CPC to field Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as presidential candidate in 2015 elections?!

Lamido Sanusi

Indications have emerged that the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) may have settled for Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, as his presidential candidate in the 2015 elections, just as the party presidential candidate in the 2011 elections, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), has started having a rethink about the 2015 presidential race.

It was gathered that some members of Buhari’s caucus highlighted issues of age and reach of the CPC, which is limited to parts of the North as major impediment to his participation in the 2015 race.

While the former head of state agreed with that submission, initially, pressure from within his party and the opposition party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) apparently informed a turnaround some months back.

Sources said that the leader of the ACN, Senator Bola Tinubu, had met with Buhari and reiterated the need for them to work together so as to capture power from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Sources said that Buhari became so convinced about the Tinubu proposal that he practically took over the job of the CPC/ACN alliance talks committee.

Some members of the CPC, who were said to be wary of entering into a “blind” agreement with the Tinubu-led ACN, had cautioned against wholesale acceptance of the merger option and had insisted on the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) before the merger agreement between the two parties could be reached.

Sources further confirmed that the confused state of things within the CPC first informed the delay in signing the MOU, with a section of the party believing that Buhari should not join the 2015 contest, while others who believed that the party cannot survive without Buhari’s father-figure felt that he should still contest election in 2015.

While the confusion lingered, sources said that unfolding developments appeared to have convinced the Buhari camp that the merger plan with the ACN would worsen the party’s woes.

It was confirmed that Buhari appeared to have accepted the advice that he anoint a successor to the CPC presidential ticket in 2015 and that the party had settled for the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.

Though Buhari and Tinubu made a show of the CBN governor’s chieftaincy event in June, the CPC is said to have decided to adopt Sanusi as its own candidate in view of the distrust between the two parties.

It was also gathered that Sanusi has decided to give the contest a trial, while leaving his acclaimed interest in the Kano emirate stool in the cooler.

By: Taiwo Adisa/Nigerian Tribune