Bamidele Ademola-Olateju
September last year, Dogara, Saraki and Atiku agreed to meet in France. Dogara planned elaborately not to leave a trail. We kept tabs on him. He attempted to throw those who might be monitoring him off his trail by visiting the Zamfara governor at Dorchester hotel in London. Saraki came in, visited his son and sneaked into Paris. By the time he arrived France, I wrote about it. Atiku was in Dubai prepping to come but he aborted the trip.
What was funny to me at the time was that, Buhari’s handler were so inept. It was after they read my update that they scrambled to put up countermeasures. They went to London, to do only God knows what. On coming back the Buhari second coming was put in gear as a reactionary plot.
Last week, APC political leaders in the Southwest fired the first salvo of an open political field in 2019. A political grenade, that was to watchers of politics. It is shameful that a man who did well as Brigadier General, has now become a General without troops. A powerful coalition was put together for him to win. He won and shredded it by acquiescence and nonchalance in a rare combo. He handed his mandate to President Abba Kyari and Chancellor Mamman Daura. In 2014/2015 Abba Kyari was openly in support of PDP. Unfortunately, Buhari’s proclivity for provincialism made him appoint those who disdain his life of integrity and ascetism to the detriment of those who worked hard for his victory. He destroyed the coalition who brought him to power. The party is in disarray, unfunded, with vultures circling it, waiting for it’s eventual death.
I hear they are planning a Buhari Support Organization. I laugh! In 2013, long before he decided to run again. I wrote “Buhari Is A Damaged Brand”. I suggested ways to improve his grand equity. It was done. He was sellable. We bought him. Personally, I was persuaded to join the BSO. I refused for deep personal reasons. My fears were confirmed in short order. Why people who worked there are in the wilderness, the ones who did not work, who were card carrying members of PDP are now heading agencies and boards.
One week is a long time in politics. As I write this piece today the 16th of October 2017. I do not see a path for Buhari winning the primaries. If he chooses to run, it is a blight on him and an indictment that it will be a hotly contested primary. A good party leader should run by unanimous adoption. Buhari has ceded his presidency within one month in office. The plan was concluded while in Daura receiving visitors.
I will wager that he wouldn’t run. Like every leader who has surrendered to sycophancy and myopia, I suspect he is not planning to run but they are planning to make him run. We wait, we watch.
