Facts have emerged that former Minister of Information and National Orientation, Jerry Gana; former Deputy President of the Senate, Ibrahim Nasir Mantu; Second Republic lawmaker, Junaid Mohammed and others are forming a new political association, which they believe will rival the Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) recently launched by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
A political insider told BusinessDay that the movement tentatively called the “Restoration Group” met in Abuja last Monday to chart a new direction for Nigeria in the coming political dispensation with the political atmosphere already charged ahead of the 2019 general elections. The meeting was strictly by invitation, and the media was not invited.
BusinessDay gathered that the Group had in the meeting about 16 former governors, three representatives from each state of the federation and ‘surprisingly’ some political associates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftan, Bola Ahmed Tinubu were also said to have attended. Oladipo Olaitan, a chieftan of Afenifere, the apex Yoruba socio-cultural organization, also attended the event held at the Sheraton Abuja Hotel, Abuja.
Former Governor of Niger state, Muazu Babangida Aliyu was also said to have attended the meeting while the former Governor of Kano state and a presidential aspirant, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who was unavoidably absent at the meeting sent his regrets. Ebenezar Ikeyinna a senator and former Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Dubem Onyia were among prominent politicians of the south-east extraction at the meeting.
The group is said to be seeking to sway Nigerians away from the CNM as they are suspicious of the reasons behind the formation of the coalition. They are also said not to be comfortable with the current state of the ruling APC and the opposition party Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP).
Obasonjo’s CNM was inaugurated by his close allies led by former Governor of Osun State, Olagunsoye Oyinlola and former Governor of Cross Rive State, after the former President wrote a damning letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, where he detailed the political and economic shortcomings of the incumbent president and urged him not to seek re-election in 2019.
BusinessDay can also confirm that Gana, one of the founding fathers of PDP and his colleagues are aghast that the APC federal government led by President Muhammadu Buhari, has squandered the goodwill of the Nigerian people as they accused the President of serially failing the nation on all fronts. They are particularly piqued by the poor state of the economy and the suffering of the masses.
The group according to the source said that Gana and his associates are skeptical about Obasasanjo’s moves this time accusing him of masterminding the succession of poor leadership that bedeviled Nigeria since the reestablishment of democracy in 1999. Their fundamental quest however, is to mobilise Nigerians through proper orientation to effect paradigm shift.
“They want a new thought process through which Nigerians can understand the ideas that rule the modern world and imbibe them into their socio-political interpretation of their condition in order to choose leaders based on competence, intelligence, knowledge and integrity,” the source said.
It would be recalled that Obasanjo was instrumental to the enthronement of Buhari as President in 2015 but recently admitted in his letter that the incumbent President has displayed incompetence in economic management coupled with his “legendary” acts of nepotism, which allegedly caused disaffection and outrage in the country over his lopsided appointments.
Since Obasanjo’s letter was made public last month, there has been political upheaval in the country leading to the formation of CNM and the planned merger of 30 political parties into one party, which can defeat the opposition PDP and the ruling APC.
