Atiku, Tinubu battle for APC’s soul

Fresh crisis is brewing in the rul­ing All Progressives Congress (APC) over the chairmanship of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT). It was learnt that a fresh crisis is rearing its head in the party over who will chair the BoT.

The National Executive Committee (APC) meeting held last Friday endorsed the constitution of the party’s BoT. No date was set for that.

An official of the party revealed to Sun­day Sun that some chieftains of the party are in the trenches over who heads the yet-to-be-constituted BoT.

According to him, the initial permutation was that former vice president, Atiku Abuba­kar would chair the advisory body. The move, he said was championed by former Lagos state governor and leader of the party, Bola Ahmed Tinubu who wanted the former vice president to support his candidates for the National Assembly leadership.

However, the APC stalwart who does not want his name mentioned said the music had since changed. According to him, the emergence of Saraki and Dogara as senate president and House speaker and the role al­legedly played by Atiku in the controversial election had pitted Tinubu against the former vice president.

His words, “we may be working towards addressing the crisis in the National Assem­bly but I’m saddened that we may court a new crisis.

“Power struggle is going on over chair­manship of our BoT. Initially Tinubu wanted the position to go to North-east. In fact he lobbied Atiku for it in exchange for his sup­port for his candidates in the National As­sembly.

“When Asiwaju lost out in the National Assembly, he changed his earlier stand that Atiku should head the BoT. The reason is clear. He was disappointed that Atiku was one of the arrowheads that torpedoed all the plans made by him.”

Right now, the APC chieftain claimed that Tinubu’s henchmen were wholly against ei­ther making Atiku the chairman of the body or giving it to any person from the North-east. He did not, however, state the zone or person the ex-Lagos State governor was rooting for. He only predicted that the fight over the of­fice would soon take a messy dimension.

“I will not be surprised if the struggle over the position takes a larger-than-life di­mension. I think the matter will be decided by President Buhari who is the leader of the party,” the source said.

He said though some APC chieftains from the South-west were rooting for Tinubu to run for the position or nominate his ally from the zone to contest for it, such proposal would not work.

According to him, the South had the posi­tion of national chairman and could not be supported to produce chairman of BoT.

He said, “the South is occupying the of­fice of national chairman , the BoT must go to the North. It will be difficult to bring up any argument that will change this equa­tion.”

On the possibility of Atiku clinching the position even in the face of opposition from Tinubu, the APC official said the vice presi­dent enjoyed the support of most governors from the North who would nominate the BoT members.

He said, “the former vice president is play­ing his politics very well at the moment. He has the support of most Northern governors. You and I know that these governors are the ones who will nominate the BoT members again tomorrow night. So I believe we are making some progress, not that everything is signed, sealed and delivered.”


Sunday Sun