With less than one week to the Presidential Elections, the Buhari Campaign<\/p>\n
Organization’s international fund raising drive, which was consolidated
\nduring its candidate’s recent London trip, has reportedly yielded its
\nfirst bumper harvest from a shadowy group of Arab sheikhs.<\/p>\n
The donors, led by former Saudi Arabia oil minister-turned top Middle East
\npolitician Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, is spurred by renewed Arab interests
\nin regaining leverage over OPEC and the strategic prospects of a Muslim
\npresident of Nigeria, pointblanknews.com investigations reveal.<\/p>\n
Recall that soon after the Chatam House event in London, Buhari went
\nunderground and was not seen in public for about two weeks. Sources said
\nin between heeding his Doctors advise to take some rest; the APC
\nPresidential candidate spent sometimes meeting with old Arab friends and
\npotential donors to his campaign.<\/p>\n
Sheik Yamani was Saudi Minister of Oil and Mineral Resources from 1962 to
\n1986 and OPEC minister for 25 years with a career highlight of
\nspearheading the 1973 oil embargo that saw OPEC quadrupling the price of
\ncrude oil in the most daring Arab challenge of Euro-American dominance and
\ncontrol of the international oil market.<\/p>\n
Initial figures mentioned range between $500 to $700 million, according to
\nWestern intelligence sources, the bulk of which has already been moved to
\nAbidjan, Cote D’Ivoire preparatory to siphoning it to agents of the Buhari
\nCampaign Organization said to have been “personally nominated” by General
\nBuhari in London for a last-minute dollar-attack to secure an edge in the
\nMarch 28 elections.<\/p>\n
Pointblanknews.com gathered that indications of an imminent Arab-sourced
\nlifeline for the Buhari Campaign Organization first emerged in the last
\ndays of General Buhari’s controversial London trip when he went off the
\nradar but discreetly hobnobbed with a few mainly Arab visitors. These were
\nlater identified as emissaries of Sheikh Yamani working with his
\nLondon-based oil and gas consultancy, The Centre for Global Energy
\nStudies, that has been a cover for Yamani’s “diplomatic operations”.<\/p>\n
Nigerian sources close to the Buhari Campaign Organization confirmed
\n“recent high expectations of foreign funding” within the caucus but also
\nadmitted a “dilemma” over the implications of accepting financial
\nassistance from a distinctly Islamic source against a background of
\n“unresolved political challenges” arising from the widespread perception
\nof General Buhari as a Muslim fundamentalist which has been a major thrust
\nof campaigns against his candidature.<\/p>\n
However, the sources added that the “hawks” in the Buhari campaign caucus
\npushed for accessing the Arab support in a bid to bolster the financial
\nclout of the campaign organization to overcome the “lack lustre” backing
\nof the APC platform it had to merge into to acquire “geographical spread”.
\nThis concern also explains why the contacts and negotiations for the Arab
\nsupport were exclusively managed by the closest aides of General Buhari
\n“literally behind the backs of the APC leadership”, the source confided.<\/p>\n
General Buhari’s links with Sheikh Yamani stemmed from his days as a
\ncolonel and Petroleum Minister under the military government of General
\nObasanjo during which he represented Nigeria at OPEC where Yamani was
\ncalling the shots.<\/p>\n
Sheikh Yamani’s connections to the Islamic fundamentalist activism
\nsurfaced when he spearheaded the 1973 OPEC oil embargo targeting Western
\ncontrol of the international oil market but was also highlighted in the
\nevents surrounding the 2002 discovery of a document that referred to the
\n\u201cGolden Chain\u201d \u2013 an elite club of twenty Saudi billionaires whom Osama bin
\nLaden was said to have identified as his top financiers in launching the
\nAl Qaeda terrorist organization.<\/p>\n
Soon after the elections were postponed, APC allegedly ran out of funds.
\nIts several advertisement disappeared from the media. The party also
\nstopped all campaign activities.<\/p>\n
Sources confirmed that soon as words came in that the Arab funding was
\nready, the APC\u2019s media machineries were asked to preempt it in the media
\nby alleging that the peoples Democratic Party, PDP, plans to accuse the
\nopposition party of receiving Dollars from the Arab.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With less than one week to the Presidential Elections, the Buhari Campaign Organization’s international fund raising drive, which was consolidated during its candidate’s recent London trip, has reportedly yielded its…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n