North, South East Politicians Join Forces Against South West

The northern political establishment working for the consolidation of the Presidency of General Muhammadu Buhari is set for a major alliance with the South East political class in a shift aimed at tackling the collapse of the North/South West alliance that brought him to power. As a direct response to this development, a rally in support of the APC National Leader, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, holds in Lagos today, even as one of the organisers described the event as a “show of force” to send a message to the All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership about where the South West caucus of the party stands. Leaders of the PDP in the legislature and some key members of the party’s National Caretaker Committee were spotted at the meeting held in Transcorp Hilton, Abuja. It was learnt that a former presiding officer in the National Assembly is fast-tracking the relationship that would ensure that the South East replaces the South West in the political arrangement ahead of the 2019 elections. The recent appointment of former Senate President Ken Nnamani, as the chairman of the Constitution and Electoral Reform Committee by the president is also believed to be in furtherance of the new friendship between political leaders in the zone and certain northern leaders. Also, during the week, President Buhari met senators from the South East, led by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekeweremadu, for several hours in the Villa where the senators reportedly told him the grievances in their zone against the North and his presidency. “The plot is very simple and direct”, said a source who confirmed that the push is to ensure a conciliatory relationship between the Buhari camp and the South East, once the leaders of the South East are able to eke out some promises from the president, which would become the selling points for him in the zone ahead of the next election. “But a major aspect of the deal is the push that could see the South East producing a key member of the next government, using a former lawmaker who is seen as having played a major democratic role in the past”, the source said. Alliance against South West will fail Speaking with Saturday Tribune on Friday, Comrade Amitolu Shittu, National Coordinator, Committee for Democracy and Rights of the People, said whatever alliance or alignment between the North and the South East against the South West would collapse because, as he put it, most of the political players in the North did not believe in righteousness. He also said any attempt to rubbish the South West in the alignment would collapse like a pack of cards, noting that “whoever seeks to underestimate the Yoruba race would be doing so at his or her detriment. If they think they can underestimate the Yoruba race, they are joking. “Yoruba elevated former President Goodluck Jonathan to become the president but when he started behaving funny, where did he end up? He saw the consequences. Those who ventured into attempting to rubbish the Yoruba lost out completely. If anybody now thinks in the same direction, they will also disgrace themselves at the end of the day. No region can entirely be on its own without the Yoruba. No region can dare it”. “Those who made election easy for Buhari in the South West in 2015 have been short-changed and the virus is spreading fast. The problem of the North is that they don’t consider national interest. Having lost power several years ago, they now see in the Buhari administration an opportunity to come into reckoning. No matter the marriage you have with them, such cannot last because they don’t believe in righteousness