Disquiet In APC Over Buhari’s Non-participation In Tinubu’s Campaign

 Less than 60 days to Nigeria’s Presidential election fixed for 25th of February, 2023, there are growing concerns over the level of support the All Progressives Congress (APC) is enjoying from the President, Muhammadu Buhari, who was elected twice on the party’s platform.

Insider source in the party has revealed that the party’s Presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu has not received the kind of support expected from the Buhari Presidency despite loud public claims that the President will campaign for candidate.

The views expressed by some Chieftains of the party indicate that the Presidency may not be too keen to display elaborate open support for the APC Presidential candidate.

The debate began to grow in the polity in recent times over Buhari’s real stand in Tinubu’s Presidential ambition, following what seemed an aloofness by the chief occupant of the Aso Rock Villa over his party’s candidate.

The belief in many quarters is that Buhari originally had a candidate, but that his inability to lay his card on the table on time, was why the matter went out of his hand, resulting in the emergence of Tinubu.

The President, it is said, has been struggling to come over the shock and now appears to have been caught between the devil and the blue sea.

Many analysts and commentators had, in the last few days, alleged that the body language of Buhari was not pointing towards any support for Tinubu.

Last month in London, the United Kingdom, after meeting King Charles III, President Buhari, had during an interview, urged Nigerian voters to “vote for whoever they like from whichever political party.”

In his published opinion in a national newspaper, headlined: ‘Will Buhari vote for Tinubu?’ Lasisi Olagunju, said: “A president who said this is not likely to hop from jet to jet campaigning for someone. He has repeatedly promised that he would not be anybody’s fool or tool of interference in the coming polls’ processes. He has said so everywhere he has been in the last couple of months to the sorrow of those banking on presidential sleight of hand to win. I am not surprised that the South-West APC is not at ease at all. They daily read Abuja’s lips and steps and exchange furtive glances.

“They sigh. Even Buhari’s recent currency change is being seen as a vital component of his war against politics – and against those who won’t succeed him.