INDICATIONS have emerged that prominent Northern leaders and elders who<\/p>\n
had initially declared support for the candidacy of General Muhammadu
\nBuhari in the February elections have started reconsidering their
\nposition, following alarms that the general might be suffering a serious
\nhealth challenge.<\/p>\n
Sources had told Pointblanknews.com that the retired General is allegedly
\nsuffering from prostrate Cancer but it could not be immediately confirmed
\nfrom any medical records.<\/p>\n
Online channels had last week indicated that Buhari collapsed during the
\npresidential campaign rally of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in
\nCalabar, Cross River State.<\/p>\n
Though the party had denied the report, it was learnt that the development
\nhad immediately prompted meetings among top hierarchy of the Northern
\npolitical establishment to review the Buhari situation.<\/p>\n
Sources in the polity had told Sunday Tribune that the North is becoming
\nwary of a possible repeat of the situation it found itself following the
\ndeath of President Umaru Yar\u2019Adua in office in May 2010, some three years
\ninto his tenure, following a debilitating sickness.<\/p>\n
The illness had surfaced during the 2007 presidential campaign, leading to
\nrumours of Yar\u2019Adua\u2019s death, but he bounced back on the campaign train and
\nwon the election.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe North is beginning to rethink the promised support for Buhari in view
\nof reports that he is suffering from a certain ailment which is believed
\nto be wearing him down. There are also reports that the elders are pushing
\nto cut a deal with Jonathan to complete his tenure in 2019 but extract a
\npromise that power would be returned to the North via a younger and
\nenergetic Northerner,\u201d a source said.<\/p>\n
But APC spokesman in the South-East, Comrade Osita Okechukwu, had
\ndismissed claims about Buhari\u2019s health, saying that the alarm was designed
\nto create doubts about the APC presidential candidate.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThey are only trying to dig up what is non-existent; no record
\nof their claim. The General has his doctor and anyone can contact him,
\nrather than speculate.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Northern politician said at the weekend that the North was still
\nsuffering from the effect of Alhaji Yar\u2019Adua\u2019s death in office, adding
\nthat it would be unfair to the North to risk the situation once again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were reports that Yar\u2019Adua was ill before he was picked by former
\nPresident Olusegun Obasanjo for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ticket.
\nWe saw the crisis coming but we believed that only God determines how long
\na human being will live. It would be bad for the North to have power
\nreturn to the South-West barely ten years after Obasanjo spent eight
\nunbroken years in Aso Rock,\u201d the source said, adding that the option
\nbefore the North was to cut a deal on 2019 when they could settle down to
\nraise a strong candidate.<\/p>\n
According him, the possibility of a truncated Northern presidency, in case
\nBuhari mounts the saddle, will be too much for the North to bear again. He
\nadded that Yar\u2019Adua\u2019s death, in 2010, resulted in power returning
\nprematurely to the South, which is in line with the constitutional
\nprovisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf anything happens to Buhari, power will return to the South-West less
\nthan a decade after President Obasanjo left Aso Rock. The prospects are
\ngrim, both for the North and even the South-East that is queuing for
\ntheir own turn,\u201d another Northern top brass said at the weekend.<\/p>\n
Besides, it was gathered that President Goodluck Jonathan had, during his
\nrecent visit to the Minna Hilltop home of former military leader; General
\nIbrahim Babangida, discussed details of Buhari\u2019s health with the former
\nmilitary leader, a development that was said to have prompted the Minna
\nGeneral to turn his support to Jonathan.<\/p>\n
It was also gathered that prominent Northern leaders have already got wind
\nof the discussions between IBB and Jonathan, leading to red hot
\ndiscussions on the way forward in 2015.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INDICATIONS have emerged that prominent Northern leaders and elders who had initially declared support for the candidacy of General Muhammadu Buhari in the February elections have started reconsidering their position,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n