The quest by the former governor of Lagos State and foremost presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari suffered a major setback on Saturday when his Campaign Director, Honourable Abdulmumin Jibrin, dumped the ruling party.
Jibrin who was announced earlier in the year as Tinubu’s campaign DG took to his Twitter handle to announce his decision.
According to the Kano-born politician, he would be announcing his new party in the next 24 hours.
He tweeted, “I have done my best for APC. Its time to move on. I will announce my new political party within the next 24 hours insha Allah. I will make a formal statement in due course. Hon Abdulmumin Jibrin.”
Recall that Jibrin had recently stated his position on the vexing issue of a Southern presidency in an interview with Arise Television thus: “I don’t think APC will try to toy around with that matter. I believe confidently that the Presidency is going to the Southern part and, when it goes there, Asiwaju stands out clearly in terms of experience, pedigree and competence and most importantly, the ability to win the election. His gap is quite huge more than anybody else”.
Jibrin, a former member of the House of Representatives, has before now been campaigning vigorously for Tinubu.
But he is also a controversial political figure.
In March 2015, Jibrin contested and got re-elected to the House of Representatives. He was an aspirant for the Speakership of the House but later stepped down for Yakubu Dogara, who went on to win, and emerged Speaker of the eighth Assembly.
He was an APC member who represented the Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency of Kano State.
Jibrin was the core sponsor and main supporter of the Dogara’s speakership aspiration.
Dogara later appointed him as the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, a position he held from 2015 until his resignation in 2016.
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A few months after his resignation, Jibrin was suspended by Dogara after a scandal in which he accused the leadership of the lower house of parliament of padding the annual budget and corruption.
The suspension lasted for one legislative year, ending in March 2018 after Jibrin reportedly apologised to the House.
Jibrin who had initially been re-elected to his parliamentary seat in the 2019 elections lost in the re-run held in January 2020.
The Tinubu Campaign DG announced his decision to leave APC barely 24 hours after the Supreme Court upheld Governor Abdullahi Ganduje-led factional leadership of the APC in Kano State.
The apex court, in a lead judgment delivered by Justice Inyang Okoro, on Friday, held that the appeal against the earlier judgments of the Court of Appeal in Abuja lacked merit and as such dismissed.
The appeals followed two rulings of an FCT High Court which upheld ward and local government congresses won by the faction loyal to Ibrahim Shekarau and Senator Jibril Barau (Kano North).
A faction of the APC loyal to former Kano State governor Shekarau had been in a leadership battle with the Ganduje’s group.
While Ganduje’s group produced Abdullahi Abbas as state chairman, Shekarau’s camp elected Haruna Danzago to the same position.
The Court of Appeal had in February dismissed three appeals that were lodged over the originating summons wrongly commenced in Abuja.
It ruled in favour of Ganduje’s faction and also said the lower court had no jurisdiction as only the leadership of a political party could resolve disputes arising from its internal affairs, in line with its constitution.
The appellate court said the matter was an internal affair of the APC.
It is not yet clear where Jibrin is headed or what informed his decision.
But enquiries by TheNiche indicate that Jibrin’s action jolted the Tinubu Campaign Organisation though it is yet to react formally to the development