In preparation towards the 2023 elections, all political parties are having their party primaries with a view to electing their candidates for the various elective posts in the country.
The ongoing party primary is that of the All Progressive Congress in Abuja. There have been lots of intrigues and surprises for some weeks now but speculations about who to fly the party ticket will be laid to rest today.
The party after the election of their executives with the Chairman, Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu emerged from the North already had an unwritten agreement that the presidential flagbearer of the party will come from the South. However, against this backdrop, about twenty-three candidates from the South snd North obtained the nomination forms of the party at such a humongous fee of one hundred million naira . This did not go down well with Nigerians who took their turn to criticize the ruling party for being insensitive to the plight of Nigerians but could spend much on ordinary forms.
However, there are feelers from some angles that the North are bent on retaining power at the centre thereby proving their long known mantra- BORN TO RULE. This hegemonic grip on power prompted some of them to come out for the topmost post in the country. Though, some opinion leaders have it that they’re only trying to navigate themselves into the politics of the next dispensation.
Interestingly, eleven Northern Governors had restated their stance to give power back to the South in the spirit of equity, fairness and justice. This action of theirs is in consonance with the demand of the southern counterparts led by Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu the Governor of Ondo State and Chairman, Southern Governors’ Forum who had threatened that nothing must tilt the earlier agreement of power rotation.
Coming to the southern party, the favoured zone to produce the next President, there had been a whole lots of horse-trade among the players. The likes of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu sees himself as the best and choicest candidate while others are hell bent in slugging it out with him. The likes of Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Ekiti State Governor and Chairman, Nigerian Governors’ Forum, David Umahi of Ebonyi State, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Sunday Amaechi, Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State and the incumbent Vice President of the country, Professor Yemi Osinbajo are the leading contenders from the South.
All of them except Asiwaju Bola Ahmed agreed on consensus. This simply means if the suggestion as allegedly put forward by President Muhammadu Buhari scale through, the contestants may not go into any primary but rather endorse whoever the party pick.
The ice on the cake now is the body language of the President who is going back and forth putting all members on suspense. He had said it over and over again that he has no anointed candidate. Though, the latest information in the media has it that the names of the contestants be reduced to two.
Today will be a great and decisive moment in the history of the party and Nigeria as whoever emerges will slug out with the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who also has the national acceptability, financial warchest and winning streaks to stand shoulder to shoulder with the All Progressive Congress.
By next year, Nigerians will have to decide who rules them in the next four or eight years all things being equal.
Ogungbemi Adeyemi Orimisan
Writes from Akure
