THE OBASANJO VS ATIKU FACTOR Former President Olusegun Obasanjo is not a supporter of Buhari ─ they have been political opponents since 1999 ─ but he would prefer Buhari to Atiku, whom he took to the cleaners in his latest memoirs, My Watch. Obasanjo had nothing terribly bad to say about Buhari in the book, but he savaged Atiku ruthlessly. Obasanjo’s first choice for APC ticket, TheCable understands, was Tambuwal. But when northern leaders persuaded Tambuwal to go for Sokoto governorship and not undermine Buhari in the race, Obasanjo wanted support for his ally, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the governor of Kano state. Again, he met a brick wall. It became clear to him that he had to live with either Buhari or Atiku ─ and the choice was not difficult to make, although he is not expected to openly campaign for Buhari because of his grudges against the Katsina-born retired general. “We studied Obasanjo’s body language and came to the conclusion that Buhari was the only realistic choice for us,” a commissioner from the south-west told TheCable. “Obasanjo will never support Atiku, and Kwankwaso was not going to win. We concluded that he will not be able to launch an all-out attack against Buhari like he would do to Atiku or Jonathan.” APC had been courting Obasanjo for a while, and several of its leaders pay regular visits to him in Abeokuta in trying to build the opposition party. Although he keeps saying he remains in the PDP and would never defect, Obasanjo is also at war with the ruling party’s hierarchy and has been openly criticising President Goodluck Jonathan.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 15:30:21 +0000
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