Major General Muhammadu Buhari [/caption]The
quest being made by the Buhari Group to make
General Muhammadu Buhari, the consensus candidate for the opposition, All Progressives Congress (APC) appears to be generating controversy after overcoming the Muslim-Muslim presidential candidate as the camps of other aspirants are kicking against it. A senior member of the party told journalists at the weekend that the manoeuvres by certain APC forces to make former military ruler the party’s
presidential candidate of the party for the 2015
presidential poll without going through an election is not going down well with the supporters of Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, Senator Bukola Sraki and Atiku
Abubakar camps. According to this informed APC insider, who didn’t want to be named, because he had no authority to speak, however, admitted that any attempt to impose Buhari on the party as the presidential candidate would destroy the foundation and the credibility of the
APC. The informed insider said they were particularly
disturbed by signals coming from the Buhari camp who insist that the emergence of Buhari as a candidate “is a settled matter.” But in a swift reaction, a political ally to General Buhari
has clarified their agitation that it was as consensus they are asking for not automatic ticket. The controversy began by General Buhari, when, in an interview with Rariya, (an Hausa newspaper) and was culled by Premium Times and People’s Daily,
where he publicly disagreed with the modified open direct primaries which has been adopted by the APC. That position was expanded upon by the spokesman of the Buhari Organization (TBO), Osita Okechuku who said: “Given all the indices, APC already has a de facto presidential candidate in the person of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.). If you go through the constitution of APC, under Article 20, it says for nomination of candidate either for party offices or
presidential election, you first explore consensus. If an agreement is reached through consensus, it has to be affirmed. If we go through that method, though we
have a lot of good quality people in APC, I do not know
of any person who the leadership of APC would tell Buhari to step down for.” Taking it from there, the former FCT Minister, Malam
Nasir El-Rufa’i has used his twitter handle “to take
this rubbish to the social media,” our source further
revealed. The source explained that such a phrase smirks of
arrogance and disrespect for other democratic voices
in the party. According to this insider, disregarding democratic
process in the choice of party presidential flag-bearer
could drag APC into deep “and possibly irreparable
political damage.” He explained that the idea of “automatic adoption”
of Buhari or any other aspirant for that matter is
undemocratic and would be resisted.” The APC source warned that party members should
not be reduced to “slaves and sheepishly expected
to sign on the dotted lines when confronted with the
nauseating idea of automatic ticket.” The APC insider said those scheming for “automatic
ticket” for Buhari “are probably PDP fifth columnists
who want to drive a nail into the APC coffin.” He explained that APC is bigger than individual
members and that its credibility and commitment to
democratic values must not be sacrificed on the altar
of satisfying anybody’s stubborn ambition.” The APC source also said that at no time was any
decision taken by the party leadership to give
anybody automatic presidential ticket for the 2015
presidential ticket. He noted that the success of the modified open direct
primaries for choosing its governorship candidate in
Adamawa for the October 11 election has given
confidence to the party leadership that it is a
preferred option for choosing its candidates for the
2015 elections. It would be recalled that when the former five PDP
Governors and Vice President were individually
visited and advised to join the new party, each was
assured that this was a free and fair territory. “In fact the registration of the party members was
the mark-off point for a new beginning, conferring
equal membership on all party members. Where is
this idea of “divine right to rule” by Buhari coming
from?” he queried.
He advised the party leadership to come out openly to issue clarifications about the process to be adopted to
produce the APC’s presidential candidate for the
2015 elections. But speaking with our correspondent on Sunday, a
member of the National Working Committee (NWC)
who begs for anonymity because of his position said,
what they are asking for is withion the principles of
democracy. “What we are asking for Buhari is not automatic
ticket but making him our consensus candidate and
this is within the law. The Electoral Act allowed it and
recently, some PDP leaders gathered at Owerri and
were asking the party to make President Goodluck
Jonathan the consensus candidate. What we like is to honour Buhari by making him the consensus
candidate. We see nothing wrong in it. Those who are
making noise about it are not being sincere.”

Source: Osun Defender