President Jonathan’s adoption as PDP candidate for the 2015 polls, more than two months to the party’s presidential primary, shuts the door against competition for the prized ticket, Editor, Politics/Features, EMEKA ALEX DURU, writes.
In apparent attempt to sell the dummy of ensuring standard practice, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had, last Wednesday, advertised December 6, 2014 as the day for its presidential primary election. Its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, who made the disclosure, also stated that the party had fixed November 22 for its National Assembly primaries and November 29 for the governorship. He put a time lag for public servants aspiring for offices on the platform of the party to resign their positions.
But while Metuh made the announcement, it was obvious that he was merely trying to sell the impression of transparency in the conduct of the party’s affairs. He had, for instance, barely stepped out of the venue of his meeting with newsmen when it emerged that governors elected on the platform of the party had settled for President Goodluck Jonathan as the party’s sole candidate in the 2015 election.
Akwa Ibom State Governor and Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum (PDPGF), Godswill Akpabio, made the revelation following a meeting with his colleagues.
By this act, the party’s December 6 presidential primary would turn out to be an affirmation presidential primary election. Last week’s endorsement for Jonathan as PDP’s sole candidate confirms TheNiche’s exclusive report on August 31 that the party’s convention will only be a formality-ratification of his candidacy.
Not few analysts were surprised at the turn of events. In fact, developments since August had clearly indicated that the president would pick the party’s ticket without pronounced efforts. Before then, Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido, had appeared to be set for a battle over the ticket. In July, the media was awash with audacious moves by the governor for the top job.
There were, for instance, reports of Lamido unofficially launching his bid for Aso Rock with branded campaign vehicles spotted in Jigawa proclaiming his readiness to run. Posters bearing his name and pictures proclaiming his ambition were also spotted in Kaduna State. That was also reported exclusively by TheNiche in its July 20 edition.
What added weight to the suspicion was the high profile endorsement that the governor appeared to have received at the time. Twice, for instance, former President Olusegun Obasanjo had publicly tipped him for president.
At a time in May 29, 2013, Obasanjo had said: “You know you can help somebody to get a job, but you cannot help him to do it.”
Doing a pitch for his choice, he added: “If somebody cannot do the job, we have Sule Lamido who is competent to do the job.
“Some people are saying one person can’t make changes; this is rubbish. If you have a competent person who knows where he is going, he can make changes along with his team that would impact the lives of people as we have seen it in Jigawa State.”
Jonathan’s men on the offensive
This instantly threw up Lamido as the man of the moment. Jonathan’s proteges, however, did not take the perceived challenge lightly. In a deft move at pulling the rug off the feet of the Jigawa governor, Akpabio, on Tuesday, July 15, announced that the party’s House of Representatives caucus had endorsed Jonathan for 2015. According to Akpabio, PDP governors were present when the legislators took their action.
The curious endorsement, TheNiche learnt, was outcome of a meeting between the president and the party’s governors led by Akpabio with the PDP House of Representatives members.
Those said to have attended the meeting included Governors Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa), Sullivan Chime (Enugu), Theodore Orji (Abia), Martins Elechi (Ebonyi) and Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta). Others included Idris Wada (Kogi), Gabriel Suswam (Benue), Seidu Dakingari (Kebbi), Ibrahim Dakwambo (Gombe), Isa Yuguda (Bauchi) and Ibrahim Shema (Katsina).
The rest were Akpabio, Lamido, as well as the Deputy Governor of Sokoto State, Mukhtar Shagari.
Anenih enters the ring
However, what seemed to be the most frontal advance in the Jonathan second term project was an intervention by Tony Anenih, Chairman, PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), in Calabar, Cross River State on Tuesday, August 5.
Anenih had, at the forum, emphasised that Jonathan would contest the 2015 presidential election on the party’s platform. The meeting was called by the National Chairman of the party, Adamu Mu’azu, as part of his zonal tour of the South South geo-political zone.
Anenih said: “I want the national chairman to go home with a word from me that come 2015, Jonathan will run for presidency for the second term.”
Party leaders from the zone led by their governors also endorsed the president for a second term. In a communique read at the end of the meeting by the former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chibudom Nwuche, they hinged their endorsement of the president on the giant strides recorded by his administration across all sectors.
The communique read in part: “We acknowledge the giant strides of the president in the area of education, agriculture, health, tourism, re-invention of the railway systems, roads and other infrastructural development across the country. It is also notable that there is tremendous focus on economic empowerment of Nigerians.
“In view of his (president) doggedness in pursuing his transformation agenda for Nigeria, the South South is in full support of President Jonathan’s administration. We, therefore, endorse him for the forthcoming 2015 presidential election to continue his transformation agenda which transcends across all spheres of our lives.”
The communiqué was signed by Akpabio, Dickson, Uduaghan and Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River.
Jonathan, curiously, did not exhibit overt excitement at the offer. Certain developments before and after the meeting, however, pointed to his re-election team being on the ground for the attainment of the goal.
Aside orchestrated media jingles advertising the strides of his administration, groups that were suspected to have the blessing of the government embarked on country-wide activities in endorsing him for another term. The Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN), which held rallies in the six geo-political zones of the country, led the pace in the obvious rat race.
Supposed opposition parties were not left out in the campaign. All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), which in 2011 did not field any presidential candidate because of its understanding with Jonathan, did not show indications of going against the trend in the run-up to the 2015 ballot. If anything, some of its key figures scrambled for open endorsement of the president. The same tendency prevailed in Labour Party (LP), which endorsed the president, pledging to work tirelessly for his victory in his re- election bid.
Thus, when PDP governors openly adopted him as their sole candidate at their meeting last Wednesday, it did not come to many as a surprise.
Sealed and delivered
With the move by the governors, the 66th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party, on Thursday, eventually turned out an endorsement meeting, as all the organs of the party – from the BoT, PDPGF and NEC – in session adopted the president as the sole presidential candidate of the party for the February 2015 presidential election.
Jonathan, in accepting the package, described his adoption as an ‘atomic bomb’, claiming that he was humbled and overwhelmed by the overture.
Beyond Jonathan’s adoption
Reactions have, however, trailed the president’s sole candidacy. Ikechi Onyema, a lawyer, while seeing nothing wrong in any one being endorsed by his party or admirers, however, likened the action by PDP to “labour before pregnancy”. According to him, this is a president who has not even indicated interest in the 2015 presidential race being handed an automatic ticket to run. “The proper thing would have been to wait for the president to declare interest in the election first before adopting him,” he added.
In a chat with our reporter, he argued that the action which came more than two months to the touted PDP presidential primary, was too hasty and clearly targeted at shutting off party chieftains with aspiration for the office. “This is akin to labour before pregnancy. It is clear civilian autocracy. What the governors and the entire PDP have done is clear rape on democracy. Who do you think can still stick out his neck to say he would compete with the president for the party’s ticket? How can we bring out the best in the system, if we continue in this crude way of politicking? This is a bad development for our democracy,” he fumed.
TheNiche investigation indicated that the gesture extended to Jonathan by the governors and PDP high command was with an eye on reciprocation. First term governors on the ticket of the party are expected to go for second term. Some of those on second term are also known to nurse interest in other positions, especially the Senate. In similar stead, some lawmakers are also to be seeking return to their positions or higher offices. Our reporter gathered that it is this drive for their personal ambition that basically informed their endorsement on Jonathan as the party’s candidate.
Burden of undemocratic endorsements
This incidentally would not be the first time Nigeria would be travelling this path, which many consider undemocratic. Earlier in the life of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, an amorphous group, the Movement for National Consensus (MONACO), facilitated by Senator Arthur Nzeribe, who had carved an image for himself on account of his maverick tendencies, had come up with an idea of endorsing the retired Army General for a second term, even when he was barely some months in office. Nzeribe had then anchored his bizarre agenda on his claims that it was only Obasanjo that could sustain the country’s unity.
Before the onset of the present civilian dispensation, the intrigues that eventually snowballed into the annulment of the June 12, 1993 elections had commenced with odious demands by a nondescript organisation, Association for Better Nigeria (ABN), headed by Nzeribe, on the then Military President, Ibrahim Babangida, to extend the political transition timetable of his government. Nzeribe and his cohorts were initially ignored by Nigerians as mere rabble-rousers. By the time the enormity of their antics had been appreciated, they had procured a controversial midnight court injunction that Babangida latched on to annul the election.
The same trend by the same Nzeribe re-appeared in the succeeding General Sani Abacha regime in which the late head of state was sold the option of transforming to a civilian president. The scheme, which originally seemed innocuous, almost sailed through when the then five political parties had commenced with endorsing him as their presidential aspirant before his final adoption.
Abacha was to have consummated the controversial offer before he dropped dead on Monday, June 8, 1998.
While the obviously government-engineered endorsement/adoption train roared its way, other Nigerians that had intentions of running for the presidency were hushed out of contention.
“That is the danger of unprincipled action by PDP. This is our fear with what Jonathan’s henchmen have done. With what they have done, the primaries of the party at all levels would be mere charade – a mere assemblage of hapless members to give a stamp of authority to their agenda,” lamented a PDP senatorial aspirant from Anambra State who pleaded anonymity.
According to him, the action by PDP governors, NEC, BoT and other organs of the party in giving Jonathan automatic ticket, runs counter to the spirit of the party.
A party and its ideals
At its formation on July 29, 1998, the facilitators of PDP were guided by far-reaching visions. They had, for instance, dreamed of a party that would put Nigeria on a new phase of political engineering.
Part of their intentions was to put in place a political platform that would ensure a “re-creation of civil political institutions, reconciliation of Nigeria, rekindling of the spirit of unity and brotherhood in the polity and the revitalisation of powers of the people to build a prosperous industrial democracy”. Propelled by these lofty ideals, the founders of the party had aimed at bringing together all patriotic and like-minded Nigerians into a single formidable party capable of renewing and refocusing the loyalties and productive energies of the nation to work for national reconciliation, economic and social reconstruction, respect for human rights and rule of law and to restructure the country in the true spirit of federalism.
Their long term aspiration was to erect a framework that would ensure a just and equitable distribution of power, resources, wealth and opportunities to conform with the principles of powershift and power-sharing, rotation of key political offices and equitable devolution of powers to zones, states and local governments so as to create socio-political conditions conducive to national unity, and to defend the sanctity of electoral democracy.
The encompassing principles of the party were adequately complemented by an embracing motto – Justice, Unity and Progress, while the slogan of the party, instructively acceded “power to the people”.
To add up, the PDP had in its fold a generous spread of the nation’s first rate politicians. It also appropriated to itself the tag of the largest party in black Africa. In a way, its claim of greatness had paid off, as it had garnered many electoral victories, though, often questionable in some cases.
But in juxtaposition of its victories at the polls, the party, in irony of sorts, has always been enmeshed in crises, most of which were incidentally traced to the contradictions by its successive leadership, especially in the conduct of its affairs.