By Ben Adoga, Abuja
Saturday, 28th May was an eventful day for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
It started with a lot of enthusiasm with people clustering the gates of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium as early as 10:00 am for an event that all knew was usually a midnight event. The convention was called to order at 6:00 pm after accreditations were concluded.
The entire stadium area was heavily policed while the velodrome, and main event center, both within and out could be described as ‘ over policed.’ To say the least, security was watertight.
With a total number of 14 aspirants, Dr. Mohammed Hayatu – Deen having unceremoniously withdrawn from the race, the 773 delegates had worked on their hands.
For the records, the list of aspirants in no specific order was as follows: Alh. Atiku Abubakar; Chief Nyesom Ezenwo Wike; Alh. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal; Sen. Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki; Sen. Bala Mohammed; Emmanuel Udom; Sen. Anyim Pius Anyim; Ayodele Fayose; Dr. Anakwueze Nwachukwu; Nazi Sam Ohuabunwa; Mrs. Tariola Diana Oliver; Chikwendu Kalu; Dele Momodu and Charles Okwudili.
It’s also worthy of note that of the 773 delegates, Kano State had the highest number of 44 delegates while the FCT and Bayelsa State had the least with six and eight respectively.
Kano is followed by Akwa Ibom with 32 delegates, while Niger and Lagos followed with 25 and 20 respectively.
From the delegates list, it was clear that the North was a factor with a greater number of delegates.
However, with initial horse trading, that didn’t matter as the serious aspirants had gone around the country mobilizing votes.
The leading contenders in the race were Atiku Abubakar, Nyesom Wike Aminu Tambuwal, and Bukola Saraki.
Out of these four, it was clear that any of them could emerge, but, Nyesom Wike, from the behavior of delegates, was in the lead. When he was called upon to address the delegates, the venue erupted in wild jubilation and victory songs, even before voting.
It was also clear that his state, Rivers, Ondo, Ekiti, and Benue states were fully mobilized for Wike. Delegates from these states even wore Wike’s branded clothes not minding aspirants from their states.
Wike had told the delegates to vote for him as he was capable, bold, and courageous enough to defeat the ruling PDP.
It became obvious that Wike was coasting to victory when some Northern interests went into caucus consultations. That resulted in the withdrawal of one of the leading contenders who equally had mobilized massively and came with a lot of supporters.
Sokoto State governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal announced his withdrawal from the race and asked his supporters to vote for the Wazirin Adamawa, Atiku Abubakar.
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Other Northern aspirants developed cold feet and didn’t engage seriously further their delegates, except Bukola Saraki who went ahead with campaigns.
The other Southern delegates didn’t create any significant impact.
With the rumors that made the rounds that delegates were induced in the earlier primary election with plenty of Dollars, it was expected that the presidential primary would be the mother of them all.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC stormed the venue of the primary election. No one was arrested or taken, they spoke to no one and left the venue. The message was, however, sent.
Though on the ground, there was no notice of money inducement as speculated that US Dollars were flying around delegates.
However, one of the aspirants, Chief Dele Momodu confirmed that the primary election was very heavily monetized and ‘Polarised’.:
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He said: It takes a very strong man to survive to this stage, because of the Dollar rain many have absconded.”
In the end, a winner emerged in the person of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Wazirin Adamawa with 371 votes followed by Nyisom Ezenwo Wike who scored 237 votes.
Others are Bukola Saraki with 70 votes; Udom Emmanuel scored 38 votes, Bala Muhammed, with 20 votes; Anyim Pius Anyim, with 14 votes while Sam Ohuabunwa and Mrs. Teriola Oliver Diana scored one vote each.
With this outcome, the stage is set for politics. The ruling APC has postponed its presidential primaries. Whoever emerges from theirs will lock horns with PDP‘s Atiku Abubakar.
It will be left for Nigerians to decide who leads them after President Muhammadu Buhari.
Pundits say the APC will likely take their candidate from the South to march Atiku, moreso, the leading Southern aspirant in the APC, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola’ Tinubu is a perfect march with enough financial war chest.
While some say it may be a win-win situation for the North, from both ends.
Only time will tell.
