Olusegun Bamgbose, National Coordinator, Concerned Advocates for Good Governance, CAGG, has claimed that the sudden return to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, by a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, was masterminded by Bola Tinubu.
Bamgbose also insisted that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2019 general elections, will also make his way back to the ruling party.
In a statement on Tuesday, the senior lawyer noted that these are part of the 2023 political arithmetic and permutations.
He maintained that stakeholders are strategizing to position themselves, in order to achieve their desired aims, adding that Dogara’s defection was part of it.
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“Bola Tinubu is certainly not prepared to be caught panting, as things unfold,” he said.
“Tinubu, as a master strategist possibly masterminded Dogara’s defection, to enable him to have a popular candidate, as his Vice, come 2023 Presidential elections.
“His greatest challenge would have been securing a Northerner who is a Christian, as a vice. Someone who will be generally acceptable to the North, and also one whose political pedigree is intimidating.
“Dogara, being the immediate past Speaker of the House of Representatives, to him will be the candidate to look out for.
“Tinubu possibly went out for him. PDP is getting weaker by the day. The surprising thing is that many PDP bigwigs have kept mute about Dogara’s defection because some of them may follow suit soon.
“I still foresee Atiku defecting back to APC. Tinubu and Atiku are two inseparable political friends. They may throw banters at each other in the public arena, but privately they are friends.
“Since Dogara’s defection, Atiku has kept mute, because he may equally have plans to move in the nearest future. It’s most likely we are heading for a one party state.
“As a Presidential aspirant, I’m not perturbed, as I have my plans to defeat Tinubu if chosen as APC Presidential candidate come 2023. He is no doubt more experienced but I’ve my strategies to defeat him.”
Dogara decamped from the PDP, to the APC late last week.
Later on, the former Speaker explained why he left the opposition party for the ruling APC, citing failure of governance in his home state, Bauchi, under the administration of Governor Bala Mohammed whom he helped install as a governor in 2019.
But in a swift response to his claims, the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) said that Dogara returned to the APC simply because he wants to be President or Vice President come 2023.
The PDP BoT claim is in accordance with an earlier submission by Bamgbose that his defection may not be unconnected to 2023 presidency but wondered if Nigeria “deserves such an unprincipled person to be President or Vice President.”
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK