…Atiku, El-Rufai, Suswam etc Plot 3rd Force To Remove President
By Andrew Longyem
There is a saying that “the enemy of your enemy is your friend”. This is what is currently playing out in the case of President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 2nd term bid. Fulani elites and their allies have concluded that Tinubu must be removed from office in 2027. Their anger is that the President is against Fulani interests and is fast destroying the legacy of their political and economic control over Nigeria that their forefathers handed to them.
Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is not a friend of the diminutive former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el Rufai, but the two men are now in the same camp on the agenda to oust President Tinubu come 2027. For them, it doesn’t matter who eventually benefits from the structure, as long as Tinubu is gone. The project is tagged “Cire Tinubu” – meaning Remove Tinubu.
The gang up against President Tinubu is thick, and those grouping for the mission have recruited some top brass guys in the Tinubu government who are their informants.
The Atiku/El Rufai group has also recruited some serving state governors across party lines who share the same interests with them to fund the project. Among the governors in the forefront of funding the project is Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State. You are wondering why Alia is involved, right? Now, here is reason.
The Benue Governor is not happy that President Tinubu has placed the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume ahead of him in the scheme of things at the national level and the control of All Progressives Congress (APC) affairs in Benue State. Alia has on several occasions taken certain critical issues to the President but Tinubu on all such occasions, asked the governor to go and meet the SFG to sort out the issues.
Governor Alia sees this development as a sour pill for his political ambitions. He feels that the continued influence of SGF Akume in the Tinubu presidency is a stumbling block to his (Alia’s) future ambition, particularly now that his close ally the Vice President Kashim Shettima has also fallen out of favour in the Tinubu administration.
Have I told you that Alia is planning to emerge as Nigeria’s President in 2031? Okay, if I didn’t mention that, now you know.
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Governor Alia has seen the Atiku/El Rufai group as a potent force that can get Tinubu and Akume out of the way in 2027. He has already taken the front row seat as one of the highest financiers of the project. Alia believes that if Tinubu and Akume remain in office till 2031, his chances of getting the nomination of the APC as presidential candidate will be zero. The governor is not even thinking of his own problems of getting a 2nd term. He has been boasting that no man born of a woman can stop him in 2027.
In comes former Benue Governor, Gabriel Suswam. The former Senator for Benue North East is a very close friend of Governor Alia. They drink together, eat together and move around together. Suswam is Alia’s new godfather. He has a huge influence on the governor’s decisions. Inside sources say that Suswam was the one who advised Alia to start a fight against Akume in the first week of his inauguration, if he hoped to have any grasp of his government. Alia carried out the exact instructions given to him by Suswam.
Gabriel Suswam’s political ship has sunk. His only hope of survival is upon the ship of Governor Alia, so he is going to any lengths to remain relevant. Suswam was the one who brokered the deal between Alia and Atiku Abubakar. Although Alia is already close to el Rufai, Suswam was the one who sold the idea to Alia that unless he joins the Remove Tinubu Project and funds it massively to succeed, his hope of getting the presidency in 2031 is bleak.
The group initially tinkered with the idea of forming an entirely new political party, but they later dropped the idea owing to the fact the process of starting a new party will take time and the challenge of marketing the new party to get supporters across the country will be cumbersome.
Governor Alia and the others have been sponsoring most of the meetings and logistics for the anti-Tinubu group. Their target is to join the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and take over its structures across the country. The first phase of the project is that between February and April this year (2025), mobilization/recruitment of members mostly from PDP, APC, Labour Party and other political platforms to join SDP will take place.
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A meeting of the anti-Tinubu group is scheduled for the first week of February 2025 at a venue yet to be decided.
* Longyem, a political affairs analyst writes from Jos.
