A close associate of former President Muhammadu Buhari, Farouk Aliyu, has refuted suggestions that the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) faction within the All Progressives Congress (APC) is planning to leave the ruling party.
Aliyu, who described himself as a member of Buhari’s inner circle, stated that the CPC bloc within the APC has no intention of abandoning the party for any reason.
“It’s not true; there is nothing like members of the defunct CPC wants to move out of APC,” the APC chieftain said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday.
“Our certificate, the certificate of CPC, was part of what formed APC. So, how can we leave? To go where? This is our party.”
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Aliyu, a former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, clarified that former President Buhari did not endorse former Kaduna Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s decision to leave the APC for the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
He suggested that El-Rufai should not create unnecessary chaos simply because he was not appointed as a minister.
However, Aliyu did urge the APC leadership to increase engagement with all factions within the ruling party, aiming to reduce internal competition and conflict ahead of the next election.
“Politics is about engagement. Politics is about the interests of groups, people, and so on. That is what we are saying: engage more; not only with people from the defunct CPC, but even from the PDP. So that in 2027, there will be less competition,” the Jigawa powerbroker said.
Aliyu said the APC won’t “just sit by and allow” the Atiku Abubakar-led coalition “to take over the government”. “They are strange bedfellows,” he said, adding that the selection of a presidential candidate would thwart the Atiku coalition.
In 2013, Muhammadu Buhari, as the leader of the CPC, forged alliances with the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), led by former Lagos governor Bola Tinubu, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
This coalition resulted in the formation of the APC, which subsequently defeated the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 election, leading to Buhari’s victory.
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