It is now evident that the Kaduna State governor, Malan El Rufai and transport minister’s camp is really the structure controlling the national APC as well as guiding the political choice of Predident Muhammadu Buhari.
The above interpretation was got after Governor Godwin Obaseki who was re-elected on the platform of PDP won the Edo State governorship election conducted last Saturday. A political scientist and newspaper columnist, Mr Innocent Onyesimmanazu provided this analogy while doing a post analysis of the last Saturday governorship election. According to him, “It is now very clear that the APC faction of El Rufai, Amaechi and their supporters are now in charge of the ruling party. This camp equally determines how President Buhari comports himself politically. We thank Edo people for their resolve to re-elect Governor Obaseki while rejecting Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. We are also aware that the people of Kogi State wanted Governor Bello out. But because the powers that be love him, he won a re-election. So, why was it difficult for Oshiomhole to get through in Edo?
“The answer is very simple. The Rufai camp never wanted Oshiomhole because of his closeness to the national leader of APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. A victory for Ize -Iyamu, though an APC candidate in that election, would have been a victory for Tinubu’s presidential ambition in 2023. To that effect, since there is an indication that most northern oligarchs still want power to remain in the north in 2023, the best was to deny Ize -Iyamu whose alligence would have been to Tinubu”.
He revealed that, for now, the greatest beneficiary of the outcome of last Saturday’s Edo State governorship election was Rufai and transport minister who are working hand- in – hand. It is either Rufai goes for the APC presidential ticket in 2023 or he supports Amaechi or anyone in their camp, not Tinubu. The commentator made it clear that the all those in the Tinubu faction may not recover from this shock as they never expected the way events played out in Edo.
It must be recalled that the controversial circumstances in which Oshiomhole was removed as the national chairman of APC would have informed him and Tinubu that the latter’s 2023 presidential ambition was being challenged by the party’s big oracles.
