Ex-CPC chairman: There was agreement Tinubu would become president after Buhari
Rufai Hanga, pioneer national chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), says there was an agreement that Bola Tinubu, former Lagos governor, would take over from President Muhammadu Buhari when he completes his second term in office in 2023.
CPC was Buhari’s party before the merger with ACN and ANPP gave rise to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaking with Daily Trust, Hanga said the “implied agreement” is an “open secret”.
The former federal lawmaker said Tinubu did not leave the APC after Buhari’s first term because of the purported agreement.
“This is an open secret. There was an implied agreement. Even in law, there is an implied and expressed act. If something is expressed, there are no two ways about it,” he said.
“There was an implied agreement that he would take over. That is why he didn’t back out after the first tenure.
“If Tinubu knew that he would not benefit, he would have backed out during Buhari’s first tenure. But he knows there was an agreement.”
Hanga said the former Lagos governor may not be able to clinch the ticket in the build-up to the 2023 general poll because of an “imminent fracas” in the party.
The former CPC chairman said Nigerians may opt for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2023 because of APC’s “woeful performance”.
PMB is a man of his words. Although he can’t ascertain the victory of Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the poles, but will support him 100%.
Who re you supporting… A man who we can’t verify if he is alive?
An agreement whetherimplied or notfor Tinubu to take over in 2023 was between CPC n ACN n not with Nigerians. Beside, it did not take into cognisance whether age n religion or zone of the candidate. Also, I must say that Nigerians see no difference between APC or PDP.
Re: There was agreement Buhari will hand over to Tinubu-Ex-CPC Chair, Hanga
I have read with amusement the interview granted Sunday Trust edition of July 18, 2021, Senator Rufai Sani Hanga. He alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari had an implied agreement with Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu to hand over to him in 2023. I don’t want to talk about the purported implied agreement but will still say that no such agreement was disclosed to the Joint Inter-Party Merger Committee and the CPC Merger Committee negotiated with the defunct ACN; ANPP, and factions of APGA and DPP for the formation of APC in 2013. I was the Secretary of the defunct CPC Merger Committee and the Co-Secretary of the Joint Inter Merger Party Committee, and if such an agreement I should have known.
The Joint Inter-Party Merger Committee was an umbrella body of the Merger Committees of the defunct ACN, ANPP, CPC, and factions of APGA and DPP. The Chairman was Senator IbrahimShekarau, while Chief Tony Ikime, late Senator Mohammed Garba Gadi, and Senator Annie Okonkwo were co-Chairmen. The Co-secretaries were late Dr. Ibrahim Lame (ACN); Chief George Mogahlu (ANPP); Okoi Obono-Obla (CPC) and Senator Osita Izunaso (APGA)
At the time of the Merger of the defunct CPC with ACN and others in 2013, Senator Hanga was no longer the Chairman of CPC. The Chairman of CPC then was late Prince Tony Momoh. Prince Tony Momoh was elected the National Chairman of the CPC on January 6, 2011, at Eagle Square, Abuja, in the first national convention of the CPC, which was convened to ratify tyhe candidature of then General Muhammadu Buhari as the Presidential Candidate of the CPC and also to elect the National Officers of the CPC. I was elected the National Deputy Secretary of the CPC in that convention.
Senator Hanga was the pioneer national interim Chairman of the CPC from June 2009 to December 30, 2010. I was also the National Interim National Legal Adviser and Member of the Board of Trustees when Senator Hanga was interim National Chairman of the Party. However, in December 2010, the Board of Trustees of the Party under the leadership of General Muhammadu Buhari issued a directive to the effect that all national officers that wished to contest for positions in the National Convention scheduled to hold from 4-6 January 2011 and seek nomination as candidates of the Party for the March/April 2011 general election should resign.
Indeed Senator Hanga resigned his position as interim National Chairman to the sought nomination of the governorship candidate of the CPC for Kano State.
Curiously and surprisingly, after Senator Hanga failed to win the nomination to become Governorship candidate of the CPC, he claimed that he remains the National Chairman of the CPC in about October 2011. Senator Hanga tried but successfully to fractionalized the CPC. Senator Hanga rallied some former interim national executive committee members, including Alhaji Badmus Mutalif, Alhaji Abdulkwaheed Adebayo Adeleke, and Dennis Aghanya, to file a suit in the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Gudu Judicial Division, seeking to remove Prince Tony Momoh and other national officers of the CPC elected on January 6, 2011. Honorable Justice Banjoko heard the case, and I was the Counsel to the CPC. Gladly, Senator Hanga lost the case.
Further, Senator Hanga attempted to use the Court to stop the merger of the defunct CPCwith ACN, ANPP, and other factions of AGPA and DPP in 2013 and lost the case.
Senator Hanga and his group were expelled from the CPC in 2013, although he claimed he was the CPC’s National Chairman.
After that, Senator Hanga, through his spokesman, Dennis Aghanya, on August 12, 2013, claimed that their faction of the CPC was merging with PDM.
I, therefore, don’t understand how Senator Hanga would know what was going on in CPC when he ceased to be a member in 2013 when CPC merged with ACN and ANPP to form the All Progressives Congress, APC.
I want to put the records straight for posterity and students of politics and history in Nigeria.
Okoi Obono-Obla
Who else should be the next president other than Tinibu?
Who else has invested as much in the making of the present government as Tinibu did?
Who else is really in readiness and seriously seeing himself as the next president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, other than Tinibu?
Who, really, other than Tinibu fits the office of the president?
Although I am aware that not all Yoruba are with Tinubu. Some are sensible enough to know that Tinubu is egoist. It is not good for people to be caring about their political ambitions while people are dying everyday from the causes ably assisted by the like of Tinubu
That statement of an agreement is anti-democratic practice; probably belongs to military coupists of which Muhammed Buhari belongs and which, unfortunately, Bola Tinubu has now been infected.
His dream of assuming Presidency will have collapsed by 2023 through the nepotistic tribal characteristic that PMB introduced into governance.
For it will be impossible for any zone to produce an effective President after Buhari, as the man had effectively plugged every sector of governance with his Fulani tribe.
That is the reason the call for separation OR a kind of con-federation through a referendum cannot be ignored, irrespective of the hard-line posture of this regime.