Former military dictator, Gen Ibrahim Babangida, is now attempting to find political relevance by now becoming part of Vice-President Atiku Abubakar’s presidential campaign team.
Reports from the Vice-President’s camp indicated that in all states so far visited, Babangida’s loyalists are being integrated into the campaign, even though Babangida has so far remained silent on his position on the presidential contest.
While during the presidential primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Babangida opted out on moral grounds, he has so far refused to state categorically on whose side he is among the trio of Abubakar, Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Umar Yar’Adua.
Sunday Tribune’s findings, however, showed that the General is angry with General Buhari over the latter’s support for Nuhu Ribadu’s corruption list known to be directed at both Abubakar, Babangida as well as their leading supporters.
Buhari’s position is reportedly considered to be a betrayal of the G3 agreement reached after a series of nocturnal meetings last year among the trio of Babangida, Abubakar and Buhari.
Sunday Tribune’s findings showed that the main tenet of the agreement is that the three leaders would harmonise their interests in the fight against President Olusegun Obasanjo, an agreement said to have been breached by Buhari.
Investigations revealed that while Babangida has refused to openly direct his loyalists to join the Abubakar’s campaign campaign train, there has been a stream of movement into the vice-president’s camp.
A leading intellectual and strategist within the Babangida camp, Prof. Omo Omoruyi, is now a key member of the Vice-President’s campaign.
“I am part of the Vice-President’s campaign. We were hosted at the residence of General Adeyinka Adebayo. This is where I am,” Omoruyi told Sunday Tribune.
“There is a strategic re-alignment,” the professor of political science said, hinting that the change in direction is necessitated by strategic political considerations.
“I cannot be categorical, but we are putting our forces behind the vice-president as an alternative force to restore democratic normalcy to this troubled federation,” he said.
Pointing at what he called a groundswell of support for Abubakar’s presidential ambition, Omoruyi who granted an exclusive interview to Sunday Tribune affirmed that in the present political calculation, the vice-president remains the most potent candidate to upstage the PDP.
Further findings, however, showed that the new re-alignment of forces has compounded the political crisis rocking the presidential campaign of General Muhammadu Buhari.
Investigations revealed that apart from the new reality of a Babangida machine being against him, some members of his political party are now bitter, due to his support for their disqualification based on the EFCC corruption list.
The situation is particularly critical in Kano State where many partymen are angry with the roles played by Buhari in the controversial indictment of Governor Ibrahim Shekarau and the attempt to stop the governor from seeking re-election on the platform of the ANPP.
The refusal of Buhari to forgive Governor Shekarau manifested at the North West campaign of Buhari where the threat of breakdown of law and order ensured that Shekarau was given the flag of the ANPP as the flagbearer of the party.
Anti-Buhari sentiments is also said to be growing in Kaduna State where Senator Muktari Aruwa, the party’s governorship candidate was dropped, even though he has filed a court action against his indictment by the EFCC.
General Buhari is alleged to have used the ANPP leadership led by his running mate, Chief Ume Ezeoke, to effect the removal of Aruwa to pave way for his preferred candidate who Aruwa defeated at the primaries.
Buhari’s choice candidate, Hon. Sani Sahaban, was later adopted as the party’s guber candidate for Kaduna, an action being challenged in court by Senator Aruwa.
Sunday Tribune learnt that Buhari’s insistence on having only his core loyalists as flagbearers and his alleged refusal to forgive opponents within the party have eroded his support base in the core North.
The Director of Publicity of the ANPP, Alhaji Ibrahim Modibbo, however, defended the dropping of some indicted candidates, stressing that this was not General Buhari’s agenda but that of the party to ensure that credible candidates were presented to the electorate.
