Makinde joins Wike in fight against PDP Northern racketeers
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
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Atiku also encourages Ayu not to resign, rubbing salt on the wound being felt by Wike and the supporters of his cause for justice.
Atiku was already trailing behind Obi and Tinubu in national acceptability.
With Makinde’s bombshell making things worse – and if Ayu does not resign for a Southerner to become PDP Nation Chairman – the answer to the question of where and how is Atiku gonna get the votes to win Aso Rock is anyone’s guess.
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Treachery and retribution have kindled fire in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), whose public funds theft and failure of governance under Goodluck Jonathan led in 2015 to the election of Muhammadu Buhari, now Nigeria’s worst President by miles.
Iyorcha Ayu reneges on his promise, and turns round to brazenly boast he will not resign as PDP National Chairman. Then he includes two Governors among men he dismisses as “boys”.
But if Seyi Makinde holds his ground in Oyo in the South West, and fire spitting Nyesom Wike does so in Rivers in the South South, where then will Ayu get the votes to retain his job and for Atiku Abubakar to become President?
Ayu in May pledged to resign if the PDP presidential ticket was won by a Northerner, to allow a Southerner become National Chairman.
Atiku (North East) grabbed the ticket.
Ayu (North Central) refuses to resign. Backed by Atiku, he boasts he will stay put. Wike rises up in arms and stages his rebellion for justice on national television with verbal grenades thrown at the PDP gang up.
If Atiku loses the ballot again – and becomes a sixth timer also ran – in 2023, Ayu will not remain in post. And he and Atiku have just played into Wike’s hand, now strengthened by Makinde; a potent tag team decimating the PDP racketeers Wike labelled “arrogant”.
Atiku ran for President in in 1993, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019, and failed in all the five campaigns.
Makinde breaks cover
Oyo Governor finally broke cover on Wednesday and joined Rivers Governor in publicly demanding Ayu’s resignation for a Southerner to fill his post.
Makinde had previously agitated along with Wike that Ayu should resign since both he and Atiku are from the North, but his take at a PDP meeting in Ibadan was the most strident so far.
And Atiku was present in the captive audience in Makinde’s domain.
The PDP discards its own constitution, circumvents power rotation, and farms out all its key executive positions to Northerners – PDP Governors’ Forum Chairman, National Chairman, presidential candidate, Presidential Campaign Council Director General and, until last week, Board of Trustees (BoT) Chairman.
Wike on fire for equity, justice
PDP BoT Chairman Walid Jibrin (North Central) resigned on 8 September in Abuja and was replaced with former Senate President Adolphus Wabara (South East).
Down South in Port Harcourt, Wike scoffed.
He insisted the role of the BoT is advisory and Wabara being put on it is a trick to divert attention from the genuine call for Ayu to step down for a Southerner who will have authority to exercise power in party affairs.
He said what angers him is that both Ayu and Atiku are “arrogant” for reneging on their promises to him personally and to the party in general.
Wike and those sympathetic to his cause say all the PDP leadership positions are occupied by Northerners. They demand Ayu’s resignation as precondition for peace.
The North, battleground 2023
Northern votes alone cannot power Atiku to the Villa.
To make it tougher for him, the North is the battleground in 2023, a three-way firefight between him and Bola Tinubu (plus his North East running mate) and Peter Obi (plus his North West running mate).
South East grassroots majorities are as good as already being in the column of Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP).
Atiku’s running mate Delta Governor Ifeanyi Okowa may carry the state for him, along with neighbouring Edo, if Governor Godwin Obaseki plays ball.
But the remaining four South South states – Rivers, Bayelsa, Cross River, and Akwa Ibom – are in play and up for grabs in a scrimmage between Obi, Tinubu, and Atiku.
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BREAKING: We will teach you a lesson, Wike tells Ayu; says PDP not worthy of Nigerians’ trust
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Limits of bullion van politics
The South West is the tribal terrain of Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
But the youth, the power in the 2023 ballot with 71 per cent of new registered voters, trend Obi on both sides of River Niger. Loads of them everywhere will vote Obi. They are fed up with treasury looters; they clamour for change.
Moneybag politics has its limits.
You can only bribe, rig, and win election where you are popular and accepted. You cannot successfully rig where the grassroots are against you. This has been proven lately in Ondo, Oyo, Edo, Anambra, and Osun.
Rotimi Akeredolu, now campaigning for Tinubu’s Muslim-Muslim ticket, stoutly rejected both his meddling and money in 2016 and still went on to win the Ondo governorship vote in November that year.
Voters in Oyo, particularly Ibadan residents, turned down pleas and money from Tinubu in 2019 and stood their ground the candidate of his protégé Abiola Ajimobi would not succeed him as Governor.
They rejected the candidate of the APC sponsored by Ajimobi and Tinubu and elected Makinde of the PDP – regardless of the bribe money the APC gave voters.
Godwin Obaseki defected from the APC to the PDP in June 2020 to contest for a second term as Edo Governor. Voters collected bribe from both the APC and the PDP but re-elected him in September that year.
In Anambra, the story was well publicised in November 2021 of a woman who rejected N5,000 bribe from APC canvassers. Others collected bribe from both the APC and PDP.
Yet, most of the electorate, including the woman who did not take bribe, voted for Charles Soludo who ran for Governor on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
The same scenario played out in July 2022 in the governorship ballot in Osun, Tinubu’s native state. He and his entourage bussed themselves in from North and South to pitch for Gboyega Oyetola’s second term.
The electorate was not persuaded. They collected money given out by the APC and the PDP but sacked Oyetola and elected Ademola Adelekeof the PDP, the first time since 1999 that an incumbent Governor was defeated by an opposition candidate.
So, even for Tinubu, bullion van politics has its limits.
Makinde’s thunderbolt
Makinde demanded at the South West PDP meeting with Atiku Abubakar in Ibadan on Wednesday that Ayu should resign for the people of the South to feel a sense of belonging in the party.
He began his welcome address by describing Atiku as “the incoming President of Nigeria in 2023.” It elicited a loud applause.
Then he fired off: “The truth is that we do not have any issue either with our party or our candidate. If there are challenges they must be tabled.
“We are supposed to give hope to our people, we want them to listen to us. Our party wants to rescue Nigeria and our candidate is a unifier. He wants to restructure Nigeria.
“Eight years of the All Progressives Congress have left us sharply divided. The issue is we must practise what we preach. If we want to unify Nigeria, we must unify the PDP first.
“If we want to restructure Nigeria, we must have the willingness to bring inclusivity to the PDP. Do we have the capacity? The answer is resounding yes.
“The message from the South West PDP is the South West is asking that the National Working Committee of the PDP should be restructured.
“We are asking the National Chairman [Ayu] to step down so that the South will be fully included. That is the message.”
Atiku’s hypocritical response
In his response, Atiku explained Ayu can only resign under the “rules, regulations and our practice” in the PDP constitution; which he did not spell out.
His words: “We cannot do anything outside our constitution except if it is amended. We cannot do anything unless the laws are amended.
“Ayu must go through our constitution, rules, regulations, and our practice, otherwise we cannot give the kind of leadership Nigerians want.
“It is possible, it is achievable, we have done it before and we have started doing it again.”
Sheer hypocrisy.
Atiku himself tore apart in May the “rules, regulations, and our practice” in the PDP constitution which stipulate that power rotates to the South in this election cycle. He muscled his way to become the presidential candidate.
Atiku’s insistence on him pinching the PDP ticket – after what would be eight years of the presidency of Buhari of the APC – is the genesis of the current rift in the PDP that pits the North against the South.
Atiku also encourages Ayu not to resign, rubbing salt on the wound being felt by Wike and the supporters of his cause for justice.
Atiku was already trailing behind Obi and Tinubu in national acceptability.
With Makinde’s bombshell making things worse – and if Ayu does not resign for a Southerner to become PDP Nation Chairman – the answer to the question of where and how is Atiku gonna get the votes to win Aso Rock is anyone’s guess.