#NIGERIADECIDES: As the brides of the race begin to cry foul

By KEMI KASUMU

Pattern of the long-awaited 2023 presidential election holding later this month, precisely February 25 is beginning to get more interesting, some of the watchers of the events have said.

Their views were informed by the latest development where strong contenders thought would have no hitches clinching victory at the race, being the brides and torchbearers of ruling party, are beginning to cry foul over what they think and call “the cabal at the Villa” plotting against their party’s chances during the once-in-four years exercise.

The questions many are, therefore, asking are: Who is the President of the country at the moment? If Muhammadu Buhari, then could Buhari have been so unknowing about what happens in his own State House that opposition would get hold of his Presidency in the form of a cabal to plot the failure of his own party at the election? Or could it be that the APC did not perform in its now ending eight-year tenure? If it is not so and, as it is clear, that the APC particularly under President Buhari has performed creditably well in ways that even the world knows Nigerians now have a country, regardless of the challenges that are of global nature, then why would candidates of ruling party be crying foul about-time to enter an election?

These are questions that no one except people on condition of anonymity has attempted to answer. Their thoughts, believed to be based on guessing, are united on the fact that it is a combined problem of truly a cabal that is constituted by members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), people in the Presidency for real and elements from within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who have found oxygen by the APC government, due to magnanimous nature of the Leader of the Party and sitting President.

One of our sources vehemently agreed with the outburst of Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, who only few days ago let the cat of the matter out of the bag saying there are some elements within the Presidency who do not want APC to win the coming presidential election. While El-Rufai mentioned nobody, one of our sources dug deeper to the point of “adding one and two together” to almost arriving at mentioning names until he stopped abruptly, thus raising the curiosity of our investigative team.

What is not in doubt, however, is the area where he mentioned the sudden impunity in the public service, space and among people on the streets, scarcity of fuel in the presence of over one billion litres in place and poor implementation of the otherwise very highly commendable new money policy of the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).  He listed them as some of the instruments used by those elements working for the downfall of the party.

The DEFENDER, like other online newspapers, had reported on Saturday how the poor implementation of the new money policy had been exploited by saboteurs, who used it well to their own advantage, sabotaging the whole process with many allegations yet to be denied or confirmed now in public space about how only one state governor collected N500 million worth of new notes.

Other set of politicians also reportedly smuggled N50 billion worth of same out of CBN in three night, while the ordinary man that needed not more than between N5,000 and N10,000 new notes to feed himself, family and take care of some domestic needs had to go hungry and masses economy practically shut down for lack of equal opportunity in the distribution of the new notes.

Asked whether therefore the opposition have gotten at the ruling class in power, another of the sources said: “I cannot say yes and I cannot say no. I will only perambulate around words and then subject you to further quest for an answer.

“Let me start with the question you asked. Now, did President Buhari not know that Godwin Emefiele is PDP when he met him as Governor of CBN and left him there? Who told him that he had become a converted APC loyalist when he reappointed him the second term and now for third term?

“We all thought he was gathering information about how Nigeria was swindled during the previous administration of Goodluck Jonathan until the man became so strong that he had to contest, even through the court, to succeed the President. Why? That is one,” he told the PDP side of the combination.

Continuing he said, “There are some people in this country who will never allow the country to collapse whether you like it or not, they are the strongest men in the land and it is not my place to start describing to you who they are. What is important is that, anyone who thinks that he is bigger than Nigeria is joking. God has made the country so great that it will never be possible for anyone, any group or cabal of people to collapse it.

“That is why it has been and will continue to be difficult for the West, no matter how clever they think they are, to penetrate this country and destroy it using some conscienceless Nigerians. The direction of this coming election will be simply like that. Go and rest your mind. Nothing bad will befall the country.

“So, I have finished my perambulation and now you can go further from here to investigate what you seek to know but not with me. Nevertheless, let me help you a little by bringing you near what you seek to know. So, those who are blaming the PDP or any cabal in the Buhari’s government or Presidency as plotting for their yet-to-come electoral failure should calm down.

“What they claim or cry about is not the issue. Whatever is the outcome of this election should be taken as the decision of God as implemented by those that God has chosen in their own unsuspecting way never to let the country fall.

“But I want to warn Nigerian parents along with their children the youths, religious people, university unions, journalists, organised private sector, lawyers and civil society organisations not to allow themselves to be used at whatever provocation to be agent of distabilisation to Nigeria. You must first and foremost have a country because you can be whatever or whoever you are. I will not say more than that,” he said.