By Olusegun Olanrewaju
Delta State governor and vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, and the vice-presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Datti Baba-Ahmed, yesterday traded words on the state of leadership in Nigeria.
Okowa drew the first blood with the accusation that LP presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, despite being an ex-two-term state governor, lacks the requisite experience to lead Nigeria as president in 2023.
However, feeling that his leader was being ridiculed, Obi’s running mate in the build-up to the election, Baba-Ahmed, swiftly reacted to the outburst of the PDP vice president, affirming Obi’s capability to steer the ship of the nation as president.
Obi was the Anambra State governor for eight years and was the vice-presidential candidate of the PDP in 2019. He was PDP’s Atiku Abubakar’s running mate.
He defected from Atiku’s PDP, a few days before the party’s presidential primary election in May 2022.
The former Anambra governor has seen his political profile rise sharply, especially among youths that he is now seen as a strong contender for the Nigerian number one job.
•Okowa’s challenge
Okowa, whose emergence as the PDP vice-presidential running mate has torn the party apart, attempted to downgrade Obi’s chances, saying his experience as a governor is not “deep enough” to make him a good president.
Speaking in an interview with BBC Pidgin, the Delta governor defended his position, saying, “I did not say he won’t have any votes; he will have. But what I’m saying is that he’s not a new candidate.
“It has not been long since he left PDP. You know he was in APGA before, from APGA he came to PDP. It hasn’t been long since he left (PDP) so he cannot say anything about PDP because that’s where he was before,” he said.
On the crisis in the PDP, Okowa added, “We’ve been talking internally; everything is being settled. You know that when something happens and everybody can’t agree, it’s settled bit by bit. That is what we’re still working on from the inside.
“We are finding a way to talk I’ll say, he is my friend, I am his friend, and we will find a way to talk,” he said.
Okowa added, “Some of us are still here. At every party, there are good people and bad people. But today’s Nigeria is very troubled, and we need the right person. That is why I am appealing to our youths to be wise and vote well. They should not be blinded by the concept of a false change, because that is how they raved on Jonathan in 2015.
“His (Obi) previous experience is not enough for this one (presidency), it will be hard. His experience is not deep enough. Even as a current governor ruling in a time of crisis, I know how hard it is. I even want to learn under Atiku because he has experience with the Federal Government. The thing is not easy. For them to have handled the economy at that time and made it something better, offering hope, creating jobs, and filtering the society, was not easy because it’s a bigger thing.”
Earlier on Sunday, Obi had while appraising the state of things in Nigeria, said the country is blessed with everything in abundance, but good leadership.
Obi, who said this during an online session hosted by the Peter Obi Support Network (POSN), said the country is currently experiencing the cumulative effect of bad leadership.
“What is happening in Nigeria now is that nobody knows where we are going, and when you don’t know where you are going, every road will lead you there. If you turn left, it is right, if you turn right, it is left, and that is where we are,” he said.
Obi added, “So, we want to stop that. We want to know the destination of this journey and know that we are on the road to that destination so that people can start having hope in a country called Nigeria, a country that is the best and has everything to be proud of.
“God gave us good weather, fertile land, everything. The only thing he didn’t give us is good leadership over the years.
“All we are going through today is a cumulative effect of leadership failures over the years where people have chosen not to serve this country faithfully. Otherwise, we won’t be going through what we are going through. We can’t even feed ourselves.”
On his presidential bid, he said, “I can turn this ship around so that we know where we are going. We are not going to solve it overnight, but we can start by being on the right track.”
•Baba-Ahmed’s counter
Responding during a Channels TV programme, Politics Today, Baba-Ahmed referred to Okowa’s comment on Obi as ‘untrue’, saying among all the presidential candidates in the race for 2023, Obi is the most competent.
The Obi running mate said, “None of the candidates has business sense like Obi. Obi is prudent and he is coming from a private sector background, which I believe his experience in the business world will galvanise him to run a successful government.
“Besides, as a two-time governor of Anambra State, he was able to transform the state within the limited resources at his disposal.
Baba-Ahmed, however, called on Okowa to retract the statement, saying his comment was unfair.
•Okowa’s further tirade
The Delta governor had not restricted his verbal undercurrents to Obi alone.
He also commented on the rift between his leader, Atiku, and Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, who is embroiled in a cat-and-mouse issue over the presidential ticket of PDP.
Efforts are being made at all levels in the leading opposition party in the country, including mediatory moves which will dovetail into a peace meeting to be hosted by the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) tomorrow.
Okowa exploded, “Atiku has said his version of what happened, and I am sure that version he said is the true position.
“I am also not saying that Wike is lying, but if someone carries their anger, it is important to air your views. For us at the party, it’s about how to bring everybody together, how all of us can work together.
“Wike is still a very important member of the party, he has worked so hard for the party as many of us have worked hard too, so, we pray that everything comes together, and we talk. I’m sure very soon we’ll be sitting down,” the former senator said.
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The crisis in the party deepened on Sunday when Wike hosted his presidential campaign coordinators at the Rivers State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja to discuss what his faction in the PDP would do.
The meeting was attended by 51 party stalwarts including some PDP governors, former ministers, some senators, and members of the House of Representatives among other top members of the party.
It was gathered yesterday that the meeting extensively deliberated on the dispute between Wike and Atiku over the presidential candidate’s choice of Okowa as his running mate.
Wike had on Friday accused Atiku of telling lies and deploying some leaders of the party as “attack dogs” against him.
However, according to sources at the Abuja meeting, the group insisted that the National Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, must step down to allow another person from the south of Nigeria to take his place.
The leaders said this would be their precondition for any meeting with Atiku over their roles in his campaigns for the 2023 election.
The group decried the lop-sidedness of the leadership of the party in favour of the northern zones.
“How can we work for a presidential candidate who is already side-lining other leaders who are not in his camp and expect that he would change when he becomes president?
“The candidate has not demonstrated good faith at all. The election is for Atiku to lose. If he wants to win, he knows what to do. The ball is in his court. We were clear at the meeting that he alone can decide if he wants to win or lose the election.
“The minimum condition for negotiation is that the chairman has to step down. We have resolved not to leave the party. We will stay at the party and fight from within the party,” the source added.
