2015: Buhari’s ambition unsettles merger plan

THE insistence of the inner core of General Muhammadu Buhari’s political organisation that the General must contest the 2015 election on the platform of the merging political parties is unsettling the major actors within the merging parties, sources close to the emerging mega party have said.
A number of sources also talked about some brewing unpleasant feelings among members of the parties, which, a source said, members of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP) were not ready to make serious issues about for now.
Nigerian Tribune was told that while stakeholders in the CPC and ANPP were not really at home with some recent developments in the merging party, they had decided to keep their cool at the moment, while waiting for things to fully unfold.
But it was confirmed that leaders of the CPC had quarreled with nominees of the party to the Name and Logo Committee of the merging parties, over the way they perceived things were skewed against the party.
Besides that, it was also confirmed that the ambition of former head of state, General Buhari for the forthcoming 2015 election was unsettling the entire merger.
Already, three factions of opinion had emerged so far, with each of the faction canvassing different candidates.
While one of the factions was said to be rooting for a Buhari/Bola Tinubu ticket, another was said to be rooting for the governor of Kano State, Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwakwanso, while the third group was said to be rooting for the revitalisation of the presidential campaign of the former chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, who contested on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2011.
It, however, emerged at the weekend that the group canvassing a Buhari candidacy was insisting that the man remained the face of presidential struggle and that without him, his core followers would pull out of the merging party.
A source at one of the meetings held by core loyalists of General Buhari in Abuja told the Nigerian Tribune that a major issue before the merger now remained the candidacy of Buhari.
The source stated that a number of followers of the general wanted only one thing and that was to see his name in the 2015 ballot.
Another source added that the issue before the leaders of the coalition was how to pacify Buhari to drop his 2015 ambition for a younger candidate, who would be anointed by the General and Tinubu.
The source further said that the CPC had decided to play down the issue of factionalisation within its fold, especially the faction of Senator Rufai Hanga, ahead of the planned national convention, so as not to draw the attention of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to the issue.
Apart from expressing their anger to the sub-committee on name and logo of the mega party, CPC leaders were also said to have commenced moves towards quietly resolving the disagreement with the larger All Progressive Congress (APC).