Barely 23 days to Nigeria’s much awaited presidential polls on February 25, the incumbent party in government, All Progressives Congress, APC, seems to be torn apart at the top, with the Villa Team and Candidate Bola Tinubu’s men crossing swords of words, firing salvos or mouthing out-right accusations of sabotage.
Both former Senator Tinubu and Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El Rufai, and many of their supporters, have publicly accused the Buhari’s administration of alleged incompetence, lackadaisical posture or barefaced sabotage of the APC’s campaign.
“The Naira redesign and scarcity of fuel in the country were aimed at making me lose this election. But they will fail and we will win,” the party flagbearer (Tinubu) lamented in Abeokuta, Ogun State Capital, recently.
Tinubu also added fuel to the inferno on Tuesday in Calabar, Cross River State, where he said: “…they don’t know anything. They can’t think. They met exchange rate at N200 to the dollar and now it is N800 to one US dollar. They don’t understand business of governance.”
Beefing up same point, Governor El-Rufai pointedly on international television, Channels TV, accused close aides of President Buhari, as being insistent on a revenge mission after their candidate lost at the APC primaries conducted last year.
“There are some people in the Villa whose desire is for the Party’s candidate to lose this election. They’re still aggrieved that their own candidate did not win at the primary, and now hiding behind PMB’s desire to bequeath a legacy of free and fair elections to the country,” the APC Chieftain confessed.
In apparent delight, opposition parties, particularly the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is saying that the APC seems to be roasting in its own juice.
According to Chief Alaba Yusuf, a Public Relations aide to the PDP presidential candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar:
“APC is in a self-created implosive crisis. They are already pushing self-destruct buttons. Things are falling apart from the top to bottom; nothing is at ease. The political falcons can no longer hear their falconer. It is the beginning of the end for them, PDP and Atiku-Okowa shall breast the tape of victory at first ballot come February 25.
“APC will lose due to lack of capacity to govern well, bad economy, disunity and insecurity, lack of equity and inclusivity, mass unemployment, nepotism and absence of teamwork,” the PR guru declared.
Meanwhile, Barrister Daniel Bwala, a PDP campaign spokesperson, comically captured the ugly situation in a Yoruba proverb, that reads the fate of the embattled ruling party as akin to “the insects destroying the vegetables are hidden inside the plant.”
