By David Lawani and Ben Adoga
A lot of things played out during the just-concluded All Progressives Congress (APC) special convention to elect its presidential candidate. The whole venue was fully decorated and delegates arrived a day before the main day for accreditation. Those who had their list tinkered with were left to lick their wounds as the convention planning management committee chairman, Abubakar Badaru, stated during the event that only delegates elected will be allowed to vote votes.

This was not to be as different issues that had not been resolved arising from the congresses and efforts to outsmart each other in the party were seen playing out unceremoniously during the convention. It was a strange sight even when those who came prepared there were jubilation, but some came with bruises and were also nursing their wounds amidst confusing excitement and triumph.

But in Akwa-Ibom, there was no delegate list because there were unsettled and unresolved issues in the party at the state level.

You can imagine that the likes of Godswill Akpabio who later claimed they stepped down for the winner had a prior plan. After all, he knew he was not going to vote because his state chapter of the party was seriously mired in crisis. All the stepping down was a mere ruse to confound the onlookers.

In the Edo state most especially, Akoko Edo, the situation was not different as the delegates who came were not deleted elected but handpicked by the Deputy Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Peter Akpatason.

The former Chief of Staff to Governor Obaseki, Taiwo Akerele had complained that these delegate’s list was doctored and all his complaints fell on deft ears. He said he was replaced with another person who was never elected and he even threatened to challenge the move in the court. But how he will go about it remained a task ahead for the party to resolve.

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But in Delta State, the situation took a different turn. The sharp supremacy tussle came to the fore between Olorugun O’tega Emerhor and his arch-rival, Great Ogboru. Although Ogboru had defected from the party to APGA, reports had it that as soon as Olorogun’s group went to eat shortly after accreditation that everyone was settled in, the other group loyal to Ogboru went to sit on their seats at the state delegate stand.

Trouble started when the other group returned from where they had gone to fill their stomach and met that it has been occupied. In the process, the crisis occurred and it became a free for all. It took the intervention of the security agents for the situation to be brought under control.

A few days shortly before the convention, there were fears that the convention will not hold because of an intra-party crisis rocking the foundation of the party.

The National Chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, had earlier stirred the honest nest when he first announced during the National Working Committee (NWC) meeting at the national Secretariat of the party that President Muhammadu Buhari had informed him and instructed that the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan is the party’s candidate for the special convention.

This act did not go down well with the presidency and the party members. A disclaimer was immediately issued by the presidency distancing itself from the blackmail that was becoming a forte of the national chairman.

Recall that the former director-general of the Progressives Governors’ Forum, Salihu Lukman, had previously accused the national chairman of blackmailing the president by taking unilateral decisions that were never debated on the floor of the NWC.

Political pundits believe that the next president could either emerge from the ruling APC or the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

With the conclusion of APC primaries and the emergence of Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, popularly known as the Jagaban of Nigerian politics, it is now certain, that the political battle line is drawn between Atiku Abubakar and Tinubu, but a third force had emerged with Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP).

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*Intrigues

The APC leadership seemed set on some scheme to produce a preferred candidate. The party kept postponing their primary to very close to submission to INEC.

Before the wild kite was flown by the party chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu. Adamu announced to the party’s National Working Committee, NWC that with consultation with the President, Muhammad Buhari, Senate President, Ahmed Lawan had been adopted as a consensus candidate. Though the President came out to distance himself from the claim, there is no smoke without fire.

Before then, President Buhari had made open his preference for a consensus candidate to minimize anxiety and reduce financial wastage. He equally pleaded with governors of his party to let him choose his successor if Tinubu was likely not the one.

For the first time, Northern governors would disagree with Baba Buhari. They took their grounds and insisted that the party should go into a primary election to choose their flag bearer and having understood the body language and the kite flown, they see till went ahead to vote their choice and not Sen. Ahmed Lawan whom Nigerians were made to understand that he was the choice of the presidency.

*Security

The security situation at the venue seemed tight, it was, however, not unexpected because the President and Commander in Chief were in attendance. The military was not on the ground, but the Police and the armed Civil Defence squad provided security. An observer hyperbolically said that there were more security agencies in Eagles Square than there are residents in Abuja.

At a stage, they became overzealous and blocked the gate from entry. Only one gate was open to the public while one gate was open to VIPs. This caused congestion and the heavy crowd that warranted the security operatives to tear gas observers, journalists, and others who were scampering to enter.

This allegation of fraud set several events in motion. Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos) and Babagana Zulum (Borno) led a strong field of Tinubu’s men out of the State Box to meet the Chief Electoral Umpire of the primary, Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State on the open field of the Eagle Square. Soon, a suspension of voting was announced, which lasted for about an hour.

Former Minister of Interior, Gen. Abubakar Dambazzau (retd.), who chaired the primary, eventually came to lift the suspension, but not before announcing a surfeit of changes made to the voting process, including a mass sack of all electoral officials clad in blue vests stationed by the 40 ballot boxes.

Dambazzau’s measures worked wonders as the first ray of lights streaked over Eagle Square and the voting process went smoothly thereafter.

That the delegates swung the Asiwaju way was manifest from the first box sorted by the defeated APC governorship candidate in the last Edo State election, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu as Tinubu cleared that particular box by light years ahead of the field.

Vote sorting and counting proved too much of a job to handle for one man and indeed others were drafted to support Ize-Iyamu, including a lady on the special request of First Lady Aisha Buhari.

As the afternoon sunshine of the second day permeated Eagle Square the vote tally was ready for a waiting nation: Bola Ahmed Tinubu, 1,271 votes; Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, 316 votes; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, 235 votes – first, second and third in that order.

Words were sent to President Buhari – who had excused himself at some point in the long night– to return for the final announcements of results, and to hand over the APC flag to the winner.

Buhari did his duty well– after the acceptance speech by Bola Ahmed Tinubu, amid the famous Owanbe (carnival-like) Tinubu supporters who cut across the country even if led in the victory dance by a strong Yoruba contingent from the South West.

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In his acceptance speech, Tinubu thanked the president and the APC for the opportunity given to him to flag the party’s presidential flag in the 2023 race.

He said, “I must thank you all for making me the standard-bearer of our progressive party. And I humbly accept the nomination of this convention to be the presidential candidate of our great party, the All Progressives Congress.

“I also offer my sincere gratitude to President Buhari for his calm and prudent leadership throughout this process. I thank him, also, for his steadfast determination to ensure a level playing field and a free and fair primary process for every aspirant. Without him, I would not be standing here today as the new standard-bearer of Nigeria’s party.

“Thank you, the delegates, for the confidence you have shown in me. I will prove that your choice was a wise one. You have moved our party and country towards its best future.

“I commend my fellow aspirants. It is a difficult thing to run for president. The stiff and bold competition you offered made our party stronger and made me better. I must say a special word of thanks to the seven aspirants including Badaru; Ibikunle Amosun; Ajayi Borrofice; Dimeji Bankole; Godswill Akpabio; Kayode Fayemi; and Uju Kennedy, who chose to step down their ambitions for the good of the party and the unity of our purpose.

“Let us each agree to join hands in defeating the PDP and beating back our common foes of poverty, terror, and violence. We now have a date with destiny in February 2023. Let us win so Nigeria can become the nation it is intended to be.

“Yes, we face serious problems. But I believe that we have it within us to reach our finest destiny. With help from God, we shall make this nation better for the generations to come”, he said.

It is to be noted that other presidential aspirants on the night were Mr. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, Pastor Tunde Bakare, Mr Ahmed Rufai, Senator Rochas Okorocha, Mr Tien Jack Rich, Governor Ben Ayade, Governor David Umahi, and Ogbonnaya Onu.