Reaction To El-Rufai’s Reaction As Atiku Dumps APC, By Yahaya Usman

I am not an Atikulate neither an Atiku supporter, I am also not in PDP and not in support of Atiku presidential ambition for now, because I am a keen supporter of a north central presidency in 2019.

Who Is El-rufai? He is that smallish brilliant guy who graduated with a first class degree from Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU)Zaria, yes! same A.B.U founded by Ahmadu Bello he (el-rufai) accused of been a local un-nationalistic regional centred politician.

The same el-rufai who performed beautifully well In FCT and for that Kaduna citizens gave him a shot at the Governorship but under his nose shiites were murdered in hundreds.Yes! El-rufai who told angry citizens to jump to their death, the same him who insulted Obasanjo and even claimed Yar’adua died because he fought with him, only fell short of saying he killed Yar’adua. I guess you know him now.

El-rufai in a sober voice of rattle, said Atiku is only out to contest for president that Is why he left APC, so what with that? Atiku Is qualified just like so many other Nigerians in fact Atiku Is better qualified than even the Buhari el-rufai is trying to hide under to hit Atiku, no Nigerian living today has contributed to democracy like Atiku.

Atiku fought and defeated the third term agenda created by el-rufai and Obasanjo, if not, Obasanjo would still have being President till today(God forbid).

It was glaring in el-rufai’s voice that the defection of Atiku was a major setback but he also struggled to put up a volte face and said Kwankwaso defeated Atiku at the primaries in 2014. Yes! of cause, but he also forgot how many times Buhari himself lost elections.

El-rufai said they Governors have endorsed Buhari for 2019 forgetting that they, the Governors too, will face the biggest battle of their political life in 2019, not to talk of Buhari. Come to think of it, on whose behalf did the governors endorse Buhari for a second term bid, we know it was done to get more tranches of the Paris club refund to fund their lavish life style.

El-rufai seems to be living in 2015, when the battle for the Presidency was between north(3 zones) plus south west (1zone) versus south south(1zone) plus south east (1zone). The maths has changed.

In 2019 the Presidency will be a slug fight between pure northern candidates, the sentiments will be different, the dynamics will also be different.

In the north Kwankwaso and Ganduje fight will divide kano, Gombe is still in PDP controI, firmly in the hands of PDP, but before then let’s go back to Kano, the state that gave Buhari the largest vote and has always supported him since his foray into politics and serial contest for presidency, Buhari has not visited Kano since his inauguration 30 months ago, kwankwaso from Kano who was governor in 2015 that worked out the votes also wants to be President and he has a right to so desire just like Buhari himself, many loyalist of kwankwaso have been so sidelined and they are just waiting for 2019 to take their own pound of flesh on Buhari and Kano Governor Ganduje.

Taraba is a strongly PDP state, Benue and Plateau, the similar dynamics will play out there for obvious reason, the herdsmen, farmer’s clash has filtered away their trust in APC and Buhari, just like the Boko Haram insurgency filtered away our (northerners) trust in PDP and Jonathan in 2015. ( even though facts would later emerge to the non- complicity of leaders and the parties) those states will be going to the polls in anger against the Government.

Niger, Kogi, Nassarawa and FCT these state have dissolved a their fanatical support for Buhari and APC to 50:50 chances for Buhari and APC mostly for lack of performance by their Governors and the abysmal representation by the legislators, in Kogi Salaries are being owed, a civil servant reportedly committed suicide recently, in Niger, civil servants are disgruntled with a huge cry of marginalization, poor power supply despite hosting 3 hydro power dams and a fourth is under construction, poor federal infrastructures like roads, non- completion of Baro port and worst of all, skyrocketing cost of food and essential commodities.

In Kwara, Saraki is waiting to take revenge for the humiliation he faced at the code of conduct trial, while people of kwara are also waiting to take revenge on Saraki, recent Local government election crisis is a snap shot of what to expect from kwara.

However it turns out Adamawa, Bauchi and Gombe from the north east will learn bulkly to the side of Atiku because they also claim they have never tasted the presidency forming a huge reason why Atiku emerged as northern consensus candidate in 2011 against Jonathan, Save Borno and Yobe where Buhari will have a huge support base for his above average performance in the dismantling of the insurgents network.

Northwest is Buhari and APC’s strongest support base but kano is sharply divided, Buhari’s home state, Katsina APC is facing real challenge because Shema did very well as a Governor for the state while same cannot be said of Masari.
Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara are most likely still going to be dominated by Buhari and APC.

South South and South East, these two regions are waiting to take their pounds of flesh from Buhari, South South, for truncating what they will call (our time) at the Presidency, south east in solidarity to a neighbor. Do also not forget that in 2015, Ameachi was governor of Rivers and worked very hard for APC, now Rivers is with Wike of PDP and Wike will double or triple Ameachis effort for PDP.

South West, the most sought after bride of 2019 elections, opinions are sharply divided in the south west, Tinubu is finding difficult to understand what’s happening in Abuja, but he is still hanging on because of the enormous cost he incurred in putting the current government in place. The southwest is certainly will renegotiate the merger and anything can come out of there.

So what was el-Rufai thinking when he was passing his political judgement, he has forgotten too soon that even if Atiku will not win, he has the magic wand to stop a raging incumbent, he did to Abacha, to Obasanjo, jointly and severally did it to Jonathan what makes el-rufai think Buhari is unstoppable? El-rufai and Buhari who couldn’t eve declare their assets publicly saying those who will follow Atiku are those who are corrupted and love money, where did they get their own wealth from? Wake up!

YAHAYA MOHD USMAN

Journalist and politician based in Minna