President Muhammadu Buhari’s biographer, Professor John Paden has stated that some top shots of the All Progressives Congress, APC, prefer to hold secret midnight meetings with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at his house than with President Muhammadu Buhari.
Paden, in his recently presented book “Muhammadu Buhari: The Challenges of Leadership in Nigeria,” alleged that Buhari was being sidelined because he is considered as not being a “natural party politician.”
Claiming that Buhari was regarded as a “loner” and “outsider” within his party, Paden said that was why many stakeholders want the President to be close to former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar; and a national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who they believe can help him reach out.
The book had also accused Tinubu of putting pressure on the President against picking Osinbajo as his running mate in last year’s Presidential election .
On the crisis rocking the ruling party, Paden said, “With the PDP fracturing, observers wondered if splits were also developing in the APC, given that it is a coalition of recent vintage.
“As of spring 2016, no serious divisions were visible, although rumours often surfaced when Buhari was out of the country, especially regarding the status of the legal case against Senate President Saraki, a recent convert to the APC.
“President Buhari is not a natural party politician. Complaints have arisen within his party that he is a ‘loner’.
“APC politicians in Abuja were more likely to congregate at night at the home of the Vice-President than at the Presidential Villa with Buhari.
“The fact that Buhari has been perceived as an “outsider” to politics by the general public has been his strength.
“Still, voices within the APC have suggested Buhari engage such long-term politicians as Abubakar Atiku and Bola Tinubu to rally the APC governors and ensure that the President has closer ties to the state and local levels of the party.
“Men such as Atiku and Tinubu could provide links to key constituents, such as traditional rulers and grassroots NGOs.”
Paden further stated that alot of Buhari’s supporters are begining to lose faith in him due to the state of the economy.
The author stated that although there was a consensus that Buhari was not looting the treasury, “but with hunger in the North-East and stagnant growth elsewhere, Buhari’s political honeymoon seemed to be drawing to a close as he came up on his March 28 election anniversary.”
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