It was revealed at the weekend that though some key parties in the coalition are announcing fees for presidential nomination forms and dates for national convention, a common candidate would emerge from the CUPP at the end of the day.
Investigations revealed that the coalition expects that not more than five presidential candidates will emerge from the parties after their various primaries.
It was also revealed that a coalition of elders, stakeholders, former leaders, as well as northern, southern and Middle Belt leaders would eventually determine the most suitable candidate among the five.
It was gathered that an undertaking of willingness to step down for the final candidate of the coalition is being circulated among the parties to ensure a smooth sail for the eventual candidate.
Though the presidential convention of the PDP is coming a day to the final deadline given by INEC, a source said that the issues revolving around the CUPP arrangement are being addressed alongside the nominations.
“The MOU that bred the CUPP is still very much alive,” a leader of one of the coalition parties told the Sunday Tribune, adding that the eventual candidate would emerge after assessment by the committee of elders, former leaders, as well as members of the Northern Elders Forum(NEF) and the Southern and Middle Belt Elders Forum, who have now formed a united group known as Southern Northern and Middle Belt Elders Forum. The group also includes the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), led by elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark.
Sources further told the Sunday Tribune that the CUPP expects that all the parties would not present more than five candidates at the end of the day and that the process would be made easy for the committee of elders to sift through.
“We expect that if we don’t have more than five candidates, it would be easy to flip through the documents and determine the strongest candidate of all.
“We know that it would be the best option to go into the polls with this coalition and we are all working as a unit “ the elder statesman, who spoke on the issues, said.
He also said that all arrangements are being fine-tuned to meet the deadline given by the electoral commission for emergence of candidates.
It was, however, gathered that some bad blood had crept into the mix of the SDP following the entry of former Cross Rivers State governor, Donald Duke into the presidential race in the platform of the SDP.
A source close to the party said that some of the aspirants were if the view that Duke was being planted into the SDP to lock down the presidential ticket and deny some of the older party men the ticket.
The source quoted one of the aspirants as saying that some of the party men have the feeling that Duke was being heavily mobilised by some forces who knew that the South-South cannot be favoured for the CUPP ticket adding that the idea was to ensure the ticket did not go to any of the Northern candidates in the SDP race.
One of the sources, who spoke in confidence, said: “Everyone knows that the North is highly favoured for the SDP ticket and the PDP is also looking towards the North. The North-Central has a good showing in the SDP, but some forces who are planning to deny the Middle Belt if that ticket are apparently pushing the South-South person just to lock down the ticket with more financial power.”
But the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, allayed fears on the CUPP arrangement on Saturday, saying that the leaders were working out the details that would ensure the coalition fields a single candidate.
“All I can tell you is that the coalition will field a single candidate for the 2019 elections. The parties are working very much on that,” he said.
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