Aminu Tambuwal’s entry into the presidential race of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is receiving mixed reactions.
Tambuwal’s aides and colleagues led by Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Zakari Mohammed, picked up the expression of interest and nomination forms for him yesterday at the APC national secretariat, Abuja.
This surprise move according to pundits is causing disquiet in the APC.
Naijalog learnt that the national chairman of the APC Chief John Odigie-Oyegun was worried over Tambuwal’s sudden interest in the race, a month to the party’s presidential convention, when efforts were being intensified to ensure a consensus candidate among the four presidential aspirants: Buhari, former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso and the Publisher of Leadership Newspaper, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah.
However, Atiku Abubakar one of the aspirant has welcomed Tambuwal’s into APC presidential race.
Speaking through his media aide, Garba Shehu, “The more, the merrier. Today’s development will broaden the democratic space and the choices available to Nigerians in our party,” Abubakar opined.
General Muhammadu Buhari’s camp is said to jolted by the move and believe that a national leader of the party wants to use Tambuwal to play the spoiler’s game.
“It is no longer hidden news that Tinubu had, over the years, wanted the speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Tambuwal, a young politician from the North-West, as a fresh hand for the presidency. But the late defection of the speaker halted Asiwaju’s initial plan.
“The decision of General Buhari to join the mega-alliance from the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) was predicated on handing him the presidential ticket as a consensus candidate. That is why the Buhari camp opposes any idea of direct or indirect primaries that have now become the order of the day, since both the National Working Committee (NWC) and the National Executive Committee (NEC) had voted out the principle of consensus for the emergence of a presidential candidate,” a reliable source told us.
An APC chieftain expressed concern that the possibility of the party winning the presidential election was under threat because the speaker joined the race very late.
“He may be working out a subtle script to aid the incumbent, President Goodluck Jonathan, to victory, albeit in disguise,” the chieftain said.
“Aside, as an experienced politician, Tinubu himself knows that there is no way he can transform Tambuwal overnight, in less than three months, into a credible and electable presidential candidate that the entire country will buy into.
“The thinking of some, is that he may be walking his party to a doomed day..
“This is the same script he used to hand over the Presidency to Jonathan in 2011, at the expense of the Action Congress (AC) party standard-bearer, Nuhu Ribadu,” he added.