Former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari would publicly declare his presidential ambition in Abuja shortly after the Sallah holiday, SUNDAY LEADERSHIP can authoritatively report. Buhari have been contested in the Presidential race since 2003 when he ran under the platform of the All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP), he also ran under the same platform in 2007 but defected the party and formed his own, Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in 2011. He teamed with other chieftains of the leading opposition parties recently that gave birth to the APC and he is optimistic that he would emerge the presidential candidate. But there are some formidable aspirants from the party especially former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar and the governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankaso who are having hope of defeating him in the party’s presidential primaries. Already there is a cold war over how the APC Presidential candidate would emerge; while the loyalists of Buhari are asking for the party to adopt him as the consensus candidate, Atiku has been telling them to forget it because it is the presidential primaries that will decide the party’s flagbearer. But a Buhari’s political ally who does not want his name in print said, “Atiku is new in the party, he does not know how the party was formed, so, he cannot be speaking authoritatively about the APC. He was part of those who formed AC or later ACN but by the time we were forming the APC he had returned to his former party, PDP.” According to the source, General Buhari would have declared on 4 October but it was discovered the day coincided with the Sallah break hence the need to choose another day immediately after the celebration. “Yes, it is true that General Buhari would declare for the Presidential race after Sallah and it would take place in Abuja. Our plan to hold it on 4 October was cancelled when someone called our attention to the date that it falls on Sallah period. We have not picked a new date, may be that would be done next week,” a chieftain of the party who is a political disciple to Buhari disclosed yesterday. All efforts made to get some of those who corroborated our source to be quoted were futile as they were all saying only the official spokesman could do that. LEADERSHIP SUNDAY recalled that Atiku would make his own declaration on Wednesday, 24 September as disclosed by his media chief, Graba Shehu in a statement and which he has confirmed last week while playing a host to some journalists in Abuja. He has appointed former Minister of Aviation under the Presidency of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo the Director General of his campaign organization.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 15:33:33 +0000
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