” a party official told The Nation.
|The Nation