By our reporter
Ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has returned to former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, his accusation that President Bola Tinubu is clannish and incompetent, saying the latter is the culpable one as he is allegedly moving to impose his fellow far Northerner and former Vice President (VP) Atiku Abubakar on the opposition coalition African Democratic Congress (ADC) in violation of the country’s power rotation agreement.
The agreement, a gentleman’s pact, allows the two sections of the country -North and South -two terms of eight years for each at the constitutionally-allowed four years a term.
The late President Muhammadu Buhari, who hailed from Daura in the North, came to power in 2015, won reelection in 2019, and enjoyed two terms of eight years,ending in 2023.
Subsequently, it became the turn of the South with President Bola Tinubu taking office in 2023. He is believed to be interested in a second term in 2027 even as other prominent Southerners such as Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, Mr Peter Obi, a Southerner, has declared his intention to run in 2027 with former Transport Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, another Southerner, believed to be also interested in the nation’s top seat.
Obi has consistently said he will run for one term and hand over to the North in 2031 –in clear acknowledgement of the ‘sacrosanct’ rotation agreement.
Both Obi and Amaechi are involved with the ADC, which is pushing to unseat Tinubu.
In a statement today, APC said El-Rufai was moving to trample on the country’s unity by seeking to force Atiku on ADC to fly the fledgling party’s presidential flag in 2027 in flagrant disregard of one of the country’s accepted political values.
The party claimed that both El-Rufai and Atiku were “a threat” to national unity and peace.
The statement was signed by APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka.
The APC claimed that El-Rufai and his allies in the ADC were attempting to undermine Nigeria’s power rotation arrangement by pushing for Northern candidacy in 2027, despite the presidency currently being held by the South.
El-Rufai had at a political gathering in Sokoto on Saturday reportedly described the Tinubu-led government as “incompetent and clannish.”
But APC countered: “El-Rufai and Atiku want to do to Nigeria what Atiku did to PDP. The El-Rufai and Atiku hijacked ADC constitute a clear and present threat to the unity, peace and progress of Nigeria.”
On the allegation of incompetence, Morka said El-Rufai and his ADC allies were offering no credible alternative to current policies.
According to the APC, the opposition figures lack viable policy proposals and have instead relied on what it called “headline attacks” against the government.
