Many are Called, Only One to Be Chosen (2)

Last week, I treated many of the front-line presidential aspirants in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). This week, I shall deal with the presidential aspirants in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other fringe political parties.

One thing that has excited me in the ensuing contest is that it is buoying the economy in a way. Suddenly, printers and artists are having a boom in their patronage. The value chain of beneficiaries is much more. Even the media are having a surfeit of advertorial patronage. It will yet get better.

In the PDP, unlike the APC, there seems to be no firm agreement on which region, the presidential candidate should come from. While some like Gov Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State argue that the north should produce the next presidential candidate of the party, others like Gov Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, and co, believe that the southern region should produce the presidential candidate if the party must court the votes of people from the Southern part of the country.

Some of the leading aspirants include, but not limited to the following:

Atiku Abubakar:

He was the former Vice President of Nigeria. He was a very powerful and influential Vice President; one who held the longer end of the presidential stick in the first term of President Olusegun Obasanjo, his boss. In 2003, he almost turned the table against his boss, as he controlled the PDP governors at the time. But his boss, in false piety, begged for his support. That was his undoing, politically. Ever since then, Atiku has been struggling, albeit unsuccessfully, to regain that same political stature and control in the Nigerian polity. After a damning report on him by his former boss, (in a book Obasanjo published) Atiku’s political fortune has been suffering a progressive depreciation like a bad coin. Even when the duo have made up in latter years, the damage done his political career appears irredeemable.

Many Nigerians are verily suspicious of Atiku’s enormous wealth, many of which he had invested and re-invested in the Nigerian economy. His grudge fight with the American government over some property ownership in Maryland stick out like sore thumb in his public service testimonial.

Atiku has virtually been in every presidential contest since he left office, but fortune has not smiled on him. Now the twin factors of age and region appear to further disable his life-long ambition. He is presently 75. That means he’d be running for the election, if he becomes the PDP candidate, at 76 and might finish his first term at 80, if he wins. Many Nigerians are wary of old folks in the Presidential Villa, as the experience of the sitting President Mohammadu Buhari does not quite have exciting reference stories. What’s more, coming from the North East region (Adamawa State), at a time when Buhari from North West (Katsina State) has governed for eight full years (by 2023) does not look like a commodity that will sell well in the Nigerian political market. This is regardless of the huge war chest he has or the huge financial and structural support he had given the PDP, a party he had divorced, re-married and divorced again and again.

Peter Obi

Not only was he a former governor of Anambra State, he was the Vice Presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2019 election. He was Atiku Abubakar’s running mate. His political profile rose sharply after his governorship years. He did extremely well in managing the fortunes of Anambra State. His philosophy of/on public governance is just what Nigeria needs. He is not afraid to take hard but needed decisions for the public good. His dogged fight against political arbitrariness is one reason why today, there are several and varying governorship calendars in Nigeria. Until his egregious legal fight, almost all governorship elections in Nigeria used to take place the same day. Not anymore, courtesy of Obi’s legal challenge.

He is a realistic politician. He is one of the aspirants who has conditioned his participation in the race to the zoning of the presidential ticket to his South-east region. It is not certain how much influence he can yet command even among his Igbo folksmen, especially as he is no longer able to control the levers of power in his native Anambra State, ever since he dumped the All Progressives Grand Alliance o(APGA) for the PDP.

Bala Mohammed

He is presently the sitting governor of Bauchi State. He was a former senator and former FCT minister under President Goodluck Jonathan. He is one of the front-line contenders for the presidential ticket of the PDP. He has led the argument that the north-south consideration in the zoning of Nigeria’s president should apply to only the APC, and not the PDP. He posits that if the last president produced by the PDP (Goodluck Jonathan) was from the south, then the next one should come from the north. He is believed to be less than nationalistic in his country-wide perception as he once attacked the Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom over the incessant criticism by the latter of the Fulani herdsmen who had terrorized his state.

Bala Mohammed has been critical of the APC-led administration.

Aminu Waziri Tambuwal

He is the sitting governor of Sokoto State. He was the 10th Speaker of the House of Representatives between 2011 and 2015. He had aspired to be the PDP presidential candidate in 2019 but lost to Atiku. Tambuwal who had set out as a radical progressive has since become a regular conservative politician. He is a young man and with a lawyer background. Believed to have a legislative experience and now an executive experience. Tambuwal may have ticked many of the crucial boxes of the kind of president Nigeria needs, especially as all his public service record has been scandal-free. But the question is whether or not the PDP will zone the presidency to the north or to the south.

Anyim Pius Anyim

Anyim a former President of the Nigerian Senate also became Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) during the Goodluck Jonathan years. His years as SGF are best remembered with the scandal of the Centenary Estate project in Abuja involving billions of Naira. He was indicted by the House of Reps committee on the FCT. But his lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, had instituted a law suit and a court order forbidding the House of Reps from investigating the matter was granted in 2017. That effectively “killed” the matter as nothing was anymore heard about the fraud allegation, just as the housing project remains a mirage, and even the monies so released for it are forever (?) gone. Only in Nigeria, do such things happen and everyone moves on as if nothing was amiss. He is from Ebonyi State and wants to be Nigeria’s number one citizen. He is perceived to be a systems politician, one who is a run-of-the-mill stock. Until his half-hearted entry into the race, Anyim had remained hardly heard or seen since he survived his grill with the EFCC.

Nyesom Wike

He is the governor of Rivers State. He is one of the very vocal and influential PDP governors. Famous for being vocal, if not garrulous. Wike is believed to be a major pillar in the party. He is serving his second term, and has appeared to have done well with several projects completed and commissioned. He is bold and seemingly fearless in taking on even the federal government. Many had hailed his guts in taking on the federal government on the issue of collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) by the FG, wherein he won. He is a lawyer and had been a minister of state for Education during the Jonathan years. He is a grassroot politician, having been the chairman of the populous Obi Akpor LGA in Rivers State. He speaks truth to power but believed to lack presidential finesse and equipage. Although he has not declared for the race, many believe he is well positioned to join the race either as running mate to Tambuwal or as a candidate, depending on how the zoning arrangement goes in the PDP.

Sam Ohuabunwa

He is not a regular politician, having been very active in the private sector. He is a disciplined and renowned pharmacist, founder and former chief Executive of Neimeth Pharmaceuticals, who eventually became the Chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG). Although he has not held any elected office in Nigeria, the Abia-born pharmacist and administrator banks on his private-sector experience to re-ignite the great potential of the Nigerian state, even though he acknowledges, himself, that he is rather on the side of the old folks (at 72), although he believes that “my spirit , my heart is of a young person”. He says the right things on how to re-work the Nigerian system. But sound as he may be, he does not have any visible political network or organisation that can push his aspiration beyond mere expression of interest.

Kingsley Moghalu

He was a former Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). He is lawyer and a political economist believed to be intellectually sound. He was the presidential candidate of the Young Progressive Party (YPP) during the 2019 presidential election. He is one of the politicians in the cloud: those who say the nicest things, advance the most convincing intellectual arguments of how to redeem the country, but has no grass-root presence to give verve to his aspiration. That explains why he is in YPP, as none of the major political parties consider him weighty enough to fly their flag. Unfortunately, the likes of Moghalu only help to swell the rank and file of the contestants as he does nothing visible to establish and operate a viable political structure across various parts of the country, but faithfully does a once-in-four-years- presidential-parade in Nigeria. Indeed, he is a veritable TV political giant. Not more.

Bukola Saraki

He is a young presidential material. He had served as a two-term governor of Kwara State, served as Senator and Senate President. He crossed from PDP to APC and from APC now back to the PDP. He is an astute politician and has a reasonable support base in Kwara State, although the advent of the likes of Information minister, Lai Mohammed and the sitting governor in Kwara State, Mr Abdulrahman Abdul Rasaq, plus even his own sister, Gbemi Saraki (Minister of State for Transportation) have shrunk the political space of Bukola Saraki. He has not quite declared his interest but keen watchers have confirmed Saraki would want to run, if his North Central geo-political zone is allotted the slot to produce the presidential candidate of the party. Although he is very experienced both on the executive and legislative pedigree in the Nigerian polity, Saraki has running cases with the anti-graft agencies, but he has additional argument of making a case for his North-central geo-political zone, for having never produced the nation’s number one citizen.

Dele Momodu

The publisher of Ovation Magazine, Dele Momodu, 62, who had contested the presidency under the platform of National Conscience Party (NCP) and lost in 2011, is a prolific writer and veteran journalist. He recently declared his interest to run for the presidency under the platform of the PDP. Although he clearly understands the Nigerian polity, he hardly has a firm grip of its political operations. His wide network did not translate to strong political base in his first presidential attempt. But he is back at it, explaining that his presidential contest of 2011 was borne out of frustration. With no visible political structure in any part of the country, regardless of his strong media presence, he may well end up as one of the also-ran personalities in the PDP.

Khadija Okunnu

This 39-year old lady is thus far the only female aspirant that has made public her interest to run for the office of the president of this country. She is the daughter of Mr Femi Okunnu, former Minister of Works. She has two children. She is clearly a new entrant to the Nigerian political game. Ever since she made known her intent to run, Khadeja has seemingly withdrawn into her shells, fuelling the feelings she too might as well be a typical also-ran politician, especially as she just bounced on the Nigerian political mound. She hardly can hold the grip. Many salute her courage in declaring her interest early enough. But that is where her influence may circulate and fizzle out. Or does she want to be merely listed as among the also-ran?