Recent events suggest that the hopes of some of the top politicians that defected from All Progressives Congress to the Peoples Democratic Party may have been dashed, reports Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan
LAST August, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was rocked by a gale of defection that threatened to weaken its base, not only in the National Assembly, but across the various states of the country. Several federal legislators dumped the party and pitched their tents with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). A couple of governors moved out of the party too, of course, with some of their supporters.
While most of those who jumped ship were quick to cite alleged unfair treatments and marginalisation meted out to them within the APC as the reasons for their defection, many observers claimed majority of those who moved to the PDP did so in search of greener political pastures. Afraid that they may not be able to secure the tickets of the ruling APC to seek re-election, it was said that these governors and lawmakers looked towards PDP for help.
But it appears today that the political permutations that saw them moving into the PDP may have been faulty or miscalculated. What with them not being able to secure the tickets they allegedly ran to the opposition party to get? Across the states, tales of how APC defectors into PDP are being denied tickets by members of their new party are daily pouring into the newsroom.
At the height of the defection saga, the opposition PDP openly wooed members of the ruling APC in the National Assembly with automatic tickets. At the time, many members of the APC caucus at the National Assembly were said to be afraid that governors of their respective states were after their seats, making their chances of getting their return tickets slim.
When asked back then if it was true that the former ruling party was offering automatic tickets to aggrieved APC members, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce said, “Yes, it is true. We welcome them 100 per cent with open arms. They should come and join us. We miss them; we love them and they should all come back. Even those who were not with us, we will take everybody.”
From Kaduna, where highly rated Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi was showed how uneasy it is to dash into the PDP and pick its governorship ticket, to Kano where Senator Musa Kwankwaso allegedly denied his ardent follower and former deputy governor, a chance to get the guber ticket, and Kogi where controversial Senator Dini Melaye is still struggling for acceptance, the stories appear endless.
Dead end for Hunkuyi in Kaduna?
A former member of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Isah Ashiru, has been elected as the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kaduna State. The Chairman of the PDP Governorship Primary Election Committee in the state, Mr. Phillip Aivoji, on Monday in Kaduna declared Ashiru winner of the election with 1,330 votes. He defeated three other contestants including former governor of the state, Dr. Mukhtar Ramalan-Yero, who had 36 votes.
Ashiru’s victory at the primary election dealt a huge blow on the political future of current senator representing the district at the National Assembly, Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi. The incumbent Senator, who dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the PDP weeks back in search of a platform to actualise his gubernatorial ambition, could not garner enough votes to keep his dream alive. Hunkuyi dumped the APC on July 19.
According to the results announced at the end of voting, Hunkuyi scored 564 votes while Malam Muhammad Sani-Sidi, former Director-General of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) got 560 votes to come third during the primary. Aivoji, who declared 39 votes invalid, said 2,654 delegates from the 23 local government areas of the state participated in the process.
Upon his defection to the PDP from the APC after months of unending face-off with Governor Nasir El-Rufai of the state, Hunkuyi had vowed to help PDP return back to power in Kaduna State. The senator said this while on a visit to the PDP secretariat in Kaduna on Friday, July 27, adding that he decided to join the party in line with the agreement between the factional R-APC and the opposition party.
As if predicting the Senator’s current dilemma, Salisu Tanko Wusono, Kaduna APC Assistant Publicity Secretary, had warned him that his vow to unseat Governor El-Rufai in 2019 will lead to his “undignified retirement”. “Hunkuyi boasted in 2003 that he will defeat the incumbent governor. He failed, only to hurry back to the PDP as soon as he was defeated to the surprise of the APP that had given him its governorship ticket.
“Hunkuyi failed in every election until the APC gave him its ticket to contest the senatorial election in 2015. This should have prompted some humility and gratitude that the APC had made him electable. But Hunkuyi preferred to delude himself that he made the APC victorious. No politician of note in Kaduna is oblivious of Hunkuyi’s inconsistency and lack of political fidelity. It is another trading season for him,” Wusono had said.
However, the last may not have been heard of the guber dream of the senator as sources within the camp of the embattled governorship aspirant told The Nation that he is currently weighing the options available for him ahead of the general election. “Yes, he is thinking of what next to do. But he must consider a lot of things before deciding on how best to approach his next political move,” an aide said.
Not yet Uhuru for Melaye in Kogi
Although Senator Dino Melaye was on Tuesday returned as the PDP flagbearer for Kogi West Senatorial District for the 2019 General Election, leaders of the party in his district are insisting that his emergence, following the controversial disqualification of four other aspirants for the ticket, is unacceptable and will be challenged until it is corrected and the ticket taken from him.
Checks by The Nation revealed that while four contenders in the race were not cleared by the party screening committee to participate in the primary election, two others stepped down for Melaye who just returned from the APC to the party. This happened amidst sustained opposition to an earlier announcement by the national leadership of the PDP that Melaye will be given an automatic ticket by the party.
Those who stepped down for Melaye were former Commissioner of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Tolorunjuwon Faniyi and the current Reps member representing Kabba/Bunu/ Ijumu Federal Constituency, Hon. Tajudeen Yusuf. Those not cleared for the primary included Sunday Karimi, member representing Yagba Federal Constituency and former Acting Governor of the state, Clarence Olafemi.
The other two were Henry Ojuola and Ganiyu Salaudeen all from the Yagba Federal Constituency, who felt that it was their turn to produce the next senator. The affirmation primary was conducted at the Prestige Hotels in Kabba, headquarters of the senatorial district. Returning officer for the exercise, Mr. Jude Sule said Melaiye scored all the delegates votes from the seven council areas that made the district. The exercise was monitored by INEC and some security personnel.
But some prominent leaders of the state chapter of the PDP are still rejecting Senator Melaye in spite of his victory at the primary. According to them, the exercise was tailored to favor the earlier plan to dash Melaye the PDP senatorial ticket as a compensation for his alleged betrayal of his former party, the APC and his subsequent return to the PDP, a party he once described as a den of criminals.
“Melaye is too controversial and his behaviors are unacceptable to us. Moreover, he cannot win any free and fair election in Kogi West,” the party elders under the auspice of Kogi West Elders Forum (KWEF), claimed. They accused the senator of being too controversial and claimed he has lost his popularity among the masses and so should not have been given the senatorial ticket of the PDP.
“The attempt to impose the controversial Senator Dino Melaiye on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Kogi West, by the national leadership of the party is hereby rejected in it totality and unacceptable. PDP leadership in Kogi West endorsed by the state leadership was the first party to take a firm decision to shift/zone the position to other federal constituency of the state for equity and justice, since over a year now.
“Known aspirants have emerged from other areas, excluding Ijumu in PDP, and they have been on the field carrying out their consultations and preparing their structures in preparation for the party Senatorial primaries expending huge amount of resources and time for the past 12 months. To now impose a strange candidate under a questionable reason is not only wrong, but also unfair.
“This will totally collapse all efforts by our highly respected leaders at rebuilding and rebranding the party in the state. This in turn, will give undue opportunity and advantage to the opposition party APC that is in government to contend with,” the group’s chairman, Hon. Shaibu Momoh, said while warning vigorously against what he called a brazen attempt to force Melaye on the people by PDP.
Political lessons for Prof. Abubakar in Kano
Former Commissioner for Works, Transport and Housing in Kano, Abba Kabiru Yusuf, has been declared winner of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primaries in Kano. Yusuf, a son-in-law to former governor of the state and senator representing Kano Central, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, won the PDP primaries during a marathon congress held yesterday at Lugard House, a private residence owned by Kwankwaso.
Chairman of the PDP gubernatorial primaries committee in Kano, Ezogu (Dr.) Emeka Onunha (JP), who declared the results yesterday, said Abba defeated other aspirants with 2,451 votes. Yussuf’s emergence as the Kano PDP candidate came as a bitter political lesson for immediate past deputy governor of the state, Prof. Hafiz Abubakar, who had resigned his plum position and joined the PDP to pursue his gubernatorial aspiration.
An ardent disciple of Senator Musa Kwankwaso, he had high hopes that he will be considered for the ticket ahead of other members of the Kwankwassiya Movement. But the last minute decision of Kwankwaso to draft his son-in-law into the race thwarted his chances in the race for the ticket and pitched him against his erstwhile leader for whom he fought Governor Ganduje to a standstill.
Abubakar, contrary to admonitions by the leadership of the Kwankwasiyya Movement, decided to contest for the governorship seat of the state. He picked the nomination form of the PDP for 2019 governorship elections against the wishes of Senator Kwankwaso, leader of the Kwankwassiya Movement. But at the end of proceedings, he lost to Yussuf who was declared the winner of the election.
Expectedly, some PDP leaders in the state rejected the governorship primary election conducted on Monday by the Electoral Committee constituted by the party’s National Working Committee. State Chairman of the party, Sen. Mas’ud Doguwa, described the election, which was conducted by the committee headed by Ezeogu Emeka-Onuaha, as null and void.
Doguwa explained that they had been in the PDP for quite some time and were conversant with the technicalities involved in conducting primary elections. “With this attitude of impunity of enforcing candidates on members of the party, the national leadership of the party is doing nothing but paving way for the All Progressives Congress (APC) to win elections in Kano State.
He added that a court had ordered that the party’s caretakers were operating illegally, yet they went ahead and conducted the governorship primaries, saying members of the party would not accept such illegality. The chairman, therefore, urged the national leadership of the party to ensure justice and fairness for the survival of the party in the state.
Bolaji Abdullahi in Kwara too
In Kwara State, a member of the House of Representatives and former Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Barr. Razak Atunwa, emerged the governorship candidate of the PDP, putting an abrupt end to the desire of former National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Bolaji Abdullahi, to rule the state. Abdullahi resigned his position and announced his exit from the ruling party last August.
Atunwa, a former commissioner for Information and Works in the state polled 1,555 votes to beat his rival, a former governor of the state and serving senator, Alh Mohammed Sha’aba Lafiagi who scored 578 votes. He is from Asa Local Government Area in Kwara Central. Abdullahi, a close associate of Senate President Bukola Saraki, upon his defection to the PDP, was one of those touted to clinch the ticket.
He had participated in the conduct of the PDP governorship primaries, which started on Sunday, until it was declared inconclusive when the peaceful process was disrupted abruptly by some aggrieved delegates who alleged that the process was being manipulated. The primary election was then rescheduled by the electoral committee after consultations with all stakeholders.
But before the commencement of the rescheduled voting by the accredited 2,227 delegates from the 193 wards in the state, some guber aspirants such as Ladi Hassan, Saka Issau (SAN), Zakari Muhammed and Ali Ahmad all stepped down from the race while, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, Muhammed Ibrahim Ajia, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman, Aliyu Ahman Patigi all boycotted the exercise.
Sources claimed Abdullahi’s absence at the rescheduled election may not be unconnected with his dissatisfaction with the way the process was handled.” He is one of the closest persons to Saraki and he must have felt things were not properly done. Rather than rock the boat, he chose to stay out of the rescheduled election,” a party source told The Nation.
But the state governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, who said that the nine aspirants withdrew from the race because of the party’s interest, thanked them for their act of magnanimity. The governor also thanked the state’s political leader, Dr. Bukola Saraki, for his wise counselling and purposeful leadership which, he said, had kept members of the PDP united in the state.
While announcing his resignation and departure from the ruling party in a statement signed by him in August, Abdullahi noted that he cannot continue to function as the spokesperson for the party when his personal principles were not compatible with its purported expectations. He accused the APC of rejecting the political group which he belonged and as such, he can no longer justify to himself that he should remain in the party.
As events unfold, observers are keen to see the affected politicians’ next moves.
