A trending set of documents with President Muhammadu Buhari’s signature as the endorsement has triggered outrage as top party members allege that the development has exposed the President as an unrepentant dictator.
The documents endorsed by the president named some persons for key positions in the All Progressive Congress (APC) forthcoming national convention, contrary to the position agitated for by a wide spectrum of the party who expressed their preference for election over selection.
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has been named as the person who pressured President Buhari to sign the documents after successfully arguing the need to ensure the Fulani continue to have a hold on power via proxies.
Multiple sources further revealed that the Kaduna State governor strategically leaked the documents with the President’s signature to cement his reputation as the ultimate power broker in the ongoing battle for control of APC.
One of the sources said, “Governor El-Rufai in a bid to prove a point to his colleagues and party members that he is fully in charge has leaked the two sets of documents signed by the president to the public. While he might have scored his point he has also successfully exposed the President as a dictator because the President should not have descended into the arena to the extent of throwing his signature all over the place.
“Don’t forget that El-Rufai had sworn that he will produce the next president of Nigeria on the platform of the APC and that will neither Bola Ahmed Tinubu nor Yemi Osinbajo will emerge. This kind of comment has no place in a democracy, and it is unfortunate that President Buhari is now an enabler of such dictatorial and fascist behavior.
“He is embarking on operation total take-over of the party and sworn that only a candidate loyal to the Fulani will take over power in 2023. It is alarming that he has been able to convince President Buhari along this line.
“First, he succeeded in getting a signed commitment from President Buhari that certain positions must be given to the people he decides. Now he is on another mission to actualize his vow that some first-term governors in the party will not return in 2023. Since he has the President under his control he will use the incoming National Working Committee to frustrate these first-term governors,” the source disclosed.
Meanwhile, there is anxiety among party chieftains in the south as they have become apprehensive that El-Rufai’s pursuit of a Fulani agenda at the expense of an all-inclusive politics could further embolden bandits and kidnappers.
One of them, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the security implications involved, noted that certain hardline Fulani comments made on Twitter by El-Rufai in 2012 is still playing out.
According to him, “Anyone that can trace the security meltdown in the north, especially in Kaduna state will understand that it was never this bad until El-Rufai monetized crime by paying Fulani gunmen that were attacking communities and that in part largely transmuted into the extreme banditry and kidnap for ransom in his state.
“Can you now imagine that this same man is the one now controlling the President and making him sign all manner of things? We have only seen the documents he decided to leak, we don’t know what other things he has made the old man sign. Maybe he has even signed off the whole of Nigeria to El-Rufai.
“The tragedy is not even the signing of party positions to El-Rufai. The tragedy is the Fulani angle. This twisted mindset that Fulani are overlords who dictate the direction the APC must follow and by implication what would happen to Nigeria. This is not about governance or party politics. It has now become a desperate venture to shield those currently terrorizing Nigeria from trial at the end of this administration,” he lamented.
