A chieftain of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Goddy Okoro, has called on those who are excited about the emergence of former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari, as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to calm down as his candidature is tainted and imperiled by the records of his main sponsor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Okoro said in Abuja that “the public perception of Tinubu as a corrupt politician and his undisguised role in influencing the process that threw up Buhari as the candidate of the APC have done great damage to the integrity of Buhari, thus weakening his candidature.”
He said he was surprised that Buhari, who is aware of this “strong public perception”, would ignore it and submit himself to the control of the former Lagos governor “just because of his desperation to become president.”
According to him, “Once again, Bola Tinubu, the undertaker-in-chief, has outsmarted the pretenders to the APC presidential ticket. They were all deceived into believing there was a chance despite the fact that a deal had been struck with Buhari and agreements reached on who would have vice presidential nomination power.”
Okoro also slammed the APC as being incompetent and lacking in planning as it took the party 24 hours in a stadium to conduct an election of a few thousand delegates.
He said, “I watched as the elderly delegates, women and men were loitering for hours doing nothing. They were subjected to a display of incompetence and lack of planning; a poorly thought out process. This, to me, is hardly the way to showcase a Party ready to run a country like Nigeria. Our small Party APGA will do better.
“Can you imagine? Having entered the Teslim Balogun Stadium the day before, it was not until the afternoon of Thursday 11 December that a result could be declared, apparently an anti climax after the drudgery. “After the announcement of result, APC leaders struggled to make sure they were visible in the photos, hustling for position on the stage whilst a visibly shaken Atiku Abubakar, who traversed the nooks and crannies of the country canvassing for delegates’ votes, only to be undercut by the endorsement of Buhari by 12 governors, which was facilitated by Tinubu, surveyed the aftermath of betrayal by several of the very same people that stood around him.”
He added, “I sympathise with Atiku, a tested politician, who was never an option but it was important to keep him within the fold after his defeat hence the clever move of insisting that all the candidates sign a bond before the primaries, promising not to leave the party if defeated; perhaps, the Jada-born politician would have left by now for his Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM).”
