APC Gang of Four

By Lukman Abdulah

Lukman Abdulah write on how four governors are plotting to take over the ruling party and build it in their own image.

Three are governors . One an Attorney General.They are from the northern part of the country.

The governors are serving their last terms as governors.

The Attorney General want to be a governor.

They want to make the party their own.

They want to choose the next President .

They are members of the APC.

Together they are manipulating the system, pitching one ethnic group against the other, deceiving the President, playing on the intelligence of fellow party members blinded by ambition and plotting to rubbish those who came together to form a pan Nigeria party where people from different ethnic groups and religious backgrounds will feel at home.

Governors Abubakar Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State, Mohammed Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa and Mai Mala Buni of Yobe and the Minister for Justice and Attorney General Abubakar Mallami, are the four gods holding the ruling party APC in the jugular and threatens to strangulate it.

One of the governors thinks if they can carry out their coup successfully and plot the retention of power in the north President Muhammadu Buhari will install him in power.

One has the ambition of becoming chairman of the party after he has by default been made caretaker chairman following the ousting of the former Chairman Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

The Attorney General after office in 2023 want to use his stupendous wealth and closeness to the ruling governor and the Buni, the Chairman to be to corner the office of the governor in Kebbi State.

In their bids they are running across the country looking for straw men to use to achieve their goals.

In Ekiti , they found an ambitious man in Gov Kayode Fayemi who is willing to sell his race and betray his leader.

From there they moved to Ebonyi and tapped on a naive Gov David Umahi and dangled the Presidency in his face and got him out of his party.

To the South South they have gone to befriend a feckless Jonathan Goodluck , an ex president much abused and defamed who suddenly was held up as the best thing that has happened to Nigeria.

In Adamawa they got the ‘sex toy Senator’ and they have since been swooning in celebration.

The three governors have abandoned their states while governance suffers. The attorney general is throwing his influence around in the courts and the presidency, tapping on judges to give favorable orders and judgments while misadvising and deceiving the President.

While they play their game to the bemusement of majority of party members and leaders everyone has been wondering what fate will befall the party .

A friend last week liken what is happening now in the party to a pregnancy. He says the party is pregnant. For every pregnancy, a number of things can either happen.

One , there could be a miscarriage, two there could be a still birth, three the pregnancy could be carried through and result in the birth of a monster.

It could also result in a multiple birth with the mothers of the baby dead while the children are thrown in garbage dump .

The Gang of Four and their permutations are already receiving reactions .

Last week Chief Bisi Akande led some influential leaders of the party from the South West to meet with President Buhari.

Those close to the august visitors hinted that their visit may not be unconnected to the plot by the gang to hijack the party for their purpose.

A few days after Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola sounded an alarm and reminded the party of the gentleman agreement of power rotation.

Fashola is not known to blab , particularly on political matters.
He must have seen something hence his outcry.

Fayemi, the one that El Rufai said the North wanted and was canonized as the adopted son of Ahmadu Bello has unusually taken a step back .

He is not seen to gallivant with the Gang of Four as he used to. He was absent at the conspiratorial meeting at Mallami’s house penultimate weekend.

Was not seen at Umahi’s welcome party into APC and the toasting event for Jonathan Goodluck. He appears to now stay more at home in Ekiti as opposed to governing his state from Abuja.

What has happened to Fayemi? Some are claiming that the line by Kaduna governor Nasir El Rufai that The North shall soon reveal the use to which they will put was deliberately uttered to damage him among his people.

If this is real , his supporters in Ekiti were not sophisticated enough to see through this . They went celebrating like slaves who have just been shown the back door entrance to the master’s mansion.

The quiet from FAYEMI’s end in the last three weeks continues to be intriguing. Has the ambition for President crashed so soon?

Is it a case of stepping back for strategic reasons? Is he angry at his betrayal by the gang? Has some SW elders called him to order? Whatever it is , he appears to be keeping a distance from his brothers of his Ahmadu Bello’s lineage .

The conspiracy however continues. Non NEC members of the NWC came visiting last week. They were plied with some N200,000 each so that they could keep their mouth shut when the NEC is called in December to dissolve the party’s structure from the Ward to the State level; the Gang is able to do its membership registration; elect its favored executive across the country;?de-register those members considered antagonistic to their agenda; organise a sham convention and seize the party while waiting to nominate its candidate for President in 2023.

As The Gang put its plot in place, and delight at going to show a party newsletter to President Buhari as its big achievement , the old warriors are waiting and watching.

Senator Aliero in Kebbi, Wammako in Sokoto, Tinubu in Lagos, Shettima in Borno, Aminu Bello Masari in Katsina, Ganduje in Kano, Oshiomhole in Edo , Hope Uzodinma in Imo and several old and experienced warriors are lying low and watching the upstarts play their game while waiting for the auspicious moment to pounce and devour them.

The multitude of members at the base of the Party’s pyramid who have been neglected over the years while the governors butcher their bulls and eat it alone are also watching with keen interest.