The ongoing realignment of forces in the South West caucus of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is already causing disquiet
in the presidency and the national hierarchy of the party, Independent has learnt. Notable leaders of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in APC led by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu have been making moves to form a formidable alliance against the Northern hegemony in the party.
The action by Tinubu and his group might not be unconnected to what some leaders in the South West have described as the marginalisation of the region in the current scheme and the ill treatment of Tinubu by the power brokers in Aso Rock. According to a party official, who spoke with Independent, the general feeling in APC now is that the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) faction made up of mostly Northern progressives have hijacked the party, while shutting out others who merged to form the party.
President Muhammadu Buhari contested on the platform of CPC in the 2011 presidential election. Our source also added that what today is called APC began when Tinubu after due consultations with some leaders of ACN approached Buhari shortly after the 2011 general elections and mooted the idea of joining forces together in order to confront the then ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the 2015 general elections.
“Now that the job is done, Tinubu and his boys are feeling betrayed because they are being sidelined in the running of the government. Aside President Buhari, the national chairman of the party, John Odigie-Oyegun, whom Tinubu played a huge role in his emergence, has also ditched him.
You can see what he (Oyegun) did in Kogi following Abubakar Audu’s death”. “Even some of Tinubu boys, who are now serving ministers, have turned against him. Before they were referred to as ‘Tinubu Boys’, now some of them have chosen to be called ‘Buhari Boys’”, our source said. Going by this, Tinubu and his old friends, which include Adebisi Akande, former Osun State governor; Niyi Adebayo, former governor of Ekiti State; Rauf Aregbesola, governor of Osun State, and other loyalists have begun moves to come together and strategise on the way forward, the inside source noted. Knowing the role Olusegun Osoba, former governor of Ogun State, had played in the days of AD, AC, ACN and APC, Tinubu and his loyalists decided to pacify Osoba, who had felt betrayed and left the APC shortly before the 2015 general elections to join the fold. Having settled with Osoba, Tinubu, it was also learnt, is reaching out to other major stakeholders in the South West region on the need to present a common front in the interest of the region.
The realignment by the South West caucus may crystallise into a breakaway group, leading to a formation of a new political party, Independent learnt. According to another source, “The presidency capitalised on the frosty relationship between Osoba and Tinubu to sideline him in the power sharing agreement. There is no way Tinubu can be treated shabbily if Osoba was on the same page with him then”.
The moves by the South West caucus is already causing ripples in the APC at the national level as some are afraid of the consequences if Tinubu and his folks should decide to pull out to form a new party. Independent learnt that the presidency and those loyal to President Buhari are already keeping their ears to the ground, monitoring all the moves by the Tinubu-led group. However, a source in the presidency said there is no cause for the alarm, adding that all is well within the party. “There is no big deal in the South West APC putting their house in order if they feel things are not what it should be.
That should not be misconstrued as trying to move out of the APC,” he said. Also speaking, former Minister of Information and chieftain of the APC, Chief Tony Momoh, denied the existence of any group or faction in the APC. “There is freedom of association in Nigeria. Any group of persons that want to be in a politic”.
