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PDP: North-South divide widens
By OBINNA EZUGWU
The attempt by some stakeholders and presidential aspirants on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), to achieve a consensus ahead of the party’s primary election next collapsed last week, signaling more trouble for the opposition party seeking to regain power in 2023.
The party had on Wednesday, March 16, fixed May 28 and 29, 2022 as date for its national convention to elect presidential candidate, and May 21, 2022 for the conduct of its governorship primary elections to pick its governorship candidates.
But weeks to the primaries, there is little sign that the party will be able to conduct a hitch free poll as various aspirants continue to maintain hardline positions, even as the gulf between the northern and southern aspirants continues to widen.
The failure to achieve a consensus comes after an initial move to reach an agreement on zoning the presidential ticket to the south by constituting a zoning committee led by Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue State, also collapsed on the weight of pressure from northern aspirants, such as former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; former senate president, Abubakar Bukola Saraki; Sokoto State governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, among others, who insisted on going ahead with their aspirations.
Although the decision to abandon the muted zoning arrangement generated consternation in the polity, with sociocultural groups, such as Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Afenifere, PANDEF and Middle belt forum berating the party over the decision, forcing Ortom to issue a statement denying the report that the party had thrown the ticket open, Business Hallmark can report that the party has quietly put the matter to rest, unable to contain pressure from northern aspirants.
As an alternative to zoning, some of the northern aspirants, notably Saraki; Bala Mohammed, governor of Bauchi State; Tambuwal, and Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, a former managing director of the now-defunct FSB International Bank, had pushed for consensus and held consultations across the country.
Although they had initially planned to achieve a northern consensus candidacy, with a view to presenting a united front against the south, they would eventually attempt to get the buy-in of their southern counterparts, which failed to materialise. Again forcing them to limit their quest to the north.
On Friday, a report emerged to the effect that Mohammed, governor of Bauchi, and Saraki have been selected as the consensus candidates to represent the north in the race for the party’s ticket, but this was again rejected by other candidates from the region, even as it was thrashed by the likes of Nyesom Wike, Rivers State governor and a leading southern aspirant.
According to the said consensus report signed by Prof. Ango Abdullahi, elder statesman, the four aspirants visited Ibrahim Babangida, former military ruler, and gave him the mandate to lead the process for a consensus, and agreed to abide by the outcome of the decision.”
Abdullahi noted that after several consultations with northern stakeholders, a three-phase approach was taken to arrive at the two aspirants.
He said, In the first phase, the opinions of six distinguished persons each from the three geopolitical zones were sought with regards to each of the four aspirants. Each of the zonal delegates were allocated two votes to choose the first and second choice making a total of 36 votes overall.
“The outcome of that consultation was as follows: 7 votes for candidate (A) Aminu Waziri; 10 votes for candidate (B) Bala Muhd; 10 votes for candidate (C) B. Saraki; 5 votes for candidate (D) M. Hayatu-deen, the report reads.
One of the elders deferred his votes on grounds of continuing consultations with traditional rulers and other major stakeholders. Two members did not cast their second ballots bringing the total to 32 votes cast out of 36.
The elder statesman and chairman of Northern Elders Forum (NEF) explained further that the second phase of the exercise involved zonal assessment based on regions which was concluded as follows: a. North Central — (Eight); b. North East- (Seven); c. North West — (Two); One is still under consultation.”
For the third phase of the exercise, the consultations, according to him, involved looking into the past experiences of the PDP in terms of northern candidates. He said he made recommendations to Babangida, which the latter approved.
“It was resolved that a leading aspirant from the North Central and one from the North East are to be presented as northern presidential candidates. The two would in turn be required to make further concessions so that in the end one of them would be presented as the consensus candidate, out of the four that presented themselves from the North,” he had said.
“For the purpose of this exercise, it is hereby resolved that Gov. Bala Mohammed from the North East and former Senate President Bukola Saraki from the North Central be presented as the northern consensus candidates for the moment.
“The successful aspirants are hereby urged to work together to make allowance for further consultations to foster understanding among themselves, and the PDP community to ensure a rancor free primaries in which all eligible candidates would be free to exercise their right.”
However, as expected, both Tambuwal, who had been part of the attempt to achieve a consensus and Atiku, including Hayatu-Deen, rejected the outcome of the exercise.
Southern aspirants such as Anyim Pius Anyim, former senate president; Mr. Peter Obi, former Anambra State governor, among others, equally kicked against the idea of consensus, with the former stating vehemently at the weekend that he would not step down for anyone.
Tambuwal, Sokoto governor, who was the first to reject the consensus arrangement, had in a tweet after the report was released, argued that the “Northern donsensus drive failed. Therefore, I’m not part of any agreement.”
Following up on it, his campaign organisation issued a statement explaining that the Abdullahi report was not in line with the agreement reached as part of the consensus effort.
“The attention of Tambuwal Campaign Organisation (TCO) has been drawn to a news item that former Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Gov. Bala Muhammad of Bauchi state have emerged as consensus candidates from amongst the four of us announced at a meeting in Minna, Niger state,” the statement signed by Nicholas Msheliza, TCO director of mobilisation, read.
“This is, to be candid and forthright, not correct. The correct situation is that the team met on Wednesday, 20th April, 2022, at Bauchi state Governors lodge in Abuja and had a review meeting; and, unanimously agreed that the consensus arrangement was not working.
“The team further agreed that Sen. Saraki should come up with a draft statement on how to communicate this decision to the Nigerian public. This was the last time that members of the team sat and mutually agreed on anything. The proposed meeting to review and vet the statement scheduled for 10 pm of the same day was aborted unilaterally by Sen. Saraki via a WhatsApp message.
“However, on Thursday, April 21st, 2022, same Saraki circulated yet another WhatsApp message suggesting that members of the team should head to Minna for a meeting on Friday. Gov. Tambuwal reached other members of the team and informed them that he stands by the decision of the team that the initiative is not working.
“This is the reason Gov. Tambuwal was absent at todays (Friday) meeting in Minna. As a result, therefore, the outcome of the Minna meeting has no consequence or any implication on the aspiration of Gov. Tambuwal, who had earlier on informed his colleagues of maintaining their agreed position that the initiative has collapsed.
“Members of the public should be reminded that what was canvassed for was a consensus candidate and not consensus candidates. For the avoidance of doubt, Gov. Tambuwal has submitted his presidential nomination forms and now that the quest for a consensus candidate out of the four has clearly collapsed, will go ahead and face screening and indeed contest the PDP presidential primary.
“This is in consonance with his acclaimed outlook as a pan-Nigerian candidate, with pedigree of national service as the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, life member of the Body of Benchers and now in his second and final term as governor of Sokoto state.”
As also expected, Atiku, who had consistently favoured an open contest, kicked against the consensus report, noting that he was never part of such arrangement.
The Technical Committee for the Actualisation of Atiku Abubakar’s Presidency which rejected the report in a statement on Saturday, said the former vice-president was not part of the arrangement to produce a consensus presidential candidate for the party.
In the statement signed by Raymond Dokpesi, the technical committee said there was a need to officially distance Atiku from the exercise because they have been inundated with several calls and text messages from concerned party members.
According to Dokpesi, It must be stated categorically and equivocally that Waziri Atiku Abubakar MA, GCON Vice President Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999-2007 was NEVER a part of this purported consensus arrangement, neither did he at any time nor in any place, subject himself to any purported consensus process.
“Therefore, Waziri Atiku Abubakar is NOT BOUND by any of the recommendations and conclusions of the purported report,” the group added.
“As an avowed nationalist, Waziri Atiku Abubakar strongly believes that Nigeria has never been as divided as it is today. He strongly believes that any consensus arrangement premised on any regional, zonal, ethno-religious, and/or sectional gang-up will further deepen and widen this divide, and worsen the wounds that urgently need to be healed.
“Consequently, Vice-President Atiku Abubakar is anxious to implement plans, policies and programmes that will rescue and rebuild Nigeria. This is his unwavering and resolute pledge and commitment.”
Meanwhile, Wike, Rivers State governor who presently appears to have the backing of southern PDP governors, has continued to make a mockery of the zoning attempt, dismissing it as a mischievous move by some candidates intent on cheating others out of the race.
“You wake up as somebody who wants to be president of Nigeria, and you are going from place to place saying you want consensus,” he told a cheering crowd of party faithful during his trip to Cross River last week.
“When they came to me, I told them that I would not fall for it. What is consensus and why would I step down for anybody? If you want to do consensus, you must do it in such a way that there will be equity and fairness.
“Section 7, subsection 3 (C) of the PDP constitution provides for rotation of party offices and elective offices. If the consensus is to gang up against one or two persons, why would I support such consensus?” he wondered.
The Rivers governor in the meantime, appear to be winning a more broad-based southern support, with such governors as Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu and Seyi Makinde of Oyo, among others, said to be backing his candidacy.
But his aspiration is already complicating party cohesion in the south. While it had be considered a given that the southeast, the only zone yet to produce president in the south will get the nod if the party decided to zone the ticket to the region, the entrance of Wike into the race had since altered the expectation.
Remarkably, while the likes of Ikpeazu and Ugwuanyi, the two southeast governors are said to be backing Wike, a number of stakeholders of the party in the Southwest, notably, Chief Bode George and former presidential aide, Doyin Okupe, have thrown their weight behind the Southeast, particularly behind Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State.
Mr. Obi; Anyim; Sam Ohuabunwa, founder of Neimeth Pharmaceutical and former president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, as well Nwachukwu Anakwenze, chairman of the Igbo World Assembly (UWA), are the leading aspirants from the southeast.
On Saturday, April 9, they met and resolved to work together to ensure that one of them emerged as the flag-bearer of the party.
But their quest may have been made more difficult by Wike’s push and the decision of Southeast governors to go with the Rivers governor.
