Since coming to power in May 2015 Nigeria’s new ruling party the All Progressives Congress (APC) has struggled to remain united in its efforts to govern the country – this is perhaps not surprising considering that it was formed out of an alliance of various parties and defectors. Rumours have abounded that a number of members had fallen out or were working to undermine the party leadership. Bola Tinubu and Bukola Saraki have often been at the centre of these rumours as the former fights to remain influential and the latter defied party leadership to become Senate President. Nigeria Politics & Security outlines how following the latest rumour that the two men were working together to undermine President Muhammadu Buhari, each has come out to deny allegations but in doing so once again showed the division and disagreements that exist within the APC.

The APC’s national leader, and one of the key men behind the party’s creation, Bola Tinubu, issued a statement on 11 October denying any plot between him and Senate President Bukola Saraki to destabilise the Buhari government. Instead, in the statement, he accused Saraki of betraying the APC and being more Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) than APC. He insisted that he has nothing to do with Saraki.

In several tweets in the same evening, Saraki equally confirmed that he has not been on speaking terms with Tinubu since he defied the party leadership to become Senate president and insisted that he is not involved in any plot to frustrate the Buhari presidency.

Both statements confirm that the deep rift within the ruling party over the emergence of the leadership of the National Assembly still remain largely unresolved. It is clear from Tinubu’s statement that he was not happy that his ministerial preferences were not chosen by Buhari. But instead a man whose rising profile within South West politics who Tinubu is known to be uncomfortable with, Babatunde Fashola, was selected. However, Tinubu pledged that he will remain loyal to the party no matter the challenges.

Tinubu does not appear to be the only person unhappy with ministerial choices, as senators from Kaduna are also said to be dissatisfied with the female nominee from their state, Amina Mohammed, who they claim is not from Kaduna. This is despite Mohammed being married to a man from the state, which qualifies her to seek political appointments in Kaduna.