PDP Presidential Primaries: The Die Is Cast

Posted by admin Raw Politics Saturday, January 8th, 2011

This Thursday, at the Eagle square in Abuja, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) delegates will at its special national convention, elect the party’s presidential flag-bearer for this year’s presidential election in April. Barring any last minute developments, Thursday’s contest will be between incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.

Since the registration of PDP as a political platform in 1998, this presidential primary contest will go down in history as the fiercest. It is a contest that has pushed the party to the brinks. Because of the murk that has been racked up so far, there are fears over what will become of the party in the aftermath of the presidential primary.

With the two aspirants running neck and neck, eyeball to eyeball, with all the long knives out and sentiments running high, the question is : Between Jonathan and Atiku, who blinks first?
The Build Up

With the death of former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in May last year, the party was thrown into a dilemma of what happens to its zoning arrangement, when the tenure of the late president expires. Expectedly, given the provisions of the 1999 Constitution, the then vice-president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, succeeded the late president. The President in the exercise of his constitutional right indicated his interest to contest the party’s presidential primaries.

However, given the fact that his predecessor was from the geo-political North and was unable to serve out the two terms the PDP constitution stipulates, interest groups from the zone, are insisting that the zone would serve out the Yar’Adua years.

For now, the contest in the party for its presidential ticket is on the North-South divide. The Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF), championed by elder statesman, Malam Adamu Ciroma, have succeeded in presenting former vice-president Atiku Abubakar as the zone’s flag-bearer. President Jonathan is the only aspirant from the geo-political south in the race.
The Party’s NWC

The National Working Committee of the party have its hands full, in so far as, the forthcoming presidential primary is concerned. The Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo –led NWC falls short of exhibiting the qualities that will convince party faithful that they are in control of what is happening. The crises in the party is spreading like wide fire. This development has given room to concerns of what would become of the party after the primaries elections.

With a few days to the conduct of the all important presidential primaries, the NWC is yet to set up both the National Convention Organising Committee and the Presidential Aspirants Screening Panel. A source in the party told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY that the delay in the setting up of the committees, “is to prevent a situation where any of the aspirants lobbies the members”.

But, our findings showed that this is far from the truth. It was learnt that the NWC had met severally, but was unable to agree on who would chair these august committees and their composition. The NWC had met thrice over the matter and on each occasion, failed to reach a consensus.

For instance, the NWC had rejected the proposal for former vice-president, Dr Alex Ekwueme to head the national convention organizing committee. Some members of the Committee, were said to have doubted his impartiality, given the fact that he had been kinked with the Atiku presidential campaign organisation.

Next, was the name of former Secretary of Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku. Those that proposed his name argued that he is very credible and “unaligned”, in so far as the interest groups are involved. This proposal was dumped on the fact that the retired diplomat is not a card carrying member of the party. Further arguments for him to be drafted did not impress the majority.

The last was one-time national chairman of the party, Dr. Ahmadu Alli. His nomination was dead on arrival.

It was learnt that the NWC members are divided down the line over this matter, hence their inability to agree on consensus candidates for the offices. There are fears that the alleged political interests of the respective NWC members is making it difficult for them to make any head way. The real fear is that already, the party is behind time in its preparations for the special national convention.
Cut -Throat Campaigns

The campaign organizations of the two aspirants have regaled the public with an over dose of mudslinging. An appraisal of their performances so far, showed that little time was devoted to issue-oriented campaigns. Either organizations waited for slips to cash in, often times resorting to banalities and name-calling.

Beyond that, as the countdown to the presidential primary reaches feverish heights, the Atiku Campaign Organisation has accused the NWC of conducting the preparations for the exercise in secrecy. The campaign organization was short of accusing the Nwodo-led NWC of manipulating the process to favour President Goodluck Jonathan.

Senator Ben Obi, the Director-General of the Atiku campaign organization had last week raised an alarm over what the organization called ‘troubling signals’ from the party over the conduct of the presidential primary election.

The Director-General enumerated as follows; “Precisely one week to the conduct of the primary election which comes up on 13 January, 2011, the National Convention Committee, which has the overall mandate of planning and executing the primary election programme is yet to be composed. If one has been composed, is not yet been made public. I do not need to over stress the complex nature of the presidential primary election of a huge party like the PDP and the scope of work involved in implementing a high degree of interlocking activities for the successful delivery of set objectives.

“ Relatedly, less than five days to the screening of the presidential aspirants, an exercise that is slated for 11 January, 2011, the presidential screening panel is yet to be constituted. I leave it to the imagination of the Nigerian public the implication of this to the proper, result-oriented, fair and equitable screening of the aspirants.

“In spite, of our unrelenting efforts and considerable pressure on the party leadership to convene a meeting between it and all the presidential campaign organisations, no date, to the best of our knowledge, has been chosen for this dialogue to take place. The implication of this is that one week to the presidential primary election, our Campaign Organisation is completely in the dark about issues and processes that affect us, and in which we have expended and are still expending enormous amount of time, energy and resources.

“Specifically, we are yet to receive any official communication from the party on the guidelines and ground rules that will govern the conduct of the primary election; about the time, location and method of screening delegates; the issuance of passes to accredited officials; the security arrangements for such a major political undertaking; a published list of all delegates who will participate in the voting exercise; voting method and procedures; counting and announcement of results; and a thousand and one other details that must be clearly set out weeks before the conduct of the election.

“The conduct of the primary election held so far in many States is extremely troubling. In many States, authentic delegates to the primary elections have been disenfranchised leading what appears to be an unfortunate disintegration of the party in the States concerned. We have credibly information that in Plateau, Ebonyi, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Ogun, Yobe, and a host of others, a significant membership of the party are either pulling out its fold or treating to do so. This unfortunate trend must not be allowed to be carried over to the special National Convention of the Party, for this we certainly have grave consequences for the contrive existence of the Party as we know it.

“I have also drawn the attention of the National Chairman to the unacceptable situation in some States were delegates were barred from meeting our aspirant on the directive of the governors. States such as Jigawa, Ebonyi, Abia, Kaduna and Sokoto readily come to mind. Even if a number of the governors are under intense pressure not to allow Atiku Abubakar to meet the delegates from their State, we condemn such undemocratic practice and call on the Leadership of the party to take a firm and decisive stand on this troubling issues failure to arrest this situation will be indicative that the presidential primary is on the verge of being manipulation.

“Preparations for the conduct of the PDP Presidential primary election appear to be going on in extreme secrecy, which makes the entire process suspect and places it under grave threat, going by the omissions noted above. We owe it a duty to our teeming supporters, party delegates and the Nigerian public to alert them about this situation and the troubling circumstance surrounding the conduct of the primary election.

“Finally, if the well-thought out and sincere measures we want put in place are ignored and not put in place as quickly as possible, it will then become very obvious that an attempt is being made to manipulate the primary election process to favour a particular aspirant against the wishes of the generality of party members and delegates. We want to assure Nigerians that we will resist this attempt to manipulate the primary election to produce an unfair and unjust result with all the legal and political will we can muster.”

The Goodluck/Sambo campaign organization has been reactionary on issues. The few exceptions are when the “de facto” Director-General of the campaign organization, Chief Tony Anenih bared his mind on some issues. For instance, when he said in Benin, the capital of Edo state, that there is no vacancy in Aso Rock. The former Board of Trustees (BoT) chairman of the party did not stop there. He was reported to have threatened party delegates from the south-south zone that any of them that voted for Atiku Abubakar would be traced and sanctioned.
Gale Of Endorsements

Expectedly, there is a gale of endorsement of the aspirants by interest groups and sundry organizations. The most outstanding of all however, is that by the governors for the candidature of President Jonathan. Given the influence the governors weld in the party set up, if they abide by that resolution, the President can be said to be coasting home in the primaries.

Beside the governors endorsement, other stakeholders in the party that have done so did that for convenience sake. Available records showed that the same groups endorsed both aspirants.
The Fate Of PDP After The Presidential Primaries

The exodus of members from the party, observers say, is a cause for worry. Though, it is not unexpected. A school of thought believes that if the party eventually wins the presidential election, that most of these decampees would find their way back to the party.

The above scenario will only be possibly, another school of thought believes, depending on how the presidential primaries election is conducted. If the election is transparent, as the national chairman of the party has promised, the umbrella will be large enough to accommodate both the winners and the losers. Anything to the contrary, will see composite forces returning to the trenches for the shredding of the umbrella.

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