The group has also penciled down a former Minister of Education and the convener of bring Back Our Girls, Oby Ezekwesili and former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke as possible Vice Presidential candidate
READ ALSO : EXCLUSIVE: Fallout of Obasanjo’s Letter; Buhari, Tinubu Groups Battle Over El-Rufai, Shettima As 2019 APC Presidential Candidate
According to Obasanjo's letter, the Third Force will work and ensure the eventually wrest power from the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and prevent the Peoples Democratic party, PDP from grabbing the power again.
The coalition, according to an insider source who preferred to be unnamed has contacted a former military governor of Kaduna State Col. Abubukar Umar.
Dangiwa, a popular military governor in the regime of former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, is being primed as the sellable presidential candidate of the wave-making Nigeria Intervention Movement (NIM), popularly known as the Third Force.
Umar broke off from his former boss, Babangida following the annulment of the June 12, Presidential Elections. He was retired over the agitation for the actualisation of the mandate.
Though starting out as a pressure group, NIM said in a press statement on Wednesday 17th January, that it would eventually metamorphose into a political group that will seek elective offices in the next general elections.
The statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Mallam Naseer Kura, noted that the group’s presidential candidate and the running mate, will emerge in the first week of July.
On-going permutations and consultations are pointing in the direction of Umar as the presidential candidate, with either of former Cross River governor, Donald Duke or former Minister of Education and World Bank Vice-President, Oby Ezekwesili, as the running mate.
Duke has announced his presidential dream, while Oby said she aimed to stop both the APC and the PDP from winning the presidency next year.
Both Umar and Oby are currently ex-officio members of the budding party, while Duke is the chairman of the finance committee.
The group is currently being led by the duo of a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olisa Agbakoba and Dr. Jhalil Tafawa Balewa.
The party claims its main aim is to wrest power from both the APC and PDP.
This is coming as Shettima Yerima, vociferous National President of the Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, Alhaji Shettima Yerima, has lent credence to the need for a new leader to emerge come 2019, saying the AYCF has set the necessary machinery in motion to shop for another President ahead of the next election.
He lambasted the Buhari administration, saying its scorecard was nothing to write home about.
“We are not happy with the situation. We expect that, by now, things should have changed for the better in accordance with the APC mantra; but, right now, the problem is increasing. There is no particular agenda that this government has actually put in place that is of any advantage to us, whereas the country needs more attention at a time like this.
“Yes, the North East issue; that we are getting support from foreign donors, is not enough, due to abject poverty and hunger all over the land, and our own (in the North) is even worse than any part of the country.
Certainly, this cannot continue, and unfortunately, all our efforts to draw the attention of the Federal Government to the problems have always hit a brick wall, as they have tagged us ‘enemies of the government.”
He also berated the roles being played by el-Rufai, the Kaduna State governor, and Yahaya Bello, his Kogi State counterpart, under the Buhari administration.
Bello, he said, was a clown, who found himself in power and started behaving abnormally.
“Those governors who endorsed Buhari for a second term have 1001 problems in their respective states, which they are incapable of solving, as many of them are not supposed to be governors,” he added.
Yerima, as a result, noted that the North was already looking beyond the APC in its determination to get another president for the country next year, stressing that the person would be young and vibrant.
READ ALSO : 2019: APC Chieftains Plot Split As Govs, Senators, Others Gear Up For Third Force In Alliance With Forces In PDP
Yerima’s revelation that the North would look beyond the current political setting to shop for a successor to Buhari next year, according to investigations, is part of a Third Force agenda being reportedly mooted by Obasanjo, who is said to be currently consulting stakeholders across the country, with a view to forming a mega party intended to undermine both the APC and its main rival, the Peoples Democratic Party.
According to sources, a former military governor of Kaduna State and a stormy petrel, Col. Abubukar Umar, had been contacted by the Obasanjo group to warm up for a presidential race.
Sources further revealed that Obasanjo had reached out to Tinubu, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce and Senator Shehu Sani.
While Tinubu is expected to rally all his team in Yorubaland, which include governors and their cabinet members, Murray-Bruce and Sani are expected to galvanise radical groups from their South-South and North-West zones, respectively.
At press time, consultations with other notable political leaders were said to be in progress.
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