A group under auspices of Arewa 2023 Agenda for Peaceful Transition, has claimed that forces within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), were plotting to bring former President Goodluck Jonathan as the party’s presidential candidate in 2023 and the current Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), as the running mate.
The group’s national chairman, Usaini Ibrahim Kano, who spoke with newsmen on telephone in Kaduna, said Nigerians may not have heard the last of the crises in the APC, as the plot to make Jonathan the party’s candidate with Malami as running-mate thickens.
Kano said already, many strategic locations in the country have been flooded with the Jonathan-Malami posters, suggesting the agenda was well on course.
The group further claimed that a former Lagos State governor and national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, may join forces with the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, among other top APC chieftains, to stop the actualisation of Jonathan’s ticket.
“This development is coming on the heels of the national convention and congresses at the State level that were first postponed twice. And there was disquiet over the cost of nomination forms for the various elective offices of the party as preparations for the 2023 general election begins in earnest.
“Observers insist that the internal bickering over the increase in the number of polling units across Nigeria by INEC is a child’s play, compared to the pending legal cases of the party, various committees of reconciliation whose reports are still hanging in the balance and the new funding challenges of the party.
“Before now, there has been a prolonged internal battle between all forces, including the key players in the merger that eventually gave birth to the APC itself in 2019.
“While the lingering crisis that has led to a fierce legal fight in Zamfara is assuming frightening dimensions on the fate of the party in the State, Tinubu’s camp is struggling to maintain a grip on the national APC headquarters.
“Tinubu’s camp believes that it is necessary to take over the party machinery, in order to be able fulfill his 2023 presidential ambition. It is also unclear at the moment, where Tinubu’s man – VP Osinbajo presently stands on the ambition of his benefactor,” the group claimed.
