2023: Atiku Retools, Banks On Northern Oligarchy
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is banking on Northern oligarchy to achieve his ambition of winning next year’s presidential election.
This is the fifth time Atiku will be running for the topmost office of the land. In the previous elections, the former vice president had other Northern candidates to contend with
This time around however, he is the sole presidential candidate from the North, except Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) whose support base seemed to be limited to Kano.
Sources within the PDP believe the northern votes would go to the party’s candidate, “unlike the south that will be shared between (Peter) Obi and (Bola) Tinubu.”
Said a source: “If you could remember, in 2007 when Atiku contested for the presidency on the platform of the AC (Action Congress), (Umaru Musa) Yar’Adua was the candidate of PDP.
“And you know, PDP is more popular than the AC, which was more or less, a South West party; it was formed by Tinubu’s faction of AD (Alliance for Democracy). It was expected that North will vote for PDP and Yar’Adua.”
The former vice president contested the PDP ticket in 2010 against the incumbent but lost, even though he was the consensus candidate of the Adamu Ciroma-led Northern Elders Forum (NEF).
He also failed to pick the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential ticket in 2014 because Muhammadu Buhari was the preferred choice to be the party’s candidate.
Though he won the PDP ticket in 2019, Atiku could not match the popularity of President Buhari.
The Bala Mohammed-led committee that reviewed the PDP performance in the 2019 elections, said: “Despite being a Muslim Fulani from the North, Atiku Abubakar simply was not as popular in some Northern states.”
The committee’s reason was that the PDP candidate’s “statesmanship came to be seen as weakness as many in the North felt that he was too detribalised a candidate.”
Now that there will be no “Buhari factor” in the 2023 election, the PDP source believed that the Northern oligarchy would mobilise voters to cast their vote for Atiku in next year’s election.
Kwankwaso had last month, boycotted interactive meeting by Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), with select presidential candidates, on the ground that the forum had already made its choice of candidate.
Apart of his hope to enjoy northern support, the PDP candidate is believed to be in the good book of the cabal in the presidency.
Although APC is the ruling party, the presidency and the National Working Committee (NWC) are said not to be too comfortable with the party’s candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, because of the fear that he would be dictatorial if elected.
The source, who spoke to Sunday Telegraph, noted that the APC candidate was not supported by President Buhari and the APC National Chairman Abdullahi Adamu, in the run for the party’s ticket.
“He bulldozed his way and picked the ticket. Adamu said it was Ahmed Lawan, the Senate President that the delegates should vote for, not Tinubu,” he recalled.
According to him, Tinubu is referred derogatorily as “owner of Lagos”, stating that the cabal believes he would run the country the same way, if elected president.
He recalled that the APC candidate could not back down in 2018 when the party’s governors begged him to allow Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos, complete his second term in office.
“Governor (Godwin) Obaseki of Edo State would have suffered the same fate if he had not left APC to PDP.
“If he could not listen to anybody when he was not president, who will talk to him if he becomes president?
“So many people see Atiku is the best option,” the source said.
On how the PDP candidate hopes to overcome the challenge by the party’s five governors, who refused to campaign for him, the source said so far, he has enough party members in the five states controlled by the governors, to win some votes for him.
“Obviously, (Seyi) Makinde is not in total control of Oyo State. Some PDP members in the state have told him he was not speaking for them.
“In Benue, where the National Chairman, Ayu comes from, Governor Ortom cannot claim he is in control of the votes. The same with Abia.
“But we hope to resolve the differences before the election. We are discussing with, and we are making progress,” he added.
Meanwhile, indications have emerged on Atiku Abubakar seems to be losing grip of the contest even as the group of five governors and their supporters have stuck to their guns that they would not support Atiku until National Chairman, Iyiorcha Ayu resigns.
Sources within the party, who spoke with Sunday Telegraph on condition of anonymity, said that the elders of the party underrated the influence Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has in the party before going into ‘battle’ with him.
The source said that Wike and his group made up of Governors Seyi Makinde of Oyo, Samuel Ortom of Benue, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia and Ifeanyi Ugwuayi of Enugu States have crossed the Rubicon and were not going back.
“What irked the governors was the statement credited to Ayu that he would have stopped Gov Ortom’s nomination as the senatorial candidate. ‘That is the last straw which broke the Camel’s back. Wike has crossed the line and there is no going back to work with Atiku for the purpose of winning the election.”
Our source continued: “They believed that the PDP cannot unite the country for the simple reason that the party can’t resolve its internal crisis.”
But beyond this, another source in a chat with our correspondent said that if the body languages of the governors are anything to go by, they were already putting their money where their mouth is. “Seyi Makinde won’t work for Atiku”, our source said. “His deputy represented him at the meeting of the Yoruba leaders and elders held in Akure last Sunday and he spoke the mind of his principal when he said that they would work for the interest of the Yoruba, a euphemism for the fact that he would work for Bola Tinubu.”
“Ortom, our source continued, “is pressing for Obi while Wike is discussing with Obi and APC, but coalescing the G5 because they believe that Obi might win the election hence many of them are working in his direction. Equally, they are of the view that Atiku was misled by marabouts who were telling that he would win the election.”
Our source, who went down the memory lane said that the PDP leadership failed to assess Wike’s strength during the primaries when he sponsored some candidates in Cross River, and still sponsoring candidates in Plateau, Benue and three other states.
Our source said: “He gave a bus to each of the local governments in Cross River State and money as well. These he did before the party primaries and reached an agreement with them that they would work for him. They are only waiting for him to give them direction where they should go.”
The man at the centre of it all, Wike, strengthened his grip on the state structure when he appointed 200,000 party faithful as liaison and special assistants in politics.
This, Sunday Telegraph gathered are to deliver votes for him in million.
A source close to one of the G5 governors said: “The calculation is that each of them would bring at least five persons, who would vote for PDP and whoever they ask them to vote for during the presidential election. That is apart from those who will vote for the party. That is why he is putting so much effort into what he is doing. He is playing politics of perpetual relevance.”
But Atiku said he is not bothered by Wike and the others’ antics and he has in fact moved on. Atiku in an interview with the Voice of America (VOA) admitted that reconciliation with the aggrieved chieftains of the party is no longer feasible.
He said: “We have left that issue aside. It is now history and we have moved on.”
