All Eyes on South-east, North as Atiku, Tinubu Shop for Running Mates

As the deadline given by the Independent National Electoral Commission to political parties to submit the list of their vice presidential candidates expires by Friday, June 17, it is expected that the Peoples Democratic Party will narrow the choice of its running mate to a particular geopolitical zone for the sake of equity and justice, while the focus of the All Progressives Congress remains the North, Ejiofor Alike writes

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) last Thursday gave all the presidential candidates of the 18 registered political parties eight days to pick and submit the list of their vice-presidential candidates. At a meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in Abuja, INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said this in Abuja.

According to him, while the special conventions and primaries of political parties to nominate candidates for the 2023 general election ended on Thursday, the nomination of the candidates’ running mates should end a week later.

No doubt the directive by INEC has further put the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and their presidential candidates, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and former Vice President Atiku Ababakar, respectively under pressure to come up with their vice presidential candidates in a matter of days.

With neither the PDP nor the APC picking its candidate from the South-east for the 2023 general election, the country would again have to continue with the moral burden of injustice to a major component of Nigeria. Many observers maintain that it would have done the country a lot of good if either the ruling party or the main opposition party had conceded its presidential ticket to the South-east considering that the Igbo is one of the three major tribes in the country.

Not many were surprised when, at the primaries, two presidential aspirants from the South-east, Senator Ken Nnamani and Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, during the two minutes given each of the aspirants to talk, queried the decision of the national leadership of the APC to jettison zoning in the race for the party’s presidential ticket to the South-east.

Nnamani, who spoke first, said it was the height of injustice not to zone the ruling party’s ticket to the South-east, considering it is the only zone that is yet to produce the president of the country in the South since 1999.

Onu, on his part, recalled how he spearheaded the push for merger arrangement that birthed the APC and paid the registration fees of the then opposition party. He also recalled how he made a big sacrifice by discarding his presidential ticket of the defunct All Peoples Party (APP) in order to ensure that two Yoruba sons, Chief Olu Falae from the South-west, who had the ticket of the party, and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo were the only two candidates that contested the 1999 presidential election.

He expressed regrets with the level of injustice meted to the South-east, saying that  with South-west and South-south earlier producing presidents and vice president since 1999 and now trying to let South-west have APC ticket, “where is the justice?”

Also, another presidential aspirant and former Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, shunned the exercise citing injustice to the South-east as part of his reasons. In a statement he later issued and signed by his relation, Chinedum Nwajiuba, the aspirant said the party’s refusal to concede the APC ticket to the South-east led to his absence from the primary.

Nwajiuba, who hails from Imo State in the South-east geo-political zone, said: “The understanding from the highest levels, prior to his involvement, and considering his role in the founding of the APC, was that of consensus as was with the National Chairmanship a few months ago. With that understanding, the presidential ticket was to come to the South, and the South-east.”

While it is certain from the victory of Tinubu that the APC would look to the North for its vice presidential candidate, many believe that the PDP has the avenue to remedy the situation by narrowing the choice of his running mate to the South-east geopolitical zone for equity and justice. This is because the zone has been loyal to the PDP since 1999, and has always voted for the party in all presidential elections.

Besides, many believe that the clamour for a vice president of South-east extraction in 2023 is a pragmatic one founded on the fact that of all the ethnic groups in Nigeria, the South-easterners have invested most in the Nigerian project as they live and invest in virtually every nook and cranny of Nigeria, championing small and medium scale enterprises–the engine of growth in any economy.

They also posited that ceding the vice presidency to the South-east region will guarantee equity and justice as well as promote political inclusion and national cohesion. Apart from having eminently qualified aspirants, the people of the zone have made enormous contributions to the overall development of the country. Election of a South-east indigene as vice president in 2023 will further cement the nation’s unity and harmonious national existence.

Indeed, the South-south geopolitical zone has a justifiable claim to the position of vice president in 2023 being the pillar of PDP at least since 2015 when the party lost the centre. This is why vice presidential contenders like Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State and Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State are advised to shelve their ambitions for a candidate from the South-east for the sake of justice and equity.

So for politics of inclusiveness therefore, it is imperative to give the vice presidential slot to the South-east zone. The PDP must take critical note of the political imbalance against the South-east zone and do the needful to bring them on board. Anything to the contrary will further give credence to assertion that Nigeria hates the Igbo.

Currently, there is an array of eminently qualified persons waiting in the wings for the running mate to Atiku. Prominent among them is the cerebral former Governor of Enugu State, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani. An astute politician and administrator par excellence, Senator Nnamani brought intellectualism to governance and elevated the infrastructure of the Coal City state. He was the one that changed the political narrative in Enugu State when he introduced the Ebeano political family. That Ebeano family is now a movement that dictates the pace of politics in the state. Till date, the Ebeano political family produces successive state governors, senators, members of the House of Representatives, state assembly, local government chairmen and councillors. No one makes it in politics in Enugu if he or she is not a member of the Ebeano family.

The current situation unarguably needs an Nnamani that is intelligent, fortitude, savvy, urbane and properly educated to help navigate through the murky political waters of today.

Senator Nnamani is reputed for building the permanent structure of Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), the Nigerian Law School, Agbani, Air Force Secondary School and elevated the urban and rural roads in all parts of the state.

Interestingly, Atiku as the then Vice President commissioned many of the projects executed by Nnamani’s administration. So an Nnamani with Atiku will be the needed combination to fix Nigeria. Nnamani has the presence of mind, character, energy and intellect to add value to Atiku as presidential candidate.

He has a twin advantage of having cognate legislative and executive experiences which put him in a better stead ahead of his contemporaries. Like political analyst and Law lecturer, Dr. Sam Amadi puts it, Senator Nnamani is the right and proper person to hold the office of the vice president.

Besides, Enugu State unlike some states in the South-east has remained consistent and faithful with PDP since 1999. With local and international exposure, Nnamani is needed asset and a bridge between the old and the new.

Former Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim (Ebonyi State) and former Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives Emeaka Ihedioha (Imo State) are also being mentioned for the vice presidential slot to Atiku. They both have legislative experience but lack executive experience. Senator Nnamani has the twin advantage of legislative and executive experiences.

For 2023, the denial of South-east the vice president position will give credence to the claim that the region is being deliberately marginalised. If the forthcoming arrangement fails to accommodate South-east in terms of the vice presidential slot, the Igbo would have been out political arrangements for 16 years thus making it a total of 40 years out of political reckoning since 1999. No leader or nation would encourage or tolerate the exclusion of its component part.

This is why Atiku and the PDP should demonstrate responsible leadership by looking the way of the South-east for the vice presidential seat in 2023.