Politics

How Saraki rescued Buhari from Tinubu’s trap – Kano APC chieftain

 

The Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, was one of the strongest forces that rescued President Muhammadu Buhari from a political trap set for him in 2014 by National Leader of All Progressive Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

A chieftain of the party in Kano and a die-hard loyalist of Buhari, Hajia Najaatu Mohammed  made this known during Hausa Radio interview monitored and translated by PRNigeria.

Giving graphic details, Hajia Mohammed said Saraki’s intervention broke the logjam that would have prevented Buhari from becoming the APC presidential candidate in 2014 and President of Nigeria in 2015.

The APC chieftain debunked any alleged political face-off between the Senate President and President Buhari.

“There is no face-off between the two. I think people need to know that Bukola Saraki had been one of the loyalists of President Buhari. The face-off is between Tinubu and Bukola. “Let me make it clear now that, from the onset, Bukola played a major role in securing Buhari’s victory. How did he do that? He ensured they won the elections. During the primary elections, one of the people in the forefront of Buhari’s campaign was Bukola,” she said.

Speaking further, Hajia Mohammed said though Tinubu too tried as much for Buhari to win the elections, but there was an agreement.

“It was agreed that he (Tinubu) would be the Vice President in order to avoid the reoccurrence of what he did to his party in 2007-2011. When Buhari won the primary election, we had a meeting in Lagos and decided that the vice president be chosen among the Yorubas. Since Tinubu was an elder of the party, we asked him to nominate three persons and he said, ‘there were no other three persons other than me as it was already agreed on.’

“We stayed for a long time begging him to nominate someone, but he insisted it must be him and if otherwise, the Yorubas would withdraw from the alliance. It was Bukola that stood up and explained to him (Tinubu) that if they should have a Muslim-Muslim ticket, they would not win the elections because the PDP was already more powerful than the APC and they were already spreading a propaganda and campaign of calumny everywhere that the APC was a party for all Muslims.”

According to her,  Saraki pointed out that there are many Northern states like Kano, Plateau, Benue, Kogi states and the likes that are non-Muslims and they were likely to vote for the APC.

“Even in the North Central, we have a lot of Christians and they would not vote in our favour. In the end, Tinubu said he had a pastor and that was how he gave Osibanjo’s name with a condition that he (Tinubu) should be allowed to choose the Secretary-General of the Federation, Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. As at then, Bukola was already aspiring to become the Senate President and Tinubu was against him.” The APC chieftain said the development triggered another hot debate but “during the swearing-in ceremony of the senators, they went to have a meeting with the President. The APC senators went, but Bukola even slept at the Senate because they learnt that the then IG of Police had ordered that the chambers be sealed in order to stop Bukola from entering.” She added that the candidate Tinubu wanted was never a part of team Buhari since 2003 and if the APC leader has anything on the contrary to say, she will be ready to defend her claim.

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