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Failed ACN/CPC
talks:How
Ribadu waited for Buhari to no avail
By Danlami Nmodu
Newsdiaryonline Sat Feb 5 , 2011
More revelations have emerged about the
efforts made by chieftains of the Action Congress of Nigeria,
ACN to concede the
presidential ticket to General Muhammadu Buhari . In the spirit
of a proposed alliance
with the Congress of Progressive Change ,CPC in order to boost
the chances of the
opposition at the forthcoming general election ACN embarked on a
long- drawn talks with General Buhari.Sadly, the talks failed
Newsdiaryonline has learnt that even Mallam
Nuhu Ribadu,the presidential candidate of ACN
in deference to Buhari waited till the last day before
filling and submitting his
nomination form to the
Independent National Electoral Commission,INEC.He did that
principally out of sheer respect for General Buhari, a source
close to Ribadu said.
``I believe General Buhari
is to blame for the
failure of the talks’’, an insider quipped.The source added that
Ribadu who had become
the presidential candidate of the ACN
waited`` till about
5:00PM ‘’ before filling his form on the final day for
the submission to INEC.
Speaking further
our source said: ``Ribadu met with Buhari twice and the
summary of what he told the General was that `sir you are like a
father to me, there is no way I will compete with you'.Yet
Buhari kept everybody waiting’’
Even more the source added that there were
several times that ACN chieftains would travel from the South-
West to Abuja in order to meet with CPC bigwig on this alliance
issue but at the scheduled
venues of such meetings, General Buhari would not show
up.This left many people really wondering whether the General
was serious about the alliance talks
Chief Bisi Akande and Lai Muhammed
earlier in the week
blamed Buhari for the failed Alliance despite the concessions
already made for him to run as the presidential candidate.CPC
officials however replied by saying Buhari
backed out of the talks
because Bola Tinubu,the former governor of Lagos
insisted on becoming
the General’s the
running mate , a move Buhari did
not like since it
will again be another Muslim –Muslim ticket.
Buhari himself said he would not wash the
dirty laundry in public now.He holds the view that some sort of
cooperation between the two parties may still be possible.
However the former military head of state
has gone ahead to have
his wish by appointing Pastor Tunde Bakare as his running
mate.This move may have been a fallout of Buhari’s deep-seated
,longstanding wish to debunk claims that he is muslim
fundamentalist. A muslim- Muslim ticket would have finally
nailed Buhari as the real fanatic that he really is not,
according to those close to him.
But the General’s
refusal to go along with
the Alliance remains a puzzle. Evidently he had the platform in
his kitty .He just chose to dump it for his CPC which is
untested and has limited spread since it is only very popular in
the North. Even at that, the CPC is riddled with post- primary
crises in some of it strongholds like Kano and Katsina States.An
alliance would have made
up for such shortcomings.
Some observers are of the view that by its
failure to form a united coalition against the PDP, the
opposition may have handed victory to President Jonathan even
before the polls .The party that seems to pose any serious
threat now is the ACN; but it still needs to do a lot of hard
work to really defeat PDP, which appears to have over the last
decade perfected the act of capturing power.
Related story:ACN/CPC talks have collapsed-Source
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