Tinubu's Loyalist Plan to Dump APC

Following the perceived indignity meted out to the founding national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu by power brokers in the party from the core north, himself, his loyalists are set to dump the ruling party.

Already, his loyalist and the Interim National Chairman of the APC, Chief Bisi Akande have inaugurated a pressure group within the party call the Action Group to defend and protect the interest of members of the party from the South West zone.

Nigerian Pilot Sunday gathered from APC South West members that they felt betrayed by the humiliation of Bola Tinubu by members of the party from the core North despite the critical role he played in the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari as the presidential candidate of the APC and the eventual victory of the party in the presidential election.

The Tinubu loyalists were said to have critically appraised the recent development in the APC and came to the conclusion that the core North intentionally used Tinubu as ladder to get the presidency which they have been craving for since the death of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2010.

It was gathered that as the APC power brokers from the North gradually unfold their hidden agenda against Tinubu, members of the party from the South West loyal to him, held several meetings where they resolved to float an alternative platform in anticipation of their imminent defection from the party.

The new pro-Tinubu group, APC-Action Group, made its public media debut on July 5 when they issued a press statement signed by its Spokesman, Segun Dipe, where they defended the position of Bisi Akande over the crisis in the
National Assembly. Chief Akande had been criticised for his recent utterances with which he cautioned some party members, whom he accused of trading the party’s birthright and dining with the enemy with a bid to get choice positions. Specifically, he mentioned some northern elites and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP members within the APC as those rocking the party’s boat with indiscipline and disloyalty.

APC-AG recalled how Chief Akande had journeyed with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu through thick and thin from the dark and lonely days of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, to the Action Congress, AC, and then Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, before arriving at the APC, only for them to be thrown into the dustbin after they helped the party to upstage PDP.

Nigerian Pilot Sunday also gathered that members of APC Action Group are not particularly happy with President Muhammadu Buhari, whom they alleged set the stage for the humiliation of Tinubu during his inauguration when he said he belonged to everybody and belonged to nobody. They said those against Tinubu and the South West within the APC took the phrase as signal and presidential endorsement to opponents of Tinubu to unleash their northern agenda in the ruling party.

Members of the APC-Action Group are also said to be suspicious of the role played by the President in the election of Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, when he stood aloof and watched the agreed candidates of the party, Sen. Ahmed Lawan and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, upstaged by Senator Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara with the active support of APC leaders from the North led by former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar.

Our source disclosed that Tinubu’s loyalists in the APC- Action Group are bidding their time to see if President Buhari “will correct the injustice meted out to Tinubu” when the election of the chairman of the Board of Trustees, BoT, is held on July 20. If Tinubu is compensated with the BoT chairman and at least four ministerial slot they, APC Action Group, will keep their plan to defect in abeyance and watch events unfold in the party, especially as some members of the party are already positioning themselves for 2019 primaries, he further said.