A former governor of Osun State, Bisi Akande, has revealed how Sambo Dasuki, a former National Security Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, mounted pressure on the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, to form alliance with the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, and make Muhammadu Buhari its presidential candidate.
This was disclosed in Mr Akande’s new book “My Participations”.
Mr Dasuki’s lobby occurred in the build-up to the 2011 presidential election when negotiations for alliance between ACN and CPC were ongoing.
The alliance later failed and Mr Jonathan won the election. In 2012, Mr Jonathan appointed Mr Dasuki as his NSA.
“The reaction of CPC to this letter (to CPC from ACN and published on the same page), began the failed negotiation between ACN and CPC which attracted further intervention by some national leaders like General Babangida, Atiku Abubakar and others,” Mr Akande said in the book.
“This eventually crashed at the threshold of the 2011 presidential elections which President Jonathan of the PDP won again.
“The efforts of the former National Security Adviser – Colonel Sambo Dasuki is worth mentioning in this political bridge-building attempt between ACN and CPC. Dasuki was then in support of Buhari becoming the presidential candidate of the alliance.
“Sambo Dasuki was coming around, begging us, to support Buhari’s presidential aspiration. Nuhu Ribadu, whom we had earlier chosen as our presidential candidate in the ACN, said he was ready to step down for Buhari. He said when he accepted to run, he did not know that Buhari was also interested in running.”
Mr Dasuki, who was charged for corruption and detained for four years by the Buhari administration, was released on December 24, 2019.