It can’t be said that the Nigerian political scene is without drama, normally when posters and handbills are shared and posted declaring a candidate and carrying inscriptions like “The Saviour is Here”, it normally means people of like minds are declaring a stand for who they support, but in the case of the poster pasted yesterday and the day before, it seems the opposite is the case. Posters, announcing a former Head of State, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), as the consensus presidential candidate of the yet-to-be registered All Progressives Congress in the 2015 elections surfaced in Abuja on Monday.
The posters, which were pasted on walls, trees and dust bins, were mostly seen at Aso koro and Maitama districts of the city.
But when asked, the former head of state insists that his followers and members of the APC should disregard the posters, saying they were pasted by those he described as enemies of democracy.
He believes that the coming together of the opposition political parties was already giving the ruling party headaches, adding that it was evident that “there are enemies around the corner.”
A close look at the posters by our correspondents revealed that those behind the posters made a mistake of misspelling the acronym of APC as “APG.”
The posters, which carried the logo of APC, described Buhari as the only saviour of Nigeria
Inscription on one of the posters read, “2015: Here comes the only savior for Nigeria. APG candidate for 2015 presidential election.
“Support the All Progressive Congress. Support Buhari: The only man for the job.”
A group, Forum of all Progressive Congress Youths, sponsored the campaign.
But speaking on behalf of Buhari, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, said the posters did not emanate from him.
He said there was no way the APC could come up with the idea of consensus, adding that those who had been preaching consensus and automatic tickets might be responsible for the posters.
Fashakin said, “The enemy is at the corner. Those posters did not come from the General and he was not behind them. In APC, we would do direct primary to pick our presidential candidate. We would not use consensus to pick our candidate for the presidential election.
“It is the Peoples Democratic Party that has been calling for automatic tickets for its aspirants and that President Goodluck Jonathan should be its automatic candidate. In APC, that is alien to us. Nigerians and our supporters should not be varied away because of the posters. Definitely, the enemy is around the corner.”