POLITICS TODAY

By Nasir Dambatta, in Abuja

APC Presidential flagbearer, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has come down heavily on persons spreading the narrative of a rift between him Presidenet Muhammadu Buhari, describing the situation as a case of fifth columnists working in cahoots with the PDP.

Tinubu made this known through Bayo Onanuga, Director of Media and Publicity to APC Presidential Campaign Council in a media statement in Abuja today, Thursday.

“Nigerians should no longer be in doubt about those working in cahoots with fifth columnists in the system to inflict avoidable pains on our hapless people for political end.

“No sooner Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu empathised with the Nigerian people facing the dual crises of fuel and new Naira notes scarcity, than the opposition PDP and the Atiku camp issued a knee-jerk response, derailing from the issues, distorting Asiwaju’s statement and trying, in vain, to create a wedge between our presidential candidate and President Muhammadu Buhari” Bayo explained in the statement.

Going further, the ruling party’s Spox noted that “when the guilty are afraid of being uncovered, they try to push back with red-herring.”

In a move to set the records straight, he discredited the narrative the Asiwaju had a spat against Buhari over fuel and new naira notes scarcity, saying the harsh statement being credited to Tinubu was untrue. He declared that Asiwaju Tinubu, during APC campaign rally at Abeokuta on Wednesday, in his comments, “did not mention, blame or accuse President Muhammadu Buhari for the current challenges in the country.

“Asiwaju Tinubu was only adverting government’s attention to the sabotage being carried out by some Fifth Columnists in the system, possibly working in cahoots with the PDP.

“The CBN officials, including Governor Godwin Emefiele have said many times that enough new Naira notes have been supplied to the banks, yet our people complain that they have not been able to get the new notes”, the statement added.

The statement explained that of late ,many ATMs are either not working or when working they are dispensing the old notes, just a few days to the January 31 deadline.

Similarly, Asiwaju Tinubu is aware of the salutary efforts by President Buhari to end the fuel queues, by chairing a 14-man panel. Yet the queues and agony continue.

For a presidential candidate, who cares about the suffering of our people, he has a duty to warn government that its efforts to make life better for Nigerians are being sabotaged on several fronts.

Our presidential candidate only re-echoed what is well known and acknowledged, even by President Buhari himself at different fora: That there are Fifth Columnists in and outside of government who often throw spanners in the works against good intentions and programmes of the government.

How does an advisory genuinely made by Asiwaju Tinubu to protect and create goodwill for the government of his party become an attack? It can only be so in the jaundiced view of the PDP.

It is in this light we found amusing the directionless Atiku Campaign’s bagful of mischief in their hurriedly put together press statement meant to gain shameful mileage from the suffering of Nigerians.

PDP and Atiku should remember not to get high on their own smoke. No political blackmail and an attempt to create a conflict between Tinubu and his long-term ally, President Muhammadu Buhari can succeed.

We have bad news for Atiku and his handlers: their latest mischief is therefore doomed to fail.

The Atiku rudderless campaign, always seeking cheap shots and easy ways has again woefully attempted to make a mountain out of a molehill from the comments made by Asiwaju Tinubu in Abeokuta.

As a patriotic and compassionate leader, Asiwaju Tinubu will not stomach seeing ordinary Nigerians being made to face excessive difficulties over mundane issues due to activities of petrol and currency hoarders.

As a proud leader of the APC, Asiwaju Tinubu would not also look indifferent as his party and the government get dirtied with black brush at a critical time like this, whether he is a candidate or not.

The statement accused Atiku camp of “hasty move to mine political capital out of the clearly difficult situation betrays his campaign’s possible connivance, due to its desperation.”

“As Asiwaju said in Abeokuta, these orchestrated hardships will not stop his impending victory come 25 February. Nigerians shall surely vote for a party that is working to solve all the problems and mess created by the PDP for which their presidential candidate was an integral part in the, largely, 16 unproductive years they spent in government.

“Atiku and his team can continue their indulgence in fake news and twisted narratives, they cannot change the minds of majority of Nigerians who have long rejected the PDP and Atiku, after their 16 wasted years in power”, said the APC.