Ahead of the February 14, 2015 presidential election, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said that its flag-bearer, President Goodluck Jonathan, is up for the race against a former Governor of Lagos state, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and not General Muhammadu Buhari (retd).
The All Progressives Congress, APC, concluded its presidential primaries last Thursday in Lagos with Gen. Buhari (retd), a former head of state, emerging winner of the contest with about 3, 430 votes.
But the ruling PDP is alleging that Buhari’s victory is a mere front for Mr. Tinubu, who wields considerable influence in the opposition party.
In a statement on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, the PDP said the APC presidential candidate by his victory, had already surrendered his powers and first official assignment of choosing a running mate to the former Lagos governor.
The statement reads in part: “This development clearly confirms that General Buhari is not in charge, may have been compromised and willing to be appropriated. In fact, patriotic Nigerians from across the six geo-political zones are now embarrassed that General Buhari is playing a godson to Alhaji Tinubu.
“In surrendering his prerogative of choosing his running mate, General Buhari has confirmed that he is being appropriated and compromised to serve a personal and narrow group interest of a cabal on whose ticket he emerged as the presidential candidate.
“This APC cabal under the command of Tinubu tampered with all the rules of their party to achieve their selfish agenda of planting surrogates in all strategic positions to enable Tinubu expand his economic and political frontiers the way and manner he did in Lagos state.
“Therefore a vote for General Buhari in the forthcoming presidential election is clearly a vote for Tinubu, his political and economic interests.
“Indeed, the possible calculation of this cabal, if they ever get to power, is to choke-up General Buhari and ultimately frustrate him out of office thereby allowing Tinubu to have total control of the economic and political interests of the nation.
“Therefore the question the citizens want answered remains, ‘is Tinubu the face of the so-called change the APC wants to bequeath to Nigerians?
“The APC and its leadership have clearly shown that to them, national interest is secondary to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s business interests, little wonder many are now calling APC ASIWAJU’S PERSONAL CONSORTIUM”.