Farouk Aliyu, a close ally of former President Muhammadu Buhari, has dismissed insinuations that the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) bloc of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is leaving the ruling party.
Aliyu, who identified himself as one of the members of Buhari’s cabal, said the CPC bloc within the APC won’t dump the party for any reason.
“It’s not true; there is nothing like members of the defunct CPC wants to move out of APC,” the APC chieftain said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday.
“Our certificate, the certificate of CPC, was part of what formed APC. So, how can we leave? To go where? This is our party.”
Aliyu, a former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, said Buhari did not endorse former Kaduna governor Nasir El-Rufai’s defection from the APC to the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He said El-Rufai should not bring down the roof because he did not get a ministerial appointment.
Aliyu, however, urged the APC leadership to engage all blocs within the ruling party to whittle competition and strife before the next poll.
“Politics is about engagement. Politics is about the interests of groups, people, and so on. That is what we are saying: engage more; not only with people from the defunct CPC, but even from the PDP. So that in 2027, there will be less competition,” the Jigawa power broker said.
Aliyu said the APC won’t “just sit by and allow” the Atiku Abubakar-led coalition “to take over the government”. “They are strange bedfellows,” he said, adding that the selection of a presidential candidate would thwart the Atiku coalition.
Back in 2013, Buhari led the CPC and joined alliances with the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) led by ex-Lagos governor Bola Tinubu, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to form the APC which trounced then President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 election which Buhari won.
