New Telegraph

Atiku, Tinubu divide Presidency

Scores of government officials and family members of President Muhammadu Buhari are currently embroiled in a battle of wits regarding who the nation’s number one citizen will support in the build up to the forthcoming General Elections. Checks by Saturday Telegraph during the week revealed that two camps have emerged in the seat of power jostling for the attention of Buhari to support either of the two main gladiators vying for the plum seat. At the heart of the squabble are the Presidential Candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his main challenger, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Sources in the know told one of our correspondents that the two camps are currently locked in intense squabble with some concerned friends and neutral government officials trying to maintain the right balance to prevent things from getting out of hand. Leading the pro-Atiku camp is the nephew to the President, Mallam Mamman Daura, while the duo of Education Minister, Mallam Adamu Adamu and the First Lady, Hajia Aisha Buhari, are said to be spearheading Tinubu’s support. “A lot is really happening here (in Abuja) in recent times and things have been quite interesting. Government officials as well as family members are currently sharply divided over how to get President Muhammadu Buhari to support their preferred candidate for 2023,” the presidential source said. “What I know is that the presidential bids of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar are at the root of the current division within Aso Rock and I can tell you that. According to the source, the pro-Atiku elements are pressing the President to back their man, saying “It would be difficult for the North to have the right influence in a Tinubu led government.

The pro-Atiku group has in the last few weeks been consolidating its position by ensuring that those loyal to the APC candidate are contained in the power equation by reducing their access to Buhari or outright showing them the exit door from the presidency,” the source said. In response, members of the pro-Tinubu group are standing their ground by ensuring that their members in and out of government are well protected. Other sources who spoke with one of our correspondents at the Presidential Villa dismissed the suggestion of sharp division in Aso Rock, saying those making such suggestions might actually be doing so because of the perceived aloofness of President Buhari at some point to the issue of his successor. One of such sources who pleaded anonymity said, “This speculation has been there for some time. The aloofness of the President during the period people were jostling for the APC Presidential ticket was partly responsible for it that time. “Remember that the President tried as much as possible to be neutral at that time when party forces were pulling in opposite directions on whether the power would shift to the South or remain in the North.

“Actually opinions were divided at that time and nobody seemed to know where the President belonged. Some forces within the Presidency gave the indication that the President was in favour of the Presidency remaining in the North and that was when the kite of endorsing the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, was flown by the APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, at the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) meeting at that time.” Certain cabals in the Presidency were behind that move that was punctured by the APC gover-nors who resolved to zone the ticket to the South in the spirit of equity, justice and balance.

The President’s resolve not to stand by Lawan showed his neutrality and that plot failed woefully. “When that matter was put to rest with the emergence of Asiwaju (Bola Tinubu) as the APC Presidential candidate, this new one of division in the Presidency resurfaced. The cabal then latched on Muslim- Muslim ticket issue to discredit the Tinubu/Shettima’s ticket. “But as things stand now, they have since discovered that they may not have the backing of the President again because he had come out openly on several occasions that he would wholly support only the candidates on the platform of his party.

“The President believes that in a democracy, everybody should be allowed to have the freedom of choice and that is why it seems there is a division in the Presidency. “As for some of them planning to work for Atiku, that is neither here nor there. Everybody is at liberty to back whoever he wants but the official position of the President is that he would support Tinubu as his successor. At every turn of event, he has never said anything to the contrary.” Another source confirmed that though some party chieftains may not support Tinubu/Shettima ticket, the fact remained that the President, and indeed the Presidency, would work for its success at the 2023 Presidential polls. He said “Some persons vying for several positions, especially governorship, on the platform of the opposition parties, have been dropping the name of the President but they ought to know that such won’t work for them.”

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