Ahead of the next election season in Nigeria, former presidential candidates who lost out in the fight for political dominance during last year’s presidential election have been making suggestions for a political rearrangement, which when put into effect, may eventually see the Vice Presidential slot come to any one of them.
Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the People’s Democratic Party, Labour Party and New Nigeria People’s Party, respectively, were the opposition candidates who jostled for the country’s top job with Bola Tinubu of the APC but, as of then, did not touch the Vice Presidential slot with a ten-foot pole.
Things may, however, change before the 2027 general elections.
The opposition politicians are already devising strategies they hope would help them oust Nigeria’s governing party, the All Progressives Congress, and in the make or break poll in 2027, who becomes the opposition’s vice presidential candidate among them may be key to achieving victory.
As stated earlier, it was not always that way with the vice presidential slot. During the race last year for the presidency, the idea of accepting the vice presidential slot was alien to all the main opposition politicians.
Hence, in the period before the hotly contested election, when push had come to shove, Nigerians exhausted all their vocabularies in trying to persuade one of the three candidates, that is, Atiku, Obi or Kwankwaso, to step down and run with one out of the two candidates that would remain in the race, but to no avail.
Starting with Atiku, the former Vice President of Nigeria emerged as the standard-bearer of the PDP in 2022, albeit controversially.
The contentious views on rotational presidency caused quite a turmoil among some members of his party who insisted that Atiku, a Northerner, should not succeed Nigeria’s immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari, who himself is a Northerner.
Atiku ignored the protests. He had contested in five presidential elections but fallen short of the mark and last year’s election was his sixth attempt. Therefore, stepping down or settling for a vice presidential slot at that juncture, considering his political clout, was just not his style.
Next up is Obi, a former member of the PDP. He left the party in 2022 after he started to smell a rat when his former party was about to conduct their presidential primary.
Obi obviously had a hunch that Atiku would win the party’s nomination and so he quickly made up his mind to dump the PDP for the LP.
The former Anambra State Governor did not also want to play second fiddle to Atiku anymore, even though he was the latter’s choice for vice presidential candidate when both men were on the same ticket in the 2019 presidential election.
Kwankwaso, the leader of the Kwankwasiyya movement headquartered in Kano State, would likely have accepted to fill the vice presidential slot on a ticket in which Atiku was the arrowhead. The constraint, however, was that the two political gladiators are from the North.
Kwankwaso turned his attention to Obi, whom he perceived to be at the lower rung of the political ladder, for a partnership but their alliance talks fell through due to the two men’s ego and their respective resolve not come to a compromise.
The opposition’s indecisiveness, in the opinion of analysts, led to Tinubu’s victory in the February 25 presidential election, and following the judgment of the Supreme Court, which affirmed the former Lagos State Governor’s victory, the opposition politicians have continued to sing a different tune.
Atiku has already said he would support Obi if he (Obi) returned to the PDP and the party zoned the presidential ticket to the South or South East.
“I have said repeatedly and I even said it before the 2023 general elections that if the PDP decides to zone the presidential ticket to the South or South East specifically, I won’t contest it.
“The actions of our politicians today, unfortunately, show that the opposition is still not ready for the presidency. They all saw how the political simultaneous equation balanced itself in 2023 and wanted to play hard to get with one another”
“As long as it’s the decision of the party, I will abide by it.
“But I contested the 2023 presidential ticket because it was thrown open to all members of the party,” Atiku said back in May.
He also said that if the PDP and the LP were to merge, the choice of who would fly the flag of the new party “won’t be an issue.”
Some members of the Obidient movement, Obi’s supporters, have said that Atiku’s statement suggests that he would not mind being Obi’s running mate. And others, like political activist Aisha Yesufu, said she would work against Obi if he chose to be Atiku’s running mate.
Obi himself said during an interview in September that he was open to partnering with those who share his vision for advancing Nigeria’s progress.
According to Obi, he began to receive calls from his supporters and members of the Obidient Movement seeking to know if he had shelved his presidential ambition and would be another candidate’s running mate.
Obi later clarified, “My statement was unequivocal, and I am genuinely surprised by the misrepresentation of my words. For the avoidance of doubts, I never stated at any time that I would be vice president to anyone and it’s unequivocal.
“I have consistently maintained that I am open to working with those committed to building a new Nigeria. My commitment to Nigeria remains steadfast, and I even believe it is possible to contribute to its progress without occupying any office as I am already doing,”
Obis’s caveat, notwithstanding, there are those who believe that anything is possible, especially as it concerns politics in Nigeria, and that concession is the name of the game.
On his part, Kwankwaso recently said that he was “better off” than Obi academically and performance-wise as governor, yet he said he had no problem with “deputizing” Obi if certain conditions were met.
He said, “I’m bigger than Peter Obi politically, I’m his elder brother, I’m a PhD holder, I performed better than him when I was a governor of my state.
“I’ve no problem with deputizing Peter Obi, but only if certain conditions are met.”
Like Obi who distanced himself from the vice presidential slot, Kwankwaso’s camp said their principal was “misinterpreted.”
A chieftain of the NNPP, Buba Galadima, regretted that a section of the media misinterpreted the former Kano State Governor’s position on the possibility of becoming Obi’s running mate.
Galadima maintained that Kwankwaso did not and would not consider deputizing Obi in 2027.
A political analyst, Kizito Opara, told The Point, “Sometimes, I laugh in Russian language when I listen to these former presidential candidates knowingly or unknowingly belittling the Vice Presidential slot.
“I mean, is it that bad? Was it not in the position of Vice President that Alex Ekwueme, together with (Shehu) Shagari, transformed Nigeria?
“The actions of our politicians today, unfortunately, show that the opposition is still not ready for the presidency. They all saw how the political simultaneous equation balanced itself in 2023 and wanted to play hard to get with one another.
“I pity them. Tinubu will beat them again and maybe after the election in 2027, they will retire peacefully.”
In his opinion, a public affairs commentator, Solomon Usanga, said, “I will be brief with my answer. Nigerians should not allow politicians to bamboozle them.
“The politician that said he does not want something today can change his mind tomorrow. They can even change it at the eleventh hour.
“Are these politicians not the ones who jump from one party to the other? Politics in Nigeria, sadly, is also about selfish interests. Politicians only do what will benefit them.
“But I will advise Nigerians to hold on a bit and exercise a little patience till the day they form their so-called merger. I believe that from that point on, none of them will continue to make random
statements.”
