Leaders of the main opposition party in the country, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have been brainstorming on ways to cause the defeat of President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 presidential election.
Apart from chorusing the alleged failure of the Buhari administration to defeat Boko Haram and stop killings in the country, the party is also finding innovative ways of diminishing the goodwill of the administration.
One of the items on the party’s menu of devious politicking is to isolate friends and strategists of President Buhari and demonize them as corrupt using the social media and a section of the mainstream media.
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At a recent meeting of the National Executive Council 0f the party, a presidential hopeful who recently defector from the ruling All Progressive Party (APC) from the North West reportedly broach the idea of puncturing the anti-corruption credential of the President by portraying some of his closest aides as stinking of corruption.
One of the aides found to be most vulnerable to such demonizing attacks because of the office he occupies is the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
Malami’s office has been strategic to the anti-corruption fight of the Buhari administration, which has brought many stalwarts of the PDP into the dragnet of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
President Buhari recently signed an Executive Bill No 6 which empowered the Federal Government to seize the assets of persons facing corruption charges until after the determination of their case. The Order did not go down well with many in the opposition who felt it was targeted at them. Malami was later summoned by the Nigerian Senate over the Order.
A source privy to the meeting revealed that this was one of the reasons for the recent defection of some senators and members of the House of Representative to the PDP, since many of them believe they may become victims of Buhari’s fight against corrupt politicians. Their defection is expected to boost the campaign of calumnies against Malami and other key allies of Buhari, and damage his plan to come back as President in 2019.
A source privy to the meeting revealed to THE WHISTLER that Malami was specifically mentioned as one of those to be targeted and stigmatized as corrupt, but who are being protected by the President. Other aides and friends targeted include the Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, Minister of Information, Lai Muhammed and National Leader of the ruling party, Ashiwaju Bola Tinubu.
The source disclosed that Kwankwaso and others who supported the idea did not disclose any specific acts of corruption against their targets but insisted that it is an election campaign strategy expected to destabilise the Buhari camp and weaken his chances for re-election.
“They are hoping to pick up some of the allegations already in public space against some aides of the president and invent new ones with the aim to prove that Buhari is not an anti-corruption fighter because he’s protecting some corrupt persons close to him,” the source added.
The opposition PDP is also hoping to weaken the re-election chances of Buhari by hammering on his administration’s alleged failure to totally defeat Boko Haram and stop killings of Nigerians across the country.
Some chieftains of the party who spoke in confidence to THEWHISTLER, said it is going to be a herculean task to defeat Buhari, especially in the North and South West. “But aggressively talking about the continuing threat of Boko Haram and the killing of innocent Nigerians especially by herdsmen will be a sound campaign strategy,” disclosed a stalwart of the party in Abuja.