2023: Buhari’s Dark Horse Is …

Permutations on the 2023 presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress, APC were at the weekend being redefined with increasing speculations on the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari’s dark horse.

While Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and his former political benefactor and national party leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu have captured the political limelight in their struggle for supremacy, other potential strong aspirants within the APC are continuing to bid their time. Among the strong potential aspirants reportedly still bidding their time are Rotimi Amaechi, Governor Kayode Fayemi, Emeka Nwajiuba and Senator Ibikunle Amosun.

All for the exception of Dr. Fayemi are waiting on Buhari for a nudge to enter the race.

 GreenWhiteGreen GWG reports that President Buhari had in a definitive statement of his interest in his successor during a recent television interview affirmed at that time that he would not expose his preferred choice of a successor for the fear that he would come to harm.

Sources now say that that Buhari’s preferred successor will be a dark horse and is neither of the two men closest to him in the political dynamics that brought him to power, to wit; Tinubu who galvanized the nationwide coalition that made his election possible nor Osinbajo who brought a balance to the ticket and his government.

The other person around the president who has played significant advisory roles to Buhari off the camera, Senator Amosun, according to multiple sources would ordinarily have been the president’s preferred choice. However, that projection some persons around Amosun say has been played down on account of religion as the president is said to prefer a Christian southerner.

The same factors have also knocked out Babatunde Fashola who like Amaechi were said to have been among the greatest contributors to the war chest that helped Buhari come to power in 2015.

However, against the background of the challenges facing the country and the president’s famed detestation for politicians, sources say that the eyes of the president are being focused on political green horns who may not be encumbered with the political burdens of pushing through the unfinished goals of his administration.

Among the three persons political sources around Buhari that are being named as the dark horse are Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, African Development Bank, AfDB president, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina and Pastor Tunde Bakare, Buhari’s running mate in the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC 2011 ticket.

Though a big media tycoon is said to be the one presently marketing Emefiele, sources say that he is also said to have the support of some major ears of the president who believe that he has the best credential to project the legacies of the president in agriculture.

“Do you think that that rice show we saw in Abuja few weeks ago was for nothing,” one source privy to the political undercurrents pushing Emefiele said.

Emefiele it was gathered also has the unofficial backing of Corporate Nigeria as sources say that the intention of the group was firmed up during a foreign vacation of many big players a year ago.

According to sources, with Buhari withdrawn to allowing Tinubu and Osinbajo fight themselves into a war of mutual destruction, the option for the presidency may remain in the South-South where Emefiele, Amaechi and former president Goodluck Jonathan remain the most viable favourites.

Amaechi’s unfading star within the president’s inner circle was further accentuated last week when he was given a prized chieftaincy title in Daura, the president’s hometown. Beyond that the minister of transportation is believed to be the favourite of the First Lady, Aisha Buhari.

The Southwest’s other viable option for the presidency it is said are Adeshina, Bakare and Governor Fayemi.

However, Adesina and Bakare just like Emefiele will require strong political will power from Buhari to push as the established political insiders it is said will see any of them that emerges as a dark horse for 2023 as an outsider.

“Traditional politicians will not be happy with any of these outsiders coming to reap where they did not sow,” a source privy to the development told  GreenWhitGreen GWG.

Governor Fayemi who had been seen as a likely consensus option for the governors a source said remains on course but his stars with the presidency were said to have been blighted by the deals with the Tinubu camp during and after the Ekiti governorship primaries.

 GreenWhiteGreen GWG gathered that Senator Bamidele Opeyemi has opted not to further pursue his agitation against the primaries that brought in Fayemi’s alleged proxy as the APC governorship candidate. That move a source said yesterday was part of the deal.

However, Senator Dayo Adeyeye, another pro-Tinubu aspirant in the Ekiti governorship primaries it was learnt has not given up and the Fayemi tendency in Ekiti may finally bring Senator Biodun Olujumi into the party as a way of finishing him off in their Ekiti South Senatorial District.

Though two aspirants, Governor Dave Umahi and Senator Rochas Okorocha have declared for the presidency, none is really being factored within the power circle as eyes in the Southeast continue to focus on Nwajiuba, the minister of state for education especially on account of what they say is his humility.

Nwajiuba is generally viewed as the president’s political godson and loved by his closest associates and is also being named as Buhari’s dark horse for 2023. Beyond the president’s inner circle, Nwajiuba is also being advanced by an increasing member of the Forum of Former Members of the House of Representatives where he is said be very popular.

While Osinbajo is believed to have won the admiration of the rank and file of party members as about the best options for the party, sources say that past issues while he acted for Buhari continue to becloud the judgment of some close to the president.

A northern elder statesman from the Northeast married to a very prominent figure who recently retired from the judiciary is said to be the man canvassing Osinbajo in the North. He was believed to have arranged the meetings for some groups where some Northern figures including General Ibrahim Babangida endorsed the vice-president as Nigeria’s best.

Whatever, the power calculations among the legacy parties is now coming up as an issue. As a sop to the Tinubu group of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, the national chairmanship aspiration of Bawa Bwari is now said to be finding common currency within the ACN and defunct Congress for Progressives Congress, CPC blocs.

“If Buhari offers Tinubu national chairman, he should let him (Buhari) produce the president,” one source said. But who that dark horse is, remains unknown.

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