Aso Rock Cabal Working Against Tinubu Because Their Plan To Have Senate President Lawan Or Central Bank Gov, Emefiele, Succeed Buhari Failed –Governor El-Rufai
Aso Rock Cabal Working Against Tinubu Because Their Plan To Have Senate President Lawan Or Central Bank Gov, Emefiele, Succeed Buhari Failed –Governor El-Rufai
El-Rufai said that he knows those in Aso Rock, around President Muhammadu Buhari, who are not only working against the ruling APC but are conspiring to derail the forthcoming general elections and enthrone an interim government.
Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has said that a cabal in the Presidency working against the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, are the people who wanted the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan or Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, to become the next president.
El-Rufai said that he knows those in Aso Rock, around President Muhammadu Buhari, who are not only working against the ruling APC but are conspiring to derail the forthcoming general elections and enthrone an interim government.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Governor El-Rufai said, “What is happening is that there are people around the president that had their presidential candidates. They had two candidates that they preferred to succeed Buhari – Godwin Emefiele from the South and Ahmad Lawan from the north – and they got neither.
“It turned out that some of the wildest stories of conspiracy to derail the transition at best for APC to lose, preferably for the whole system to result in no election leading to an interim arrangement began to rear their heads.
“I have no problem naming them. I’m not afraid of anybody. But for me, naming them is giving them traction. They are nothing. They are not capable of winning elections. They have no idea of electoral or political legitimacy. They can only hide behind the likes of President Buhari to achieve their objectives.”
In February 2022, SaharaReporters exclusively reported that a cabal led by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami was strongly behind the push for Emefiele to succeed Buhari, ahead of other strong contenders in the party.
SaharaReporters also identified media entrepreneur, Nduka Obaigbena as another prominent member of the cabal.
Obaigbena is the founding Chairman & Editor-in-Chief of the THISDAY Media Group and ARISE News Channel.
A top source in the party had told SaharaReporters that the “APC is torn between (Vice-President Yemi) Osinbajo, (Bola) Tinubu and Emefiele’s people, each pushing their own candidate and agenda.”
“The cabal led by AGF, Malami told Buhari they’ve settled for a technocrat. This came after rejecting the President of African Development Bank, Akinwunmi Adesina, and Obaigbena is spearheading this,” the source had added.
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Obaigbena, it was also learnt, had additional motivation to throw its weight behind Emefiele considering the financial support AriseTV had been getting from the CBN.
“CBN has been funding AriseTV and forcing banks and money transaction platforms to advertise on the TV. That was the reason why Obaigbena said recently that Nigeria’s president would not come from those who are declaring,” one of the sources had said.
Obaigbena in October 2021 also said nobody could predict what would happen in 2023 regarding who would become Nigeria’s President.
SaharaReporters gathered from one of the sources that Isa Funtua’s son, Abubakar, was “part of the crew working on Emefiele’s campaign”.
“You know, they bought 9mobile,” the source had added.
Isa Funtua was a close ally of President Buhari, who served as a minister in the Second Republic.
In June 2022, SaharaReporters also reported how a cabal in Aso Rock convinced President Buhari to make Senate President, Lawan his successor.
After all plots to bring former President Goodluck Jonathan as the APC candidate appeared to have hit the doldrums, the cabals convinced Buhari to present Lawan to the critical stakeholders of the party as his preferred candidate for the plum job, the report said.
Buhari while travelling to Madrid, Spain, had met with governors and other stakeholders in the ruling APC to reciprocate support for him in picking his successor.
However, Buhari did not specifically state who it was. This raised dust in the ruling party as there was a pool of aspirants.
Meanwhile, Daily Trust gathered that the Aso Rock cabal had secured the buy-in of the president for Lawan.
One of the sources, a former governor, said Lawan was being forced on the president by the cabal.
He was quoted as saying, “Buhari’s nephew, Malam Mamman Daura, a former director-general of the Department of State Services (DSS), Lawal Daura, and the national chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, have succeeded in ramming Lawan down the throat of the president.”
He, however, opined that if the Senate president was forced on the party, it would be a recipe for disaster and implosion.
Aso Rock Cabal Working Against Tinubu Because Their Plan To Have Senate President Lawan Or Central Bank Gov, Emefiele, Succeed Buhari Failed –Governor El-Rufai
