A MUST READ - BUHARI vs TINUBU

Sunday Vanguard was reliably informed by Presidency sources, 

yesterday, that part of the reasons for the seeming prolonged 

process of resolving the crisis in the All Progressives Congress, 

APC, may be the slightly differing positions of President 

Muhammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State, regarded as a leader and financier of 

the party.

Specifically, the sources disclosed that the Friday NEC meeting 

of the party “brought to the open the seeming centrifugal 

positions of Mr. President and Asiwaju.”

One of the sources added: “At the meeting between the 

governors and the warring parties that followed the APC NEC 

parley, Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal, was mandated 

to chair a committee of three that would come up with possible 

resolutions to the crisis.

BUHARI’S POSITION

“It was an open discussion at the NEC meeting that whereas 

Mr. President has consistently expressed his dissatisfaction at the truncation of the party’s procedure for the emergence of the 

leaders of the National Assembly, the position he has since taken 

has been one of reconciliation and not outright antagonism to the leadership of the National Assembly.”

Sunday Vanguard was told that Tinubu’s position, which had been misconstrued in many quarters as antagonistic, was merely a 

reflection of the need to enforce party supremacy at all times.

One of the arrowheads of the Tinubu group told Sunday 

Vanguard: “Asiwaju is not being rigid. He just believes it is not 

proper to kick off a government on a note of disobedience to 

party position by members of the National Assembly.    

It sends a wrong signal”.

WHAT TINUBU WANTED

Investigations into how the Friday meeting of the APC NEC went 

the way it did suggest that whereas Tinubu gave some conditions, 

those opposed to him ensured that his position did not hold.

For instance, it was gathered that one of the conditions put 

forward by the former governor of Lagos State was that both 

Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu 

Dogara “should not be invited to the meeting”.

A top APC member privy to the happenings in the ruling party 

told Sunday Vanguard: “”The second condition he put forward 

was that in the event that the two leaders of the National 

Assembly were invited, they should be made to commit to an 

apology letter to the party.”

That way, it was learnt, it would be on record that both men 

went against the grain of their political party.

“Unfortunately”, the top party leader said, “none of these could 

be achieved.

“And you should understand.This is a time when members of the 

party should engage a cohesive mode rather than one that 

would alienate more members.    It is bad enough that we 

already have a crisis on our hands.To further entrench positions 

would not be in the interest of the party.”

BUHARI LOYALISTS TAG WITH ATIKU

Sunday Vanguard was to further learn that already, “there is a groundswell of coalition between some party faithful loyal to 

President Buhari and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar”.

The source went on: “Mind you”, it is not for the love of Atiku.    

But it is gradually becoming imperative that whoever within the 

party that would attempt to ring-fence the President with people 

that would become malleable should be checked”.

Indeed, it was discovered that when APC’s National Chairman, 

Chief John Odigie Oyegun, held talks with the President, last week, 

the fears of the former were assuaged by the latter on the 

insinuation that he (Oyegun) could lose his position following his acceptance of the emergence of Saraki and Dogara as Senate 

President and House Speaker.

“In fact, Mr. President told our party Chairman not to lose sleep; 

that the rumours about his possible removal from office can never happen”.

Sunday Vanguard was told that that was why the party reposed 

a vote of confidence in its Chairman at the Friday NEC meeting..

ISSUE OF PARTY SUPREMACY

However, one very thorny issue within the embattled APC 

remains the definition of the leadership as occasioned by the new 

mantra of supremacy.

It would be recalled that, penultimate week, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, issued a statement 

stating that Tinubu was the National Leader of the party; the ink 

on the paper which carried the statement had not dried before the Presidency issued a counter statement insisting that Buhari 

remains the leader of the party, without prejudice to whatever contributions made by those who were the founding leaders.

Privately, some of the leaders of the party, who are obviously 

not on the same page with Tinubu, like Saraki; former Governors Danjuma Goje,Sani Yerima, Kabiru Gaya; and former Peoples 

Democratic Party, PDP, National Chairman, Chief Audu Ogbeh; 

as well as former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, are said not to 

be comfortable with the connotation that presently exists on the 

term, PARTY SUPREMACY.

Sunday Vanguard was told by a Tinubu loyalist – and correctly 

so – that the issue of party supremacy, as espoused by the 

former Lagos governor and Buhari, is good for the growth of the 

APC.

Verily, in the event that the APC takes a “position, that position 

should be binding on all”, the Tinubu loyalist insisted.

However, other leaders of the APC are insisting on the need for 

the party hierarchy to define the concept of party supremacy.

At the Friday APC NEC meeting, the issue could not be discussed 

because of what a source described as “some sensibilities that 

were not to be ruffled”.

The growing consensus among party leaders across the three 

divides – Buhari, Tinubu and Atiku – is the need for the party to 

quickly determine “who and what constitute party supremacy 

which would be codified”

BOT CHAIRMANSHIP: THE FIRE NEXT TIME

The ruling party may be heading for another round of crisis in the 

contest for who becomes its Board of Trustees, BoT, Chairman.

Whereas it was a known “fact that Tinubu, while lobbying Atiku 

to support Senator Ahmed Lawan for the Senate presidency, 

with a possible pledge to assist Atiku clinch the BoT slot, some 

loyalists of Tinubu are now proposing that he should become the 

BoT Chairman”,  a party source told Sunday Vanguard, “but that 

may be a far shot because Oyegun is from the South and 

appointing another person from the South to be BoT Chair, 

would not be fair.  

In fact, that was why Oyegun’s job was in jeopardy because it 

was part of a grand agenda”.

But this argument may not hold water because Buhari is from 

the North just as Atiku is also from the North.