Against the background of underground moves by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to reposition self, Fourth Republic Governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa, has deplored the stunted growth of party politics in Nigeria, saying the happenings in the ruling APC were due to the “insincerity” of some political actors.
Bafarawa, who also contested the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for this year’s poll, recalled how his discussion with erstwhile Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State in the United States of America in 2008 led to the formation of the APC.
The Guardian gathered that the ruling party is discretely reaching out to some of its aggrieved foundation members to regain its progressive ideology.
Although some of the eminent stakeholders so far approached in the reconciliatory move have shown positive disposition towards the rapprochement, others see it as a plot to shut out some leaders preparatory to the 2023 general elections.
This is just as sources hinted that some elements within the Southwest caucus of the APC had begun moves at regrouping in an alternative political platform to rekindle the famed progressive ideological of the zone.
However, Bafarawa told The Guardian that the power-play in the ruling party was expected, claiming that shortly after the APC was registered, “Tinubu decided on admitting erstwhile state governors elected on the platform of (the) PDP with the proviso that the entire structure of the new party in their respective states should be handed over to the new comers.”
He said while the decision to reward the five defecting PDP governors from Adamawa, Kano, Kwara, Rivers and Sokoto with APC structures in their states was taken to strengthen the party’s financial capacity to match the then ruling political grouping, “it later became obvious that the ploy was targeted at himself (Tinubu) and Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau.”
Urging politicians and leaders to strive all time to do good to all men, Bafarawa alleged that the internal movement within the APC “could be a way of rewarding Tinubu for his style of politics”, adding that “those who noticed that he (Tinubu) was cleverly manipulating the party for his own interest seem to be moving against him.”