Most Northern Elites Are Corrupt, Against Buhari’s Anticorruption Campaign-Bisi Akande
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| Buhari |
The former governor of Osun State and former national chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC),
Chief Bisi Akande has described most Northern elites as corrupt and are against
the war against corruption led by President Muhammadu Buhari. He also accused
these corrupt elites as being behind the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki as
Senate President and Hon Yakubu Dogara as House of Representatives Speaker to
frustrate the war against corruption. Read the full letter to APC national
leadership on National Assembly crisis by Akande where he made the allegation
against northern elites;
APC (NATIONAL ASSEMBLY) CRISIS June
2015
Some times in 2013 ACN, ANPP and CPC resolved to merge and set up a merger committee to work out the modality for glueing together as one political party under one name, one constitution and one manifesto. A splinter of APGA sought to be included in the merger. An application made to INEC to this end by APC National Interim Committee composed of ACN, ANPP, CPC, And factions of APGA and DPP was approved in July, 2013.
Some times in 2013 ACN, ANPP and CPC resolved to merge and set up a merger committee to work out the modality for glueing together as one political party under one name, one constitution and one manifesto. A splinter of APGA sought to be included in the merger. An application made to INEC to this end by APC National Interim Committee composed of ACN, ANPP, CPC, And factions of APGA and DPP was approved in July, 2013.
Between Bola Amed Tinubu (an ACN
leader) and Kashim Imam (a PDP leader) the idea came up and was adopted
that the new party should embark on a membership recruitment drive to
certain PDP governors whose main Agenda was to see President Goodluck Jonathan
out of power. The recruitment efforts took APC leaders to Rivers, Kwara, Niger,
Sokoto, Kano, Jigawa and Adamawa states. Eventually, five PDP governors of
Sokoto, Kano, Adamawa, Kwara and Rivers together with the majority their
PDP National and State Assemblies members and other PDP National
Assembly members from Gombe, Bauchi and Nasarawa, under the banner of
new-PDP, joined APC.
APC thereafter organized membership registrations in all the over 120,000 polling units of Nigeria and followed up by using these registered members to conduct congresses in all the almost 8000 wards, in over 770 local governments, in all the 36 states (including Abuja Federal Territory) and a convention at the National level thereby creating one united APC party structure all over Nigeria.
APC thereafter organized membership registrations in all the over 120,000 polling units of Nigeria and followed up by using these registered members to conduct congresses in all the almost 8000 wards, in over 770 local governments, in all the 36 states (including Abuja Federal Territory) and a convention at the National level thereby creating one united APC party structure all over Nigeria.
With this air of oneness, APC went a
head to conduct primaries to select candidates for state governors and Houses
of Assemblies and for the Presidency and the National Assemblies. After
the elections which saw APC to victory all round, a meeting was reported to
have been held by certain old new-PDP leaders in Alhaji Baraje's house at Abuja
to review what should be their share in this new Buhari's government and
resolved to seek collaboration with PDP with a view to hi-jacking the National
Assembly and, having got rid of Goodluck Jonathan, with an ultimate aim of
resuscitating PDP as their future political platform.
Unknown to most APC members, while Senator Bukola Saraki was being adopted as the candidate for Senate President by certain old new-PDP tendencies, the theory was being propagated that, like in most Presidential Democracy, the APC minority leaders in the old National Assembly (ie George Akume for the Senate and Femi Gbajabiamila for the House of Representatives) should automatically become Senate President and Speaker respectively now that APC has the majority.
Unknown to most APC members, while Senator Bukola Saraki was being adopted as the candidate for Senate President by certain old new-PDP tendencies, the theory was being propagated that, like in most Presidential Democracy, the APC minority leaders in the old National Assembly (ie George Akume for the Senate and Femi Gbajabiamila for the House of Representatives) should automatically become Senate President and Speaker respectively now that APC has the majority.
Certain leaders felt that most past
Senate Presidents had come from Benue state which Akume represented and that
Benue state should be made to assume the traditional home of all senate
presidents. At the same time certain senators were clamouring for one of the
most ranking senators anywhere outside the North-west zone that produced
the President. That was how Ahmed Lawan who had been in the House of
Representatives for eight years and in the senate for another eight years
emerged as the candidate for the senate president.
Democrats among the APC leadership
insisted on selection by mock elections rather than tribal or sectional
considerations. As a result of a primary elections, Ahmed Lawan and George
Akume emerged as APC candidate for Senate President and Deputy respectively
while Femi Gbajabiamila and Mongunu emerged as the Speaker and Deputy for the
House of Representatives.
Numerous among those calling themselves businessmen in Nigeria are like leaches sucking from the nation's blood largely through various governments and particularly through the Nigerian Federal Government. While all these schisms were going on in the APC, those who were jittery of Buhari's constant threat of anti-corruption's battle began to encourage and finance rebellions against the APC democratic positions which led to the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki as the candidate of the PDP tendencies inside and outside APC.
Numerous among those calling themselves businessmen in Nigeria are like leaches sucking from the nation's blood largely through various governments and particularly through the Nigerian Federal Government. While all these schisms were going on in the APC, those who were jittery of Buhari's constant threat of anti-corruption's battle began to encourage and finance rebellions against the APC democratic positions which led to the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki as the candidate of the PDP tendencies inside and outside APC.
Before the party knew it, the process
had been hijacked by polluted interests who saw the inordinate contests as a
loop-hole for stifling APC governments' efforts in its desire to fight
corruption. Most Northern elites, the Nigerian oil subsidy barons and
other business cartels who never liked Buhari's anti-corruption political
stance are quickly backing-up the rebellion against APC with strong support.
While other position seekers are waiting in the wings until Buhari's Ministers are
announced, a large section of the south-west see the rebellion as a conspiracy
of the north against the Yoruba.
What began as political patronages to be shared into APC membership-spreads among ethnic zones, religious faiths and political rankings and experiences have now become so complicated that the sharing has to be done by and among PDP leadership together with cohorts of former new-PDP affiliations in the APC, by and among gangs of past anti-Buhari's Presidency, and certain APC legislators and party members who dance round the crisis arena to pick some crumbs.
Now that the whole conspiracy has blown open, it is doubtful if the present institutions of party leadership can muster the required capacity to arrest the drift. It is my opinion that President Buhari, and the APC governors should now see APC as a wrecking platform that may not be strong enough again to carry them to political victory in 2019 and they should quickly begin a joint damage control effort to reconstruct the party in its claim to bring about the promised change before the party's shortcomings begin to aggravate the challenges of governance in their hands.
Bisi Akande
What began as political patronages to be shared into APC membership-spreads among ethnic zones, religious faiths and political rankings and experiences have now become so complicated that the sharing has to be done by and among PDP leadership together with cohorts of former new-PDP affiliations in the APC, by and among gangs of past anti-Buhari's Presidency, and certain APC legislators and party members who dance round the crisis arena to pick some crumbs.
Now that the whole conspiracy has blown open, it is doubtful if the present institutions of party leadership can muster the required capacity to arrest the drift. It is my opinion that President Buhari, and the APC governors should now see APC as a wrecking platform that may not be strong enough again to carry them to political victory in 2019 and they should quickly begin a joint damage control effort to reconstruct the party in its claim to bring about the promised change before the party's shortcomings begin to aggravate the challenges of governance in their hands.
Bisi Akande
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