Tempers are high as convention begins to choose Nigeria presidential candidate

Tempers are high as convention begins to choose Nigeria presidential candidate

Key players in the Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) seem not to be united on the mechanism of electing a presidential candidate of the party for the 2023 general election.

There are indications that tempers are high because whoever emerges from 13 remnant aspirants will lead the party into next February’s election against Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition party. 10 aspirants have been disqualified.

The Nigerian law does not allow one person to rule more than two tenures of 4 years each. Therefore, President Muhammadu Buhari is not allowed to stand after serving two terms of office.

More than 2000 delegates are expected to vote, according to earlier information from the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The convention comes a day after gunmen killed dozens of worshippers in the south-western Ondo state. The attack at the St Francis Catholic church in the town of Owo highlights the worsening insecurity under the APC, which Nigeria’s next president will have to confront.

That, high unemployment and rising inflation are expected to be the main election issues.

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President Ahmed Lawan, former Lagos governor Bola Tinubu and Rotimi Amaechi, until recently a transport minister, are the favourites to be chosen as the APC candidate.

The APC emerged as a coalition of major political parties from northern and western Nigeria in 2013 and managed to seize power from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015.

The party was re-elected into power four years later and has since consolidated its reach across Nigeria, winning several local parliamentary seats and taking onboard defecting governors in southern Nigeria.

Some senior party members, including President Buhari, have been pushing for a consensus candidate to avoid a vote at the convention that might split the party.

Mr Buhari told the party’s governors last week that he expected “reciprocity” from them at the convention in choosing his successor, which many have interpreted as his desire to impose a candidate on the party.

Powerful northern APC governors last week said they supported a southern candidate to succeed Mr Buhari, who is a northerner, in continuation of a controversial agreement to alternate power between northern and southern Nigeria.

The PDP National Convention in December 2017 produced Uche Secondus as National Chairman

PDP Defends National Convention

Former Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo took a swipe at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), saying the party is not an alternative to the failing ruling party, the All Progressive Congress.

Obasanjo in his missive to President Muhammadu Buhari said the PDP procured a judgement that facilitated its National Convention from the Supreme Court.

But the party called itself the true coalition of Nigerians.

The statement read: “ The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said it represents the true coalition of Nigerians from across the country adding that its experience in governance and successful rebound from challenges has provided it an edge over every other existing or intended political platforms in Nigeria.

This is just as the party said it did not procure judgment from the Supreme Court contrary to the unsubstantiated claims made by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in his letter advising President Muhammadu Buhari not to seek re-election in 2019.

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement on Wednesday, said Obasanjo’s claim on procurement of judgement amounts to an ill-intended attempt to impugn on the integrity of the Supreme Court, particularly when such a claim is false and not predicated on any empirical proof.

The party said that the ruling of the Supreme Court, which ended the protracted internal feud within its fold, rather than detract, reinforced the confidence of Nigerians in the PDP as the platform that truly embodies the resilience of a genuine democratic process in the face of daunting challenges.

It further said that even the worst critics of PDP concede that the judgment of the Supreme Court, was unprejudiced, uninfluenced and determined completely on merit, for which it was applauded in Nigeria and across the world.

Also, the conduct of our December 2017 elective National Convention in a transparent, free and fair manner and where nobody was ‘kingmaker,’ denotes the democratic credential of the repositioned PDP to deliver credible primaries that would yield a presidential candidate Nigerians desire.

Stressing that there is an extensive dissimilarity between it and the All Progressives Congress (APC), the PDP noted that while it remains nationally populist and development-driven, the APC by orientation and composure is arrogant, inept and anti-people, hence the nationwide detestation against it.

It said unlike the APC, where a very few individuals from within a circle control the instrument of power and governance, the PDP said it remains that egalitarian platform where all Nigerians are free to express themselves, politically engage and freely aspire for any office without regard to divisive considerations.

PDP National Convention Takes Place Today

Political Convention that’ll Shape Nigeria Takes Place Today

Today’s National convention of the opposition party in Nigeria, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is significant in all respects to political spectrum of the country.

A local newspaper, Vanguard, reports that the purpose of the convention is to elect new members of the National Working Committee (NWC) that will pilot the affairs of the party for the next four years.

“It is also expected to ratify amendments to the party constitution. Chairman, Convention Planning Committee and Delta State governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa arrived the Eagle Square at exactly 8: 32 AM, an indication the exercise will kick off in the next few hours. Another early arrival is the immediate past governor of Niger State, Dr. Babangida Aliyu”

This is the convention that will determine whether there will change of government in Nigeria come 2019 or that the status quo ante will be maintained.

The PDP, although lost power to the All Progressive Congress (APC) in 2015 remains the largest political party in Nigeria and perhaps in Africa.  The party may have lost power due to some negligence to internal democratic process.

Having gone through the ‘political wilderness’, occasioned by the negligence, the PDP is putting this convention together, hoping to correct the mistakes of the past.

The country will await the outcome of today’s political event. If it goes well, good for the country, if the convention goes wrong, then people will hope and pray.

The ruling party, APC, has barely governed without any opposition party checkmating it. But for 16 years, the APC was fit for an opposition party. The party was stoically critical of every step of ruling PDP, a strategy that overtime weakened the party’s hold on power.

The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, who was the APC National Publicity Secretary is believed to be a propagandist. Lai Mohammed deployed all skills and experiences in government opposition and propaganda to chase the PDP out of power in 2015.

PDP Publicity Secretary, Adeyeye announced Sabotage of Convention

Familiar Ghost Trails PDP as Party Uncovers Sabotage of Convention

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said it has uncovered plot by party members to hold parallel Convention on December 9th.

The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Dayo Adeyeye in a statement said the plot was uncalled for and unpatriotic.

“The National Caretaker Committee has uncovered plans by some unscrupulous members of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to hold a parallel National Convention in December 9, 2017. This is totally uncalled for and a complete act of sabotage. Those making such plans cannot be said to be honest members of our party, the PDP. They are not patriotic but just out to destroy our party.

“The National Caretaker Committee has been working very hard to carry all party members and supporters of the party along in all the preparations for the forthcoming National Convention holding in December 9 – 10, 2017. We are also putting our resources in place to address all the fears earlier reported by some National Chairmanship Aspirants. One of the steps taken by the leadership is to make available and in good time, the comprehensive names of all the Delegates for the National Convention to all the Aspirants before the Convention. We therefore see no reason for any honest member of this great party to want to disrupt our programmes, except they are of course working for the ruling party, the All Progressive Congress (APC).

“We are not completely oblivious of the plans by the APC to sabotage our convention. Apart from the internal fighting within the APC, one of the reasons why the party postponed its National Convention to next year was to enable it to monitor closely our convention with a view to destabilizing our party ahead of the 2019 General Elections. The planned parallel Convention is one of those ideas of the APC to create divisions amongst members of our party. It will be most unfortunate for members of our party to allow themselves to be used against the party especially in the light of our recent painful experience.

“The National Caretaker Committee is willing and ready to address all the concerns of our party members regarding the forthcoming National Convention. Members should take advantage of our open door policy to ventilate their opinions, concerns and grievances. We will not give room to anybody to find any excuse to sabotage the convention. We realize of course that there is little we can do to dissuade those who have decided to become paid agents of the ruling party.

“Part of the agenda of the APC to sabotage our convention and destabilize our party is the arrest of leaders of our party on trump-up charges of corruption. We had cried out a few weeks ago that there was a list of about fifty (50) top leaders of our party earmarked by the ruling party for arrest and incarceration. The APC propagandists said we were crying wolf. Now we’re being vindicated by the continuing and unrelenting arrest, intimidation and harassment of our top leaders.

“In the last one week, the former Governor of Taraba State, Mr. Abubakar Danladi and the former Senate President and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, two prominent members of our party were arrested by the anti-graft agency, the EFCC. This is apart from the five that were earlier arrested within the month of November. We don’t know who will be next in the list.

“These are all part of the agenda of the APC to create an atmosphere of fear and insecurity around PDP members before and after the National Convention. It is also part of the overall strategy of the ruling party to turn Nigeria into a one Party state.

“We once again call on Nigerians and members of the international community to be vigilant to ensure that the APC does not institute full blown dictatorship in the country. The only reason why the APC is hell bent on killing the opposition in Nigeria is due to its non-performance and inability to deliver on its campaign promises. They have failed Nigerians and they know too well that they can no longer convince Nigerians to vote for them again in 2019.

“We want to assure members of our party nationwide that, the leadership of the party led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, CON, will provide an enabling environment and a level playing field for all those contesting for one position or the other before and after the National Convention. We pledged to ensure a transparent, free and fair election and by the grace of God we are going to conduct the most democratic election in the history of any political party in Nigeria.
God bless the PDP! God bless Nigeria!!”, the party said.