2019 presidential election is fast approaching and sworn enemies have become friends again all in a bid to unseat President Muhammadu Buhari. YUSUF MOHAMMED reports
In 2015, politicians from the main opposition parties, the All Nigerians Peoples Party, ANPP, the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, and the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, aligned to form the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The quest to defeat the then president of Nigeria, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, saw politicians from diverse backgrounds and different ideologies join forces.
For instance, a national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Buhari, against all odds, had to put aside their ideological and political differences in a bid to see their dreams actualised.
Now a similar scenario is playing out. And President Buhari is the target. Three years in the saddle, he has fallen out with some of his prominent supporters who worked for him to realise his ambition in 2015. His friends turned enemies and members of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, are coming together for the sole aim of dislodging him.
In like manner, a high profile political realignment happened two weeks ago when a former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, paid an unexpected visit to Jonathan at his country home, Otuoke, Bayelsa State. The visit, it was gathered by The Next Edition had everything to do with the 2019 general elections, especially the presidential race.
Jonathan, apparently delighted with the visit, later wrote on Facebook, “I am firmly of the view that Nigeria will progress faster when great leaders, like President Obasanjo and other statesmen, plant trees whose shade they know they may never enjoy.” He posted on the social media site, photos of himself and Obasanjo on the visit, beaming with smiles.
That visit has made many Nigerians to recall that Obasanjo was a thorn in the flesh of the Jonathan administration as he constantly criticized their policies.
He wrote an 18-page letter with many weighty allegations. One of such was that the government was training snipers ahead of 2015. Their relationship went so bad that the former president from Bayelsa had replied by calling the farmer from Otta “a motor park tout.”
In short, Jonathan became an enemy and Buhari became a friend. In an outrageous manner, Obasanjo tore his PDP membership card in public to further show that he no longer had anything to do with a party that President Jonathan belonged.
He sang Buhari’s praises, using some of the best words available to describe him. But in another twist, two years into Buhari’s regime, Obasanjo wrote a letter condemning his style of leadership and advising him not to run in 2019. He has now teamed up with Jonathan to see that Buhari is not re-elected. That is not all.
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Far away in Northern Nigeria where Buhari comes from, tempers have also risen due to the president’s dismal performance in office in the last three years, the mass killings in parts of the country by armed men suspected to be Fulani herders, nepotism and other issues. Two former sworn enemies have also become friends to wrestle power. Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and Ibrahim Shekarau, both former governors of Kano State have mended fences ahead of 2019.
Kwankwaso was one of the 15 senators who dumped the APC three weeks ago. It was barely two weeks after he left the APC that he visited Shekarau in his Asokoro residence, Abuja.
Although, the duo met behind closed doors, it was gathered that the two leaders agreed to put the state and the PDP above their respective interests even as they resolved to bring Kano back to the fold of the PDP.
Shekarau who was a member of ANPP joined the PDP in 2014 and since then, he has remained a member of the party. All efforts by the state governor, Abdullahi Ganduje to win him over, proved abortive.
Apart from Kwankwaso’s presidential ambition which does not align with that of Buhari, many political analysts are of the view that his grouse with Ganduje is another reason he reconciled with Shekarau.
The Next Edition was able to gather from a reliable source that an arrangement that would see the lawmaker representing Kano Central keep 51 per cent stake, with Shekarau taking 49 per cent has been made in order not to have problems in the future. That shows how determined they are to achieve their aim.
The political re-alignments taking place across board highlight the popular saying that there are ‘no permanent friends or enemies, but permanent interest’ in politics.
