By Madu Onuorah
Ahead of the 2023 general election and the build up in the two leading political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), a scheme to create a Third Force away from the parties has begun.
Global Upfront News (GUN) is privy to some underhand moves within PDP and APC to form a formidable political group to wrestle power from the two parties.
Our source said that State Governors of the two main political parties, APC and PDP, are at the forefront of this move which is aimed at ensuring that President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor comes from among them the Governors.
Already, in the opposition party, PDP, State Governors have successfully carried out their own coup and wrestled the political party from the former Governors and former Generals event though they are yet to sleep with their two eyes closed because the Judiciary has not taken the final decision on legitimizing their actions.
Their counterparts in the ruling APC are yet to see through their own hatchet, apparently because of the division among them over the two very strong Presidential aspirants who are not in their midst, former Lagos State Governor and acclaimed APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmad Tinubu, and Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osibanjo.
GUN gathered that the supporters of the two APC top aspirants within the Governors are refusing to budge, making unity among the Governors very difficult to achieve.
Credible source however confided in the GUN that some Governors are already conceptualizing option B in the hope that aggrieved persons from the two main parties are expected to swell as 2023 details emerge.
Secret meetings are already being held in Abuja, Port Harcourt and Lagos to draw up template and keep it in view in the hope that it will crystallize by March 2022 soon after the National Convention of APC slated for February 2022.
Governors Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State (who is also the Chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum), along with his Ondo State counterpart, Rotimi Akeredolu and Kaduna sSate Governor, Nasiru El-Rufai are super heading the APC angle while Governors Nysom Wike, of Rivers State, Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State, Ahmad Finitiri of Adamawa State and their Oyo State counterpart, Seyi Makinde are the ring leaders in the PDP front.
The agenda, according to reliable source to the group, is to produce Buhari’s successor from among the State Governors anyhow, either in APC, PDP or yet to be named political party.
GUN learnt that even though the gladiators are currently in different parties at the moment, they have common agenda of stopping old names in the Presidential race like the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Lagos state Governor Tinubu.
The duo are believed to be very strong in their parties, controlling a chunk of the party structures. But these Governors have sworn to halt them. And where they fail, they collapse and weaken their parties by pulling out to form a Third Force for the 2023 elections.
Meanwhile, the two interest groups are mobilizing all their links to persuade President Buhari on signing of the New Electoral Act, as amended, but from different angles.
While the Tinubu group are routing for direct primaries which the legislators passed, the Governors wants indirect primaries.
President Buhari, who is supposed to sign or reject the bill on or before December 19, 2021, is currently consulting critical stakeholders in Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and other agencies and Civil Society Groups before making up his mind.
