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There was gentleman’s agreement for ACN bloc to succeed Buhari, says SWAGA
By Bisi Oladele, Ibadan
The South West Agenda (SWAGA) group has said there was a gentleman’s agreement between the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) that the Southern arm of the latter would produce President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor during the formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014.
SWAGA Vice Chairman, Senator Adesoji Akanbi, stated this while speaking with The Nation yesterday in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
Akanbi, who represented Oyo South Senatorial District between 2015 and 2019, said leaders of both blocs, which were the major collaborators in the APC’s formation, had the gentleman’s agreement.
He claimed that the pact was not documented in black and white.
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According to him, while Buhari was the CPC leader at the time, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was the ACN leader.
Akanbi said the agreement still subsists and that members of both blocs are aware of its validity.
The former lawmaker, who facilitated the inclusion of the Lagos-Ibadan rail project in the budgets while he was at the Senate, explained that the reasoning behind the agreement was that such rotation, which would allow the Southwest to produce the next President, would keep Nigeria united.
“There was a gentleman’s agreement, though not written, between the then CPC and ACN on rotational presidency. The thinking was that it would help keep Nigeria as one indivisible entity. We believe that the ACN had sacrificed a lot for the formation of the APC, therefore, Southern Nigeria should produce the next President.”
