A chieftain of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), one of the legacy parties of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has decried how the indifference of President Muhammadu Buhari made the party to lose in Power sharing in 2023.
The chieftain, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said members of CPC have no place in APC should it win the next year’s election.
According to the chieftain, who is a former member of the House of Representatives from Adamawa, the choice of the CPC for the APC Presidential ticket was the former Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba and should that fail, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami SAN, or his coun-terpart in Aviation, Ahmed Sirika or Hon. Umar Adamu Farouk were pencilled down for Vice Presidential ticket. He stated that the decision to produce a CPC bloc presidential candidate or Vice was so strong when the bloc could not produce the National Chairmanship of the party.
The Chieftain said that President Buhari had accepted Emeka Nwajiuba as his successor from the CPC and had given his words to them. But should that failed, the next in consideration was the former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Ameachi and who was to pick a CPC Vice Presidential candidate.
“However, we didn’t know what happened that the President couldn’t tell the National Leader of the party nd the Presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu that he (Buhari) was not in support of his aspiration.
“We were shocked that the President disposition changed when he was approached by the APC National Leader. “For a truth, when the President said on air that he was not going to reveal his preferred aspirant for him not to be killed, he was referring to Nwajiuba,”the chieftain said. “When the situation changed, we, the CPC bloc were not happy but didn’t know what to do.
“It was the reason that Nwajiuba did not show up at the National Convention venue and switched off his phone. Nwajiuba got only 1 vote that was given to him by somebody from Adamawa State.
It would be recalled that it was because of the need to have a CPC bloc presidential candidate or vice that made CPC to lose out in the National Chairmanship contest. Those in CPC who felt the party was going to retain the Presidential ticket or Vice decided to support other blocs for the National Chairmanship of the party.
“The former governor of Nasarawa State, Senator Tanko Al-Makura was more disposed to winning the APC National Chairmanship election. Those who felt they were going to get the Presidential ticket were the people that stopped him and majority of them were from the CPC bloc,” the chieftain said In 2014/2015, the political offices in the party were shared among the major legacy parties.
The APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun (ACN); President Muhammadu Buhari (CPC) and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (ACN). The positions of the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives went to the new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) in the persons of Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogora respectively.
The sharing was also maintained in 2019, as President Buhari retained his position as President, Yemi Osinbajo as Vice President, former governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, National Chairman and Senator Ahmed Lawan, Senate President. While Oshiomhole was of ACN, Senator Lawan was of ANPP. In 2023, should APC win, it would be Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (ACN), Senator Kashim Shettima (ANPP) and APC National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu (nPDP). (New Telegraph)
