Alleged Buhari/Kwankwaso feud may affect APC —Chieftain There are indications that all may not be well with the Kano State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as a cold war may have ensued between the state governor, Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso and the party’s presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari (retd). A member of the party and national coordinator, Concerned APC Stakeholders, Alhaji Bashir Mohammed, who spoke with newsmen on Thursday, in Abuja, said the crisis which had already polarised the party along loyalty lines, was as a result of the alleged high handedness, viciousness and undemocratic posture of the presidential candidate. Bashir made this observation after Buhari’s visit to Kano, where the presidential candidate received an overwhelming reception but refused to acknowledge the APC governorship candidate, Alhaji Umar Ganduje, as is the usual practice. The group alleged that General Buhari had refused to recognise any other power bloc within the party, especially the Kwankwasiya movement, known as being one of the biggest blocs in the party nationwide, and thereby forcing other members of the party to scamper for greener pasture elsewhere. Bashir said: “Political watchers have attributed his refusal to handover of the party’s flag to Alhaji Ganduje, during the just concluded presidential rally, as a fallout of this feud as he was not disposed to Ganduje’s emergence owing to the latter’s membership of the Kwankwasiya. “This rivalry, many believe, has been in existence since the founding of the APC where legacy members of the party were not comfortable with the newcomers whom they claimed had come to take their place. “It has also been gathered that the lack of trust between Kwankwaso and Buhari may also stem from the latter’s comments in 2010 when he called the General a serial coupist.” According to Bashir, the behaviour of the General has brought about irreconcilable divisions within the party, saying Buhari had refused to recognise Umar Ganduje because he was not the retired general’s choice for the ticket and warned that he has once again used his hands to destroy whatever votes he was counting on Kano APC to deliver to him as many have gone their ways.” While reminding the former presidential candidate of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), of the experience “where he forced one of his loyalists Col. Jafaar on the people even as Mohammed Abacha was the preferred candidate, which cost him the election”, he further explained that the attempt by Buhari to always reward those who helped him in plotting coup in the army with every given opportunity is not acceptable to anybody in the Kwankwasiya movement in particular and Nigeria in general.” Speaking further the party stalwart added that the divisions within the party caused by the ‘Buhariyyas’ as they are fondly referred to was in the first place, should have been avoidable but the General’s insistence on unpopular issues in a democracy has proven to the whole world that he is not yet ready for the job of governing Nigeria under a rigid constitution and rule of law.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 04:59:18 +0000
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