The Nation Newspaper

Tag: presidential ticket

  • Presidential ticket without steam

    SIR: I want the current president of Nigeria out of office as much as I wanted the other president out of office in 2015 and I voted him out. The trouble is that the personages I see campaigning to oust the present from office do not have brands that resonate with the people who vote except of course if money determines who wins. I might have taken them seriously had it not been that they couldn’t manage crescendo effects when it happened to them.

    Man is a man not at times of comfort but when the crescendo effect strikes. The effect tainted President George Bush’s plans for the United States but he rose up to the occasion of 9/11at least without unnecessary brickbat.  History might be kind to him one day. A presidential aspirant and his partner couldn’t manage crescendo effects. They volt-faced when it came and, went to opposite parties and began to sing swan songs, those parties they dumped became flotsam and jetsam in their eyes.

    One journeyed from PDP to ACN to PDP to APC and then back to PDP. Darn!  His partner swore to his protégée (OdumegwuOjukwu) that he would never leave APGA but did after his tour of duty and even attempted to unseat a candidate of APGA that he installed in an election but failed woefully.

    What impressions have these two left in the minds of young Nigerians who should look up to them as role models and politics as a sport.

    Certainly it cannot be trust, compassion, stability and hope.

    How can I trust people who cannot keep agreements, who cannot say in simple terms what gets in the way of agreements, doing what they say they will do? The promises during campaigns wouldn’t be kept. These two are only interested in making history.

    Managing trust is how people respond to crescendo effects which must come, but I see them reacting as they have done  always instead of responding unperturbedly, I see them talking and telling, blaming instead of listening and learning, the trademark of leaders.

    Again we may miss the chance to see big-picture players in 2019 that know the needs of followers and solve them. Those kinds who unlike the sitting president know how to communicate from the heart to the people they lead. This lack of basic information sharing is the reason the performance of the serving president suffers but he doesn’t care diddly-squat.

    No-wonder Nigerians have pulled back from him, including this writer, because they are disengaged and are beginning to lose their sense of pride. Nigerians should be, because their experiences necessary for engagement have been discounted by people who assume wrongly that people’s power isn’t important.

    I may take them seriously if they acknowledge why they left their original parties, and to recap promises and align expectations of Nigerians. But can they when they haven’t been able to manage their emotions in the past and to be emotionally available to Nigerians when they assume governmental responsibilities in future?

    Nigerians need aspirants’ and persons who know exactly what they are going through. People who ask what needs to be done for Nigeria and what can they offer Nigeria. Men and women who know what leading people mean and how to restore calm in moments of crises, men who believe in the collective whole and not advance positions for self.

    I don’t see that in these persons wanting to lead me. I would have if I knew their values, skills, passions and purpose other than to grab power for themselves, family members and their cronies.

     

    • Simon Abah,

    Abuja.

  • Makarfi joins race for PDP 2019 presidential ticket

    Immediate past National Caretaker Committee Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ahmed Makarfi, has joined the race for the party’s 2019 presidential ticket.

    Makarfi told reporters yesterday in Kaduna that he had decided to seek the ticket after consulting widely.

    The one-time Kaduna State governor said: “I have been consulting across the country since I left as the chairman of the party. It’s is just consultations and not endorsement. But it gives you an opportunity to feel the pulse and it will tell whether to go forward or not to go forward. The consultations have been quite positive and I believe it is fair enough to come to the conclusion that one should join other equally capable party men and women who have shown interest in seeking the party’s nomination for the 2019 presidential election. “

    He added: “I have known governance for sometime at the state level. I served Kaduna for three years as commissioner for finance and economic planning. I came in from the private sector. I have private sector experience, especially banking. I governed this complex state for eight years. I have legislative experience, having been in the senate for a two terms of eight years. I got a bonanza when the party leadership fell on my lap, to know about managing a political party.

    “If you cannot manage your party, even if you are elected, you will have problems governing. If you can’t manage the legislature and build cordial relationship such that key legislations that can take this country forward are passed, then governance becomes complex for you. If you cannot manage complex society such as Kaduna, which is mini- Nigeria, you cannot manage Nigeria.”

    “These, to me, are advantages but of course it does not mean that it is a forgone conclusion. Somebody who may have not prepared himself in governance at all may find himself in government but the country will pay a price for that. I believe I have these advantages.

    “Managing complex security issues is not new to me. Managing complex people of societies is not new to me. If you look at it from that perspective, I am prepared for the job. I served as the Governor of Kaduna state where I was able to mobilise the citizens of Kaduna state, irrespective of where they came from in Nigeria, earned their confidence and they worked with me and supported me and we were able to restore normalcy that people thought was impossible.

    “If I am nominated and eventually get elected; my philosophy will not be to go after the opposition. It is to see how I will work with the opposition in any area for the good of all of us while maintaining our independent political opinion over any matter. If I get nominated and get elected and I find somebody in APC who can help me do what I want to do, I will look for you without demanding that you join the PDP. I will leave you to make that decision on your own.that is the kind of politics that I want to see happening in Nigeria.” He said.

    He added: “We must also thank the APC for working for us because they have been working for us. They have refused to govern well, they have been fighting each other. They are many things for which we can thank them. There is no way the executive and the legislature can work again as one . The is no way the party can be cohesive again. There are elements in government fighting each other and there is nobody to call them to order. We should not expend our energy when somebody is working for us.

    He said it would be illegal for the APC to postpone its convention.

    Makarfi however gave the Buhari adminitrstion  thumbs up in the fight against insurgency, but said the successes recorded would have been overwehlming if the institutions of the government had been working together.

    On the fight against corruption, the PDP presidential aspirant said it was selective.

    However, the party said its guidelines for the 2019 presidential primary election were not ready.

    Those who have indicated interest in the PDP ticket are former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido, former Minister Tanimu Turaki, former Kano State Governor Ibrahim Shekarua and Gomber State Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo.

    National Organising Secretary Austin Akobundu in  atstement yesterday said: “We wish to state categorically that the party is still in the process of drawing up the guidelines for its presidential primary election.

    “It is therefore misleading to claim that the party has ‘listed its guidelines’ not to talk of the cost of nomination forms.

    “At the appropriate time the proposals will be presented to NEC of the party which will approve as it deems fit.

    “Only then can one say that it has the guidelines for the 2018 presidential primary election.”

    Akobundu said that the party’s National Working Committee of the PDP was committed to adhering strictly to the PDP Constitution.

    He noted that the constitution in Chapter 8 (50) (1) grants NEC the power to formulate the guidelines for aspirants in any of its Party Primaries, the presidential primary inclusive.

    “The authentic guidelines for PDP presidential primary election will be released as soon as they are considered by the organs of the party.”

  • PDP ex-governors, ministers on warpath over 2019 presidential ticket

    PDP ex-governors, ministers on warpath over 2019 presidential ticket

    •Convention to extend Makarfi committee’s tenure by three months
    •Party leaders seek terms for defectors from APC, other parties

    Either goes the 2019 presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)?

    Northeast or Northwest?

    That is the all important question now agitating the minds of top members of the party as they try to put their acts together ahead of the next presidential race.

    Some members of the party are said to be rooting for the presidential candidate to emerge from the Northwest which they believe will curtail the influence of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the geo-political zone.

    President Muhammadu Buhari is from that zone.

    The PDP members in favour of the zone say putting a candidate forward from there will go a long way in winning votes that would ordinarily go the way of Buhari or his choice.

    Some other members prefer the Northeast which they think has always been overlooked.

    The division on the slot is likely to be resolved at the party’s national convention in November.

    The Nation gathered that party leaders are seeking stronger terms or conditions for defectors from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and other parties.

    Besides, PDP leaders will on August 12, extend the tenure of the Ahmed Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee to November to afford the party more time for consultation   on the presidential ticket, it was gathered last night.

    Some PDP governors are said to have asked the party leadership to disband the activities of the former Ministers Forum, rubbishing it as illegal and extraneous to PDP Constitution.

    The former minister forum itself is not folding its arms.

    It is poised to do battle with a South-South governor and others who want to be Vice Presidential candidate to a serving APC governor.

    Party sources said last night that  PDP leaders have ruled out giving the ticket to the North-Central because of its “weak voting strength and the Northern minority factor.”

    A top party source said: “We are only weighing options on whether the slot should go to the Northwest or the Northeast.

    “Most of our leaders prefer the Northwest to give President Muhammadu Buhari or his anointed candidate a good fight.

    “Although a few of our leaders want the slot for the North-East, there are fears that some defectors from the zone might hijack the ticket. We need to be careful.

    “To checkmate these defectors from APC and other parties, our leaders are pushing for stringent terms for getting certain things, including elective post tickets, from the party.

    “We will certainly work on limited or restricted waiver for defectors. We won’t allow those who sought to destroy our party to return through the backdoor and appropriate our tickets at all levels.” The source said party leaders would avoid a situation where the issue of 2019 presidential ticket would “divide us at the August 12 national convention.”

    The source added: “Our leaders have resolved to extend the tenure of Makarfi led Caretaker Committee by three months.

    “We believe by November, we would have done enough consultations and put our house in order to decide the zone (between North-West and North-East) which will produce our presidential candidate”

    Meanwhile a fresh crisis of confidence has broken out in PDP between some governors and the Former Ministers Forum.

    The affected governors, who have ambition to be Vice President, have been uncomfortable with the growing influence of the Forum.

    They alleged that the Forum is not only illegal but extraneous to the PDP Constitution.

    Investigation showed that the affected governors were behind an amorphous group, Committee for Justice and Fairness (CJF) allegedly formed to checkmate the Ministers Forum The new group in a statement last night took a swipe at the Former Ministers Forum.

    It said: “We want to bring to your attention the very disruptive and reckless activities of the so-called Former Ministers Forum.

    “This group, which has no constitutional or any formalistic bearing to the structural integrity of our great party, has somehow assumed the role of a primary arbiter in the affairs of our great party as the tin-horn characters go about pontificating about issues far beyond their assumed authority and position.

    “It is rather disgraceful, annoying, obstructionist and evil straying into a deliberate sabotaging of the present peace of our party when the so-called former ministers are bent on destroying the already long-established consensus reached at Port Harcourt that the next National Chairman of our party should come from the South-West.

    “This very historic consensus is not only fair and just. It is very appropriate and complements the well-known fairness doctrine.

    “For out of all the six zones of our national union, the Southwest is the only zone which has been deprived of this prime honour.

    “To now deprive our zone of what is appropriately our just desert is condemnable, invidious, cruel and unfair. It is virtually unacceptable.

    “We urge the leadership of the Caretaker Committee and all allied leadership of our party to call these people to order. They should stop, henceforth, from sowing the seeds of discord and confusion in our party.

    “We are just emerging from a long nightmare inflicted on our party by agent provocateurs. We must never tread the same abominable road again.”

    However,the Forum asked the affected governors to shut up because the ex-ministers sustained the party in its darkest and challenging moment.

    A reliable source in the forum said: “We know that some of these governors who want Vice Presidential ticket in 2019 are trying to influence Makarfi’s Caretaker Committee to ignore or disband the Forum.

    ” We are aware that one of the governors from the Southsouth has already initiated talks with a serving APC governor to serve as a running mate during the 2019 poll.

    “The party can ignore our Forum at its own peril. Like gamblers, some of these governors were shuttling between Makarfi and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff when our party was in crisis. But this Forum was consistent and it did its best to give strong support to Makarfi. Now, the ambitious governors do not see anything good in the Forum. We are ready for a long drawn battle with them.”

     

  • Atiku ‘ll get APC’s presidential ticket, says aide

    A former Vice President and a presidential aspirant in the All Progressive Congress (APC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, will emerge as the party’s presidential candidate, his media aide, Mr. Garba Shehu, has said.

    Shehu, who addressed reporters yesterday at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) secretariat in Abuja, said  APC presidential aspirants had been reduced to two.

    He said on December 10, his principal would emerge as the party’s standard- bearer.

    Shehu said Atiku would not play do-or-die politics, adding that he would respect the outcome of the primaries.

    The APC presidential aspirant said yesterday in Abuja that Nigerians were in for hard times, as more might lose their jobs, following the devaluation of the naira by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

    He said in a statement, titled: “CBN’s desperate measures- Nigerians should not face desperate times” that the new measure by the CBN had the potential of affecting small and medium scale businesses, especially those that relied on foreign exchange.

    Atiku accused the government of engaging in frivolous spending, careless borrowing and poor savings, noting that “this extravagance and inability to put enough away to absorb and cushion potential shocks in global oil price fluctuations show a high level of negligence and lack of vision.”

    His words: “Excessive government borrowing and higher bond repayment prices with higher interest rates have also contributed to the present problem.

    “CBN needs to fine-tune its policies such that while targeting currency speculators on the one hand, we can boost investors’ confidence on the other to forestall capital flight.

    “Most importantly, we need to intervene on behalf of SMEs, whose operations require foreign expenditure, to ensure that people can keep their jobs. We cannot afford to worsen the already bad unemployment rate.”