PDP’s Presidential Primary: IBB, Atiku Plot Jonathna’s Fall; At Night Meeting In Minna

Less than 24 hours before the presidential primaries of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, held a secret meeting that  lasted late into the night with former military President, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, IBB, at his Hilltop residence in Minna, Niger State.

Atiku arrived Minna at about 6 p.m. yesterday evening accompanied by some of his political confidantes including Chief Mrs. Titi Ajanaku and former Central  Bank of Nigeria Governor, CBN,  Prof. Charles Soludo.

The former vice president first paid a courtesy call on the Niger State Governor, Babangida Aliyu.  He was received at the Government House, Minna by the  State Deputy Governor, Alhaji Musa Ibieto. He discussed his mission to the state with the deputy governor.

Atiku later proceeded to IBB’s Hilltop mansion to hold a closed-door  meeting with the former military president. The meeting lasted over three hours.

Although details of IBB and Atiku’s meeting were not made public, it was obvious that the former vice president was in Minna to brighten his chances at the  PDP’s presidential primaries slated for tomorrow. IBB and Atiku had vehemently opposed Jonathan’s quest for the PDP presidential ticket for the April  election on the ground that the party’s presidency is still zoned to the north. Because of this unanimity, both IBB and Atiku are believed to be strategising  to defeat Jonathan at the party’s primary in Abuja tomorrow.

At the Niger State PDP office, Atiku enjoined local government chairmen who are delegates to tomorrow’s presidential primaries to ignore Jonathan at the  primaries, adding that they should consider the context of his fight as the bridge between the North and the South.

“I know there is no way you will abandon your home and love someone else. I am from your region, you must support me,” Atiku told the Niger delegates.

Responding, the state PDP chairman, Alhaji Abdulrahman Enagi told Atiku that IBB will lead the Niger State delegates and as such, he should be sure of their  votes.

Atiku and IBB also held a closed door meeting with delegates from Niger, Kwara and Kogi States.

Before they went into the closed door session, Atiku said the delegates should consider him because of his experience and not Jonathan who he described as an  amateur in handling Nigeria’s problem.

“The presidential primaries we will have on Thursday is contentious because one man, Jonathan, has refused to abide by the constitution of his party. He  refused to abide by the decision of the law courts. Is that the kind of president you want?” Atiku asked.

He also presented his political credentials and explained his role, not only in ensuring that democracy was entrenched in Nigeria, but also helping to  safeguard it.

Atiku criticised his former boss, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo for imposing a sick president who later died in office, adding that what we have now is an  “accidental president.”

He also faulted the manner the Jonathan campaign organisation has been carrying out its campaigns. He said instead of touching on issues, it had thus far  engaged in blackmailing him and intimidating the opposition.

Atiku left Minna for Abuja this morning.

Meanwhile, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has started to woo presidential aspirants that lost out in their parties.

According to the National Chairman of ACN, Chief Adebisi Akande, the door of the party is widely open to receive presidential aspirants and others who were  rejected by other parties during their primaries.

In a similar circumstance in 2007, the former vice president defected to the AC under whose platform he contested the 2007 presidential election which he  lost to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua.

A leading presidential aspirant in the ACN and the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu said he was  ready to slug it out with any contender for the party’s presidential flag.

Analysts have been speaking about the great contest for PDP presidential ticket tomorrow.

University of Abuja Professor Kabiru Mato says both President Goodluck Jonathan and former VP Atiku Abubakar have certain advantages

A Nigerian political analyst has told VOA the possibility exists for either Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan or former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to  be chosen as the presidential candidate for the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Tuesday, the PDP certified three candidates for Thursday’s scheduled presidential primary.

President Goodluck Jonathan will compete against former vice president Atiku Abubakar and veteran politician Sarah Jibril to be the PDP’s candidate in the  scheduled April election.

Professor Kabiru Mato, chair of the political science department at the University of Abuja, said the PDP made a wise decision in choosing President Jonathan  and former Vice President Abubakar to compete in the primary.

“Given the nation’s political temperature, it would be unwise for the party to disqualify any of its contenders, especially the two most serious ones, among  them the incumbent, President Goodluck Jonathan, and his challenger, Atiku Abubakar. So, I think it’s not an issue that came to anybody in Nigeria as a  surprise,” he said.

Mato said both candidates stand a chance of being chosen as the PDP’s flagbearer during Thursday’s primary.

“Each of the two major candidates, in my view, has ample opportunity and chance of striking a major political victory, especially in the last hours leading  up to the primary. So, the pendulum can swing either way. I think it would depend to a great extent on what advantages the two major candidates would take in  the minutes and hours leading up to the party primary,” Mato said.

He said both President Jonathan and former vice president Abubakar enjoy certain advantages.

“The first thing is that a candidate wins by enjoying a simple majority of votes. Basically, there are three aspirants, but only two of them are serious  aspirants. What I think is very essential is the factor of incumbency, which I think President Jonathan might enjoy. But, also, another factor is regional  sympathy and political sophistication, which Abubakar possesses. But certainly, each of the candidates has almost similar chances of taking the party’s  ticket,” Mato said.

The PDP has a custom of rotating power between the mostly Muslim north and largely Christian south every two terms. Mr. Jonathan is from the south, but he  became president when Umaru Yar’Adua, a northern Muslim, died in office.

Some in Nigeria had protested Mr. Jonathan’s candidacy. But, on Monday, a Nigerian court threw out a suit brought by three PDP members to try to stop Mr.  Jonathan from running.

Mato said the rotating presidency issue could sway a number of northern votes in favour of Abubakar.

“That’s one of the factors that, in my view, could sway quite a number of northern votes toward Abubakar because, truly, the question of rotation and zoning  of political offices, especially the presidency, has always been an integral part of the PDP constitution,” Mato said.

Mato said he hopes the PDP convention committee that would be running Thursday’s presidential primary election would be transparent.

— Aliyu Musa/Minna

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