…Governing Party May Reopen Window For Submission of Nomination Forms …How INEC Was Pressured to Extend Primary Timeline
…APC Gets More Time to Strategise, Pick Candidate that Can Defeat Atiku, Kwakwanso, Obi
May 29, (THEWILL) – The conspiracy between President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Adamu, is so deep that even party bigwigs seem to be lost on the duo’s game plan for the party’s presidential convention, now scheduled to hold at the Eagles Square, Abuja, between June 6 and 8, 2022.
While the National Vice Chairman of the National Working Committee, NWC, Northwest, Malam Salihu Mohammed Mustapha, at the weekend, accused Adamu of refusing to take action on crucial party matters, such as the screening of presidential aspirants of the party, the National Chairman is quietly carrying out directives from the President.
THEWILL checks revealed that President Buhari and the APC played a significant role in the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to extend the deadline for parties to conclude their primaries to give the ruling party enough time to reflect on the outcome of Saturday’s presidential primary of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was elected the party’s flagbearer before the APC decides on its candidate.
THEWILL had exclusively reported last Thursday that President Buhari had directed Adamu to work with state governors in the party and shortlist 10 presidential aspirants, from which he would pick one as his preferred successor.
According to a dependable source, who craved anonymity, Buhari issued the directive to Adamu before he departed for Malabo to attend the AU summit.
The APC has over 20 presidential aspirants with the President preferring to elect his successor through a managed consensus primary process. So far, according to feelers from reliable insider sources, the President is not disposed to having the frontrunner, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as his successor. The candidacy of Senator Ahmad Lawan, President of the Senate, is also believed to be facing a similar fate. Politicking around these plans has made it almost impossible for the governing party to stick to a working timetable for the conduct of its presidential convention.
THEWILL checks further revealed that the leadership of the party may extend the period for the submission of nomination forms to enable some aspirants, who already purchased presidential nomination forms but had not formally turned them in, in order to be eligible, to participate in the party’s primary.
THEWILL recalls that on Friday, May 27, 2022, INEC acceded to the request of political parties and the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC, to extend the deadline for primaries.
Although INEC’s concession was done after it met with 18 political parties and IPAC, the unseen hand in the whole saga, which has now placed a moral burden on the Commission, was the presidency and the APC, because the PDP had already started preparations for its convention at the velodrome of Moshood Abiola Stadium on that Friday in Abuja.
THEWILL gathered that it was part of the plan to seek ways to arrive at a consensus for the President’s choice candidate ahead of the primary without destabilising the party.
“By the time the APC picks its presidential candidate, all the other significant parties would have concluded the process. It was a well orchestrated move by the president to block any aspirant from defecting to another party to actualise their ambition,” a senior party source said, asking to remain anonymous.
It was therefore a victory for the party that immediately INEC acceded to its request for an extension of deadline for primaries to June 9, 2022, National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, issued a statement announcing the postponement of its presidential convention from May 29 and 30 to June 6 to 8, 2022.
BUHARI, APC’s DILEMMA
The PDP on Saturday elected Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate for the 2023 general election as President Buhari made his return to the country from his trip to Malabo where he attended a meeting of the African Union.
Within the next one week, he will have to name his preferred successor from a long list of aspirants, including Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
The list also features ex-Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; former Minister of Niger Delta Development, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade; Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi; Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi; ex-Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba; former Senate President, Sen. Ken Nnamani; Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello; Jigawa State Governor, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar; ex-Zamfara State governor, Sen. Ahmed Yerima; former Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu; former Imo State governor, Sen. Rochas Okorocha and former Ogun State governor, Sen. Ibikunle Amosun.
Others are Pastor Tunde Bakare, Senator Ajayi Borroffice, the only female aspirant, Barr. (Mrs) Uju Kennedy Ohnenye, Pastor Nicholas Felix Nwagbo, former Speaker of Representative, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, Senate President, Dr. Ahmed Lawan; former Minister of Information, Chief Ikeobasi Mokelu and Mr Tein Jack Rich.
Also speculated to be under consideration are former President Goodluck Jonathan and AfDB president, Akinwunmi Adesina. There is also the possibility of the President backing a dark horse, according to feelers from the presidency on Saturday.
One of the reasons the President and his foot soldiers continue to insist on using consensus as the mode to pick the party’s flag bearer besides direct and indirect primary as stated in its constitution, is the long drawn-out plan to frustrate the ambition of Tinubu, the former Lagos governor. As a strategist with a war chest, who has built bridges across the political and regional divide in the country but is currently going round holding consultations with delegates, the politician is in a strong position to snatch the party’s ticket in a free and fair convention. The adoption of consensus is the weapon to stop him. But getting the party’s bigwigs to concede to the arrangement has been hard as it happened during the national convention to pick the National Chairman of the party; the stakes are higher at the presidency with geo-political and bloc interests involved.
But with the President’s insistence and aspirants warming up to the idea in their press statements that if they lose, they would stick with the party, the consensus mode has become easier to manage and sell as the most viable option to hold the party together and not allow the PDP to get back into power as the President has often said to whip dissenters into line.
THEWILL can report authoritatively that President Buhari had told his close advisers that he prefers a successor from the South-South zone with Igbo heritage.
Whoever the APC picks will find formidable opponents in Atiku; former Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, who will likely emerge candidate of the Labour Party and Senator Rabiu Kwakwanso, who is expected to emerge candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
ATIKU ABUBAKAR WINS PDP PRIMARY
Following former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar’s emergence as the candidate of the PDP on Saturday at a seamlessly organised convention, analysts are keen on seeing how the ruling APC will respond with the choice and quality of its presidential candidate.
THEWILL reports that the horse trading for votes from adhoc delegates and high-wired politicking by some leaders of the party, who were opposed to the emergence of Nyesom Wike of Rivers State as winner of the primary, received the backing of some governors from the South-South in the party when they met early Saturday morning and decided to support Atiku Abubakar’s candidacy. The governors from the South that backed the move according to our checks were Godwin Obaseki (Edo), Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom) and Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta).
At the keenly contested primary election at the Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja, Atiku Abubakar polled 371 votes out of the total number of 731 votes cast by the 767 delegates. 12 votes were voided.
Trailing him were Mr. Wike who got 237 votes, while former Senate President Bukola Saraki came third with 70 votes, followed by Governor Emmanuel Udom who scored 38 and his Bauchi counterpart with 20 votes. Ex Secretary to Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, got 14 votes. The only female aspirant of the party, Oliver Diana and corporate guru, Sam Ohabunwa got one vote each. The remaining four aspirants, namely former Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, Publisher Dele Momodu, Charles Okwudili, Kanu Chukwendu scored zero votes.
In his acceptance speech, Abubakar thanked the delegates for electing him and pledged to unify the country which he said had been disunited by the APC administration through misguided policies and undemocratic posture. He pledged to deal with insecurity and economic challenges facing the country and to work with the party leaders to woo back the aggrieved party members that defected to other parties.
The high drama of the primary was enacted by Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State when he withdrew his candidacy and declared support for Atiku.
He said; “I have come to the conclusion to step down my aspiration for Atiku Abubakar and appeal to my supporters to take the stand in its stride,” he said.
Amos Esele is the Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.
