One of the core groups in the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) has rejected Senator Umaru Tanko Al-Makura’s group as representing the central group of the CPC founded by former president Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari had left the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in 2010 to register the CPC and contested the 2011 presidential election on its platform. He lost the election.
He joined forces with the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), whose national leader was Bola Tinubu, and Splinter groups from the ANPP and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), called the New-PDP, were formed to defeat the incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan, in 2015.
He successfully retained his position in 2019 before Tinubu emerged as the president in 2023.
The president has been accused by those claiming to be the main CPC bloc of alienating them The members of this group are said to include former Kaduna governor Nasir el-Rufai; former ministers Isa Pantami (Communications), Dr Abubakar Malami (Justice) and others who are on the verge of joining el-Rufai in the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
El-Rufai has not hidden his feelings since he failed to emerge as Tinubu’s minister and has been leading a campaign against the president’s reelection as anti-Tinubu forces gather momentum across the North.
With the El-Rufai group’s campaign receiving more traction in the north, moves to counter them also began after they joined former vice president Atiku Abubakar during a Sallah visit to Buhari in Kaduna.
While there was no political statement issued during the visit, the All Progressives Congress, led by its National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, moved to counter it with a visit to the former president.
Ganduje pleaded with the former president to ensure his bloc does not pull away from the APC.
Buhari, however, told Ganduje and his team that people had the right to join any party of their choice. The statement reportedly did not go down well with the presidency, which allegedly recruited Al-Makura to lead an onslaught to discredit the el-Rufai group.
In a communique signed by Al-Makura, former Katsina governor, Bello Masari, ex-education minister, Alhaji Adamu Adamu, along with 20 others, they affirmed their support for President Tinubu and his policies and programmes.
The communique had read partly: ’We, the undersigned leaders and committed members of the former CPC, who were part of those instrumental in the historic merger that gave birth to the APC, hereby issue this statement to clarify our unalloyed loyalty to our great party and express firm solidarity with the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
‘’Recent misleading narratives suggesting a defection or disaffection among CPC stakeholders are false, misleading and should be ignored. We remain integral to the APC and are fully aligned with its leadership.’’
But a senior member of the CPC who chatted with THE WHISTLER from France accused the Tinubu administration of being hijacked by the ACN and vowed that the main CPC bloc would pull away when the time is ripe. The source, who did not want his name revealed, said “ACN is now in charge, but when Buhari was the president, he accommodated everyone. In fact, the ACN was even more represented in his government.
“The Bloc would know what to do to have a say on who becomes Nigeria’s next president.
“What we know is that Al-Makura does not represent the central CPC bloc. We are the traditional and original bloc.
“Are you surprised that Buhari refused to listen to them? He told them we have the right to choose our political associations. That’s simple.
He added that “it doesn’t matter where the next president comes from but who would accommodate all, whether he’s a northerner or southerner”, pointing out that the main “CPC controls five out of seven states in the North East, five of six in the North West and four in the North Central” of the group that makes up the APC.
He warned, “With that, anybody who toys with us will fail.”
Also, Malami dismissed claims by Al-Makura’s group as the main bloc in a statement issued by his media aide, Muhammad Bello Doka.
He said, “When you say CPC bloc, one needs to know who they are referring to. Is it the likes of Senator Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, Adamu Adamu, Masari and Faruku Adamu Aliyu who, a few months ago, had been throwing Buhari under the bus in desperate attempts to gain relevance that should decide for the bloc? Malami queried.
He described their decision as personal, with no connection with the CPC bloc, adding that it was for them to gain relevance in the APC for personal benefits.
On his rumoured defection to the Social Democracy Party (SDP), Malami dismissed it as figments of the imagination of those peddling the rumour.
“Malami is a prominent figure in Nigeria; therefore, he cannot defect to any party in secret. He is still in APC but in broad consultations with different platforms. Until the consultations are over, it is premature to talk about defection or declaration of interest.”
He, however, said he remained in active politics and would make his position known when the time was ripe to do so.
‘’Malami has the right to belong to any political party and to contest any position in Kebbi State,’’ the aide said.
