A seeming connection could be gleemed between the rumored coup plot allegation that is spreading like a wild fire around the country and the escalating internal disaffections that is tearing the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) party apart.
As is known, the APC was formed in 2014 out of the merger between the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), which was led by late president Mohammadu Buhari, and the Action Congress (AC), which was led by Bola Tinubu who succeeded Buhari as president in 2023. Although factions of the PDP, ANPP and APGA letter joined the merger, the CPC and the AC constituted the main, and the dominant merger partners constituting the APC, and the two operated a clear power sharing agreement that subsisted throughout most of the two-term presidency of Mohammadu Buhari. Over the eight years between 2015 – 2023, While Buhari, who is from the Northwest zone of the country, and of the CPC stock, was president, the substantive chairmen of the party were chosen from the AC group, First John Oyegun , and later, Adams Oshiomole, both of whom were of the AC group, and from the South-South zone of the country.
Therefore, following the victory of the APC in the 2023 election which saw Bola Tinubu who is from the south-west elected as the president of the country, it was taken for granted that the chairman of the party will be picked from amongst the rank of the CPC group – and the CPC leaders duly put forward the former governor of Nassarawa state, Tanko Al-Makura, who is from the Northcentral zone of the country, as their nominee for the chairmanship of the party. But to the chagrin of the group, their choice was overlooked by president Tinubu who unilaterally picked his friend, the former governor of Kano state, Umaru Ganduje who is of the PDP (new PDP) faction, as party chairman. This slight, and the plethora of subsequent appointments made by president Tinubu which were lopsidedly in favour of his Yoruba kinsmen from the southwest, and which clearly marginalized the northern dominated CPC group, has led to the widening hiatus in the APC – a hiatus which has led to some of the most prominent members of the CPC group, including the closest allies of former President Mohammadu Buhari, such as the former governor of Kaduna state, Nasir el-Rufai, former Attorney General and Minister of justice, Abubakar Malami, the former minister of transport, Rotimi Amaechi, and many others, having to resigned their membership of the ruling APC party and joining the fast rising opposition coalition party, the African Democratic Congress,(ADC) preparatory to challenging the APC in the 2027 election.
Thus, following the rumored coup plot, and perusing the names of the alleged perpetrators and master minds being bandied around, it is not so difficult to connect the development to the infighting within the APC; between the President Tinubu led AC wing and the CPC faction of late president Buhari.
First, it has been reported that one of the military officer, a colonel, who is being detained in connection with the rumored coup plot is the younger brother of the former governor of Nassarawa state, Tanko Al-Makura, the same CPC nominee for the APC chairmanship who was overlooked by president Tinubu. Secondly, the alleged financier and sponsor of the coup, the former governor of Bayelsa state, Timipry Sylva, is a staunched loyalist of former President Mohammadu Buhari whom he served as minister of state for petroleum resources. And thirdly, the Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Sam Ogboku, who is another prominent person who is allegedly being held in connection to the rumored coup plot, was the chief of staff to Timipry Sylva while he was governor of Bayelsa state. And, it is known that he was recommended to late president Buhari who appointed him to his present position by Timpry Sylva, the alleged financier of the “coup”.
It may be also be recalled that sometimes in August , a group of alleged government sponsored thugs violently attacked and disrupted a meeting convened by the former governor of Kaduna state, Nasir el-rufai, to inaugurate the state transitional committee of ADC in Kaduna. Also in September, the convoy of the former Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, was similarly attacked by alleged APC partisans in Birnin Kebbi.
Put together, the pattern of clampdowns, harassments, and detentions seemingly points at a possible case of political infighting within the imploding APC. It is a fight in which the aggrieved CPC group is seemingly bent on moving out of the APC to the opposition ADC, while the presidency is fervently wooing members of the opposition PDP party to replace the obviously now implacable CPC elements of the APC .
Thus, the whole coup story could very well be merely a “phantom” operation scripted to cut the wings of the CPC elements and their bludgeoning internal opposition to the new masters, and presiding overlords of the ruling APC , the Action Congressers (AC) of the Southwest.
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