- Labour Party pulls out, may work for Buhari
As alliance talks among opposition political parties and groups reach a critical stage, stakeholders in the grand alliance project have begun an assessment of three top contestants for the Presidency, The Point has reliably gathered.
The three contestants will be screened to determine who will hold the joint presidential ticket of parties forming the mega alliance, while one of the parties in the alliance, likely the Peoples Democratic Party, will come as banner name, a top source within the opposition disclosed.
Two of the gladiators, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe State, are from the PDP; while a third consideration, a former Governor of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, is still in the ruling All Progressives Party.
The committee has been mandated to look beyond the existing zoning arrangements of the PDP and other parties and consider factors such as candidate’s electoral value, acceptability across the geo-political zones and calibre of followers
Also being reportedly screened by the grand alliance elders are Senator Ben Murray-Bruce (PDP, Bayelsa); Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, a Young Progressive Party presidential aspirant and former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria; former Governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke; and Rev. David Ize-Iyamu, an Edo State-born Lagos cleric and national coordinator of the Youth Revolution Movement. These aforementioned politicians, it was learnt, are being considered for the vice president slot.
An impeccable source revealed to our correspondent that former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Coalition for Nigeria Movement, which has now dissolved into the African Democratic Congress, along with the Olisa Agbakoba-led National Intervention Movement, the PDP, the Social Democratic Party, the Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, the Fresh Democratic Party, and the YPP, among others, had begun the nomination of high-level representatives into a screening committee to assess the various presidential aspirants.
The source hinted that the screening committee might be chaired by Obasanjo and would begin sitting very soon.
The source, who preferred anonymity, owing to the sensitivity of the issue, revealed, “The committee has been mandated to look beyond the existing zoning arrangements of the PDP and other parties and consider factors such as candidate’s electoral value, acceptability across the geo-political zones and calibre of followers.
“They are also to ensure that the candidate to be finally picked is such that has no blemish and is not under any probe for corruption or any crime whatsoever; and then, he or she must be acceptable to the international community.”
But the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, said he was not aware of the grand alliance’s screening committee, although his party had already set up a contact and reconciliation committee.
Speaking with The Point, Ologbondiyan said, “My simple reaction is that I’m not aware of such a committee. The only committee I’m aware of is the one on contact and reconciliation, set up by our party to liaise with the other parties, who are interested in working with our party. That is what we have done.
“As a member of the National Working Committee of the party, I’ve not been briefed about such a committee. But what I suspect is the possibility that our contact committee is into other discussions.”
Former Vice President Atiku is most suitable for the job, as he has his blueprint on how to revamp the Nigerian economy and provide 10,000 jobs in his first six months in office. Again, the rumour that he is fighting Obasanjo should be over, as the two of them are in touch
ATIKU’S CHANCES
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who is said to be under consideration as a joint presidential candidate, it was learnt, would have to first emerge as his party’s preferred candidate. The same reportedly applies to Dankwambo.
The ex-VP, who is well respected for his strong political structures, is reportedly under pressure to step down, owing to age factor. Atiku will be 73 years old next year.
It was learnt that the PDP governors, who were to be represented in the grand alliance’s screening committee, were divided on the choice of Atiku. The Governors Nyesom Wike/Ayo Fayose faction of the governors’ forum is said to be favourably disposed to making a serving governor the PDP candidate. Besides, sources said the former VP’s lingering disagreement with ex-President Obasanjo might be a damper for his aspiration.
But while speaking with our correspondent, spokesman for Atiku, Mr. Paul Ibe, said, “Former Vice President Atiku is most suitable for the job, as he has his blueprint on how to revamp the Nigerian economy and provide 10,000 jobs in his first six months in office. Again, the rumour that he is fighting Obasanjo should be over, as the two of them are in touch.”
DANKWAMBO AS PDP GOVS’ LIKELY CHOICE
There are, however, strong indications that some of the PDP governors are rooting for 54-year-old Governor of Gombe State, Alhaji Ibrahim Dankwambo, being one of their own.
A reliable source said the governors, led by Rivers’ Wike and Ekiti’s Fayose, were particularly keen to see Dankwambo win the party’s presidential ticket and also emerge as the consensus candidate for the mega alliance.
But a major obstacle for the governor may be his limited political structure, a factor that is crucial under the circumstance.
A source within the PDP alluded to this when he told our correspondent, “What we need at a time like this is a man who has strong political structures across the country to tackle President Muhammadu Buhari. We need somebody who can give us bloc votes as the coming battle is going to be very tough.”
However, other sources revealed that there was already a sustained pressure on Dankwambo to step down for Atiku and be compensated with a plum ministerial appointment once the latter wins.
But sneering at insinuations that Dankwambo would step down for Atiku, the Governor’s Senior Special Assistant on Press Affairs, Mr. Junaidu Usman, said there was no basis for his boss to step down for anybody.
“Which criteria are they using to determine who will step down for whom? The office of the President is for public service and they should come to Gombe to see the numerous achievements of Governor Dankwambo,” Usman countered.
OBJ, IZE-IYAMU IN STRATEGIC TALKS
Last month, former President Obasanjo reportedly met with Ize-Iyamu, as the duo wrapped up talks on how to ensure that resources were mobilised towards ensuring that no fewer than 50 million registered young voters were tracked and encouraged to vote “wisely”, using the instrumentality of the YRM.
When cornered by our correspondent, Ize-Iyamu confirmed meeting with Obasanjo but reserved the detail of their closed-door meeting. He only replied, “We met, as I have also been meeting with other national leaders, on how to make the youths more active this time, in national politics.”
It was gathered that Ize-Iyamu had received the blessing of notable Christian leaders in the country in his aspiration to sway the votes of young Nigerian Christians for a candidate other than President Muhammadu Buhari.
A source also disclosed that his YRM would fully mobilise, through a unique data storage approach, over 17 million Christian youths with PVCs,
nationwide.
He said, “Not only that; three million other Nigerians with PVCs have been added to the YRM’s data base, to make 20 million prospective voters.
“Besides, we will mobilise others massively, to go and do voter’s registration, get their PVCs and we will go ahead and give them the necessary awareness on how to effect a change with their votes.”
LABOUR PARTY MAY WORK FOR BUHARI
Meanwhile, the Labour Party has reportedly pulled out of the ongoing coalition talks under the supervision of the CNM and NIM and may have been taken over by forces rooting for the re-election of President Buhari.
The National Working Committee of the Labour Party said at the weekend that the party was not in alliance with any political association or the NIM, ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The party also dismissed media reports linking the Labour Party to a coalition of 15 governors, 80 senators and 15 political parties to form a mega party ahead of the elections, even as it described the reports as not only false, baseless but also a figment of the imagination of the writers.
National Chairman, LP, Alhaji Abdulkadir Abdulsalam, in a chat with our correspondent, reaffirmed the party’s resolve to go it alone in the 2019 general elections.
Abdulsalam said at no time did the party contemplate or engage in any form of discussion with “the so-called elected officials or political parties or associations to form a party ahead of the general elections.”
Abdulsalam, who expressed concerns over frequent linking of the party’s name to other political associations, said he was surprised at such manipulations because there was no time the party sent any representative to such meetings to discuss on its behalf.
He said the party’s NWC was shocked to discover that the party “has been constantly and fraudulently listed among stakeholders in the coalition in order to score cheap political points.”
But sources hinted that the LP’s decision to walk alone might not be unconnected with a secret arrangement reached between the party and the ruling APC to adopt Buhari as joint presidential candidate later in the year.
“Don’t mind them; their representatives had been discussing with us before, but two weeks ago, they suddenly stopped coming and when we asked them, they said they took a resolution not to align with any group. It was later that our friends among them told us that they had shifted camp and will now be working for Buhari,” disclosed an inside source in CNM, who preferred
anonymity.
It was also gathered that last week’s defection of a former governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, from the PDP to the LP, was part of the grand plan to team up with the APC in returning Buhari next year.
But Mimiko, explaining why he returned to the LP, a party under which he was voted governor twice in Ondo State, said he returned, “with the conviction, consequent upon several years of practical involvement in the nation’s political process, that the need for ideologically focused political engagement is now more pressing than ever
before.”
