Although the
Presidential election is barely five-days away, some northern
politicians are lobbying the main opposition parties to produce a
consensus candidate.
To achieve this,
they recently initiated fresh talks among Muhammadu Buhari of the
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Ibrahim Shekarau of the All
Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and Nuhu Ribadu of the Action Congress of
Nigeria (ACN) to get a common candidate that will confront President
Goodluck Jonathan, the candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP).
As the opposition
parties have yet to agree to a consensus candidates, events of the last
few days seem to be threatening that prospect.
At the weekend, Mr
Ribadu felt sufficiently spooked by claims he had withdrawn from the
race that he issued a release reaffirming his candidacy. Rumour had
been rife last Friday that he had agreed to step down in favour of Mr
Buhari.
“My attention has
been drawn to the claim, which started first as an April Fool joke,
yesterday, and is now made viral by opposition CPC members, that I have
stepped down for Muhammadu Buhari in what is termed a consensus
arrangement,” he said.
“First, I must
clarify for my teeming supporters, our ever progressive ACN party
members and the millions of young people of this country who have
trained their sights toward, and have sacrificed so much for a better
Nigeria, that this is wicked falsehood.
“Secondly, I want
to stress the point that this cheap scheme is deliberately calculated
to abort our democratic march through manipulation, and through the
hijack of our right to electoral choice, a central value of a true
democracy.”
Quest for a northern President
The consensus
initiative is coming months after the failure of a similar one aimed at
preventing Mr Jonathan from becoming the presidential candidate of the
PDP during the party’s primaries, which held last January.
Mr Jonathan had
faced four main aspirants, including a former military president,
Ibrahim Babangida; a former vice president, Atiku Abubakar; a former
national security adviser, Aliyu Gusau and governor of Kwara State,
Bukola Saraki.
The process, driven
by the Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF) led by a former finance
minister, Adamu Ciroma, resulted in the choice of Mr Atiku, who
eventually lost to Mr Jonathan at the special convention of the party
in Abuja.
The fresh move by
politicians, under the aegis of Arewa Youth Action for Change (ACAC)
and a few northern elders is backed by the same ideology as the NPLF,
which is to return a northerner to the presidency following the demise
of former president, Umaru Yar’Adua, himself a northerner.
Members of the
northern youths group are insistent that Mr Jonathan should give way to
a northerner as president in May and that since the project failed on
the PDP platform, an easy recourse could be made to the other parties,
notably the major ones fielding candidates from the north in the April
9 election.
The plan is to
reach an accord similar to the one that the ANP (All Nigeria Party)
reached the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 1999. Both parties presented
former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Olu Falae as
their joint candidate; though he lost to the PDP’s Olusegun Obasanjo.
Ibrahim Modibbo, the spokesperson for Mr Ribadu, confirmed that his principal has been involved in the talks.
“I can tell you that they are still talking and the outcome will be made known at the appropriate time,” he told NEXT last week.
The national publicity secretary of the CPC, Rotimi Fashakin confirms this as well.
“The discussions
are still on. In politics, negotiations don’t end because it involves
give and take. On our part, we are open to such negotiations so far
they do not depreciate our values or what we stand for,” he said.
“But this project is not just about Buhari, Ribadu and Shekarau but about you and I.
The eminent
Nigerians of northern extraction who want this thing are not doing it
for themselves but to save the country. Buhari has said over and over
again that the only party he cannot talk to is the PDP but the other
parties he is open to them.”
A little matter of ego
Some analysts have
said reaching an agreement between the three parties on a common
candidate is not workable. Dare Ajayi said one main drawback was that
the presidential poll is only a few days away.
“Although, in
accordance to the Electoral Act, a candidate can withdraw from the
electoral race any moment, it remains to be seen how the three parties
can, within the few days, educate their teeming members on how they
should vote on the day of the election.”
He however said
“Atiku’s loss to Jonathan at the PDP primary should be enough caution
to anyone talking up consensus along regional and sectional lines.”
Another thorny
issue he pointed out is who gets to step down, especially as months of
prior meetings among the leaders of these parties, before they chose
their presidential candidates, had failed to produce such an alliance.
Other things to be worked out during merger talks, include the sharing of offices and position if the coalition wins.
“It is very likely
that the ego trip responsible for the failure of the ACN and CPC
alliance talks recently will also trail this latest efforts,” a member
of the ACN said last Friday.
Already, those in
CPC believe Mr Buhari towers above his counterparts. A retired general
who ran the country as military head of state between 1983 and 1985, he
was also presidential candidate in 2003 and 2007 on the platform of
ANPP, but was defeated by former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and
Yar’Adua.
“You don’t go to an
examination and tell the brightest candidate to hand over his first
position to the second or third candidate. This is antithetical to
rationality. It is not something you will readily see,” Mr Fashakin
said.
But the other
candidates said their parties have better structures than Buhari’s CPC,
which is only about a year in existence but has achieved some level of
popularity, particularly in the north.
At present, the
ANPP controls three state governments, namely Kano, Yobe and Borno
while the ACN has four states in its kitty. They are Ekiti, Osun, Edo
and Lagos.
Of the trio, only
Mr Buhari has not publicly given indications that he could step down
for whoever becomes the choice of the northern politicians.
Messrs Ribadu and Shekarau had reportedly given indication that they could withdraw for whoever emerges among the three.
But Emma Eneukwu, who speaks for the ANPP, said the issue of who flies the flag will be resolved naturally this week.
“What is going to
happen is that after the National Assembly, the party that has the most
seat may be allowed to produce the presidential candidate if the
ongoing talks sail through. I think this is the mind of those handling
the discussions,” Mr Eneukwu told NEXT in a telephone chat last Friday.
Although the three parties and their candidates have successfully
cooperated in the recent past, especially in jointly refusing to show
up in the debate organized by the Nigerian Elections Debate Group
(NEDG), it remains to be seen how their cooperation can defeat Mr
Jonathan.
