Since General Buhari is known all over the country as a decent and untainted person, it should not be unduly tough to accede to his emergence in a consensual manner
As the title goes, this concludes our modest effort at showcasing General Muhammadu Buhari (RTD) as APC’s best leg forward in the 2015 presidential election, if the party’s intention is not to be just an ‘also ran’. Conscious of the fact that the party is out to rescue a Nigeria already clobbered by indescribable corruption, some hard truths will be told, and pleas made to some of the leading lights of the party who must bend over backwards, think less of self and give a pride of place to our hemorrhaging country.
The first of these pleas will go to the contestants who have been to all the nooks and crannies of the country selling their visions for party and country; trying to gain members’ support. This must have been at great personal costs. Both the party and the candidates must, however, ensure that since only one of them will eventually emerge, everything must be done to avoid fallouts which the opposition could latch on to hurt the party at the election proper. That could easily happen if the contestant finally chosen is perceived by Nigerians to be morally unsuitable for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Since General Buhari is known all over the country as a decent and untainted person, it should not be unduly tough to accede to his emergence in a consensual manner. This is not to suggest that others are not honest, but this is a man who has held the highest office in the land and has never been known, even alleged, to have abused his office. This will not only demonstrate party unity but will allow every segment of the party to coalesce around his candidature and ensure that he gets everything needed for a successful campaign. After all, the party survived the serial obstacles the opposition erected on the way to its emergence. It is also to be noted that President Jonathan did not emerge PDP’s sole presidential candidate because there were no other interested party members. Even as you read this, a scion of the redoubtable Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, Nigeria’s first Prime Minister, is apparently still fuming.
However, if settling the presidential slot looks fairly straight forward, not so that of who emerges the Vice Presidential candidate. Given the unending geo political rivalries for political office in our country, even if in reality that never translates to any meaningful advantage, as we saw in the Obasanjo presidency when infrastructure in the entire Southwest collapsed, and akin to what is currently happening to the South South where the East-West road is taking like forever to complete, I should, ideally, be rooting for a Southwest Vice Presidential candidate. But political reality suggests differently.
Who becomes the Vice Presidential candidate, and where he comes from, are issues that must be handled tactically and strategically. This is one position that can, and should, indeed, be used to maximally hurt the president in order to substantially reduce the advantages derivable from his literal capture of the Southeast.
First and foremost, both General Buhari, who is my preferred contestant, and whoever emerges his Vice Presidential candidate cannot afford to be both non-current holders of a high political office given the massive logistical advantage holding such an office confers in our skewed democracy especially with regard to funding, security and overall logistics especially when they will be contesting against an incumbent who does not take prisoners.
That fact, in my view, should, automatically eliminate any of the gentlemen whose names are currently being mentioned from the Southwest. The only remaining likely candidate is, unfortunately, caught up in the Muslim/Muslim argument which the PDP must eagerly be awaiting to latch on to. Without a doubt, trying that combination will be ill advised as it will be used by the PDP to scare away millions of voters from the party, especially in the North Central zone. So much has President Jonathan, unfortunately, imported religion into our politics that APC dares not go there at all. Nor has Boko Haram helped matters either.
President Jonathan’s undisguised favoritism towards the Southeast from where he appointed not less than 70 percent of the headship of the country’s regulatory agencies, the Central Bank inclusive, in addition to the most important ministries in his government, has so cemented his capture of that geo-political zone that it would be unwise for the APC to consider any candidate from there. So complete is the president’s hold on the Southeast that former Governor Obi of Anambra State thought nothing of abandoning his promises to the Ikemba for the Jonathan cause, an issue that so upset Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu, the late Igbo leader’s spouse. I say this with considerable unease given Governor Rochas Okorocha’s immense, pan Nigerian goodwill; a goodwill that is obviously only a fractional appreciation of his large heart which knows neither Jew nor Gentile.
It is to be noted that the Yoruba, who also voted hugely for candidate Jonathan in 2011, have been remorselessly shortchanged by his government; a fact he admitted during the recent electioneering campaigns in the Southwest.
This therefore leaves us with only the South South as where the Vice Presidential candidate can come from. As tactics, it must be a deliberate intent of the APC to keep the president busy campaigning in that zone rather than for him to have the luxury of taking their vote for granted. He must be made to sweat for every vote he would get there unlike in 2011. Luckily, there is a groundswell of reasons to ensure that.
Governor Rotimi Amaechi has shown conclusively that he has all it takes to emerge the APC VP candidate. He has successfully fought a ruthless opposition to the hilt. Many in his situation would have crumbled, if not cave in to the multi-pronged attacks spearheaded, no doubt, by the presidency. The governor enjoys tremendous support in a state where, since 1999 PDP has routinely allocated its massive two million plus votes to itself. The APC must not let that happen in 2015 and with Amaechi on the ticket that will be an absolute impossibility. Additionally, the massive anti-Jonathan sentiments arising from the Bayelsa/Rivers Soku oil wells crisis and the deliberate, inexplainable impediments placed on the opening of the Abonnema seaport as well as the Soku gas plant projects approved by the late President Musa Yar’Adua will ensure that many will not be favorably disposed to Jonathan’s candidature.
This article was about concluded when Wale Adeoye, a former Senior Special Assistant to Governor Fayemi and a top chieftain of the O’odua Nationalist Coalition, sent me the Coalition’s resolutions at its Ibadan meeting of October 7, 2014.
The relevant part, to this subject, reads as follows:
1. The coalition believes that it is more strategic for the Yoruba and the APC to present and support a South-South candidate as the Vice President in the forthcoming election. Such a person will neutralise the passion of PDP’s ethnic minority campaign tactics as well as strengthen confidence in the APC among ethnic minorities across the country.
2. The coalition resolved to have its contact committee meet with the APC in Yoruba land to recommend Governor Amaechi in view of his dogged spirit and libertarian heritage in the belief that given that he is an Ikwerre, with close genealogical ties to the Igbo, he would certainly enjoy a modicum of Igbo support and so break into the president’s near monopoly of that zone. Also, the fact that the governor is highly regarded both in Nigeria and internationally, has vast political linkages across the country and can be trusted would be added advantages.
What more can I say?
As for the Yoruba, the most suitable post in an APC- controlled federal government, would, in my view, be the Senate Presidency. Given Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s yeoman’s contribution to the emergence and sustenance of the party, it should not be too much to cede this position to him, either in his personal capacity, or to his nominee.
And the nominee could very well be his spouse, the highly effective Senator Oluremi Tinubu who would be returning as a second term senator.
Concluded.
