At last the perceived rumour about former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, whether or not he is still in ANPP has finally been laid to rest. The retired Army General
on Wednesday resigned his membership from the All Nigeria Peoples Party. Buhari, who was the ANPP presidential candidate in the 2003 and 2007 elections respectively, huhuonline.com, gathered that he sent his resignation letter to the party’s National Chairman, Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, in Abuja.
The former ANPP chieftain gave his “irreconcilable differences with the party” as his reason for dumping the party. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Emma Eneukwu, confirmed the development. According to Eneukwu, Buhari thanked the party for the opportunity given him to be its presidential candidate twice. He said, “It is true that Gen. Muhammadu Buhari has resigned; we got his letter in the afternoon. In the letter, he thanked the party for giving him the opportunity to run as its presidential candidate twice in 2003 and 2007.”Eneukwu quoted Buhari as saying that he had “irreconcilable differences with the leadership of the party.”
Meanwhile, the ANPP image maker said the party wished him well, stressing that there was freedom of association. Buhari’s unhealthy relationship with the ANPP started shortly after the April 14, 2007 election, when the party withdrew from the case it had instituted at the presidential election tribunal, challenging the declaration of President Umaru Yar’Adua by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of the poll. Ironically and incidentally, Ume-Ezeoke was his running mate in the election.
However, Buhari continued with the case, having filed a separate suit as the candidate, in addition to the party’s action. The situation worsened with the decision of the party to join Yar’Adua’s Government of National Unity, despite its position that the 2007 poll was the biggest electoral fraud ever recorded in the country. Since then, Buhari had never attended any of the party’s meetings, just as he rebuffed all overtures by the party for reconciliation.
However, it is not clear which party he will join; but he has been networking with other “progressives” to form a ‘mega party’ before the 2011 elections to challenge the Peoples Democratic Party. The National Secretary of the party, Senator Saidu Kumo, disclosed this on Wednesday (Feb 3).
Further, huhuonline.com reliably gathered that Buhari and his supporters may likely defect to the relatively unpopular Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). When asked on whether or not Buhari’s exit would affect the party’s fortune in the 2011 elections, an ally to the General said: “General Buhari is an individual out of the thousands of other ANPP members. In our party, we have respected men of proven integrity who can fill the vacuum to be created by his exit; if at all there will be any.
“We wish him well wherever he is going, and we hope he would have the opportunity to actualise whatever ambition he is nursing. We, in the ANPP, are comfortable with his exit, not because we wanted him to go, but because he has chosen to leave.”
Second Republic Deputy President, Alhaji Abubakar Mamman Dan Musa, and confirmed Buhari’s exit, which he said was long overdue. ANPP’S National Reconciliation Committee Chairman and former presidential candidate of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC), Alhaji Bashir Othman Tofa, described Buhari’s exit as welcome news to all genuine ANPP supporters, adding that the best thing for Buhari to do now is to quit politics for good.
