2023 presidential race: PDP’s early birds

As a few aspirants have declared their interest in the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and others are biding their time, LEON USIGBE looks at the state of play in the race to become the flag bearer of the main opposition party.

Nigeria on the march again, on the march again, looking for Mr. President. Late M.K.O. Abiola, made this phrase a household refrain in 1993 when he seized the political space with his message of “Hope.” He won the election but never realised his ambition to be president because of some never-to-be-disclosed intervening factors contrived by President Ibrahim Babangida and his military junta.  About 30 years later, Nigerians are on the march again, looking for Mr President who will, from 2023, inspire in them the kind of hope represented by the late winner of the 1993 polls.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is yet to blow the whistle to signal the commencement of the 2023 campaigns but that does not seem to bother some politicians across political parties who have, in the last couple of weeks especially, thrown their hats into the ring. They are the early birds, rising and acting before the expected time.

In the PDP, several names are being bandied about, including that of the perennial contestant and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar; Governors Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto), NyesomWike (Rivers), Bala Mohammed (Bauchi); former Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido, and Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso. Even though these party chieftains are yet to officially begun the pursuit of their 2023 ambitions, their support groups are actively campaigning on their behalf. Governor Mohammed recently appealed to his supporters applying pressure on him to grant him a few more weeks grace to complete his consultations with elders before any formal announcement.

Former presidential spokesperson, Dr Doyin Okupe; former president of the Senate, Ayim Pius Ayim; magazine publisher and newspaper columnist, Dele Momodu and renowned pharmacist, Sam Ohuanbunwa, have officially joined the race for the presidential ticket of the PDP.

 

Doyin Okupe

Okupe was the first to openly admit his ambition to rule the country on the party’s platform, making his announcement as far back as October 2021 with a promise to prioritize the needs of the poor if he is elected. “I believe I have the knowledge, the requisite national political experience and intellectual capacity and wisdom to halt the social and economic decadence, insecurity and pervasive poverty that has nearly made living meaningless in Nigeria. I want to run a government which for the first time will make the life, wellbeing and safety of lives and properties especially of the poor and needy a major priority,” he said.

Okupe announced a social contract titled, “My covenant with God and Nigerians,” with a seven-point agenda, which includes “Reset, heal and reunite the nation; make the poor and needy the priority of government; end insecurity in two years; and increase revenue base with massive agricultural drive.” He also pledged to increase electricity generation to 30,000 megawatts in three years; drastically reduce youth unemployment and re-engineer, revamp the national economy, while disclosing his intention to radically change and overhaul the budgeting process to be people oriented as against what he sees as “the fraudulent budgets we have run year in year out for the last 60 odd years.”

 

Ayim Pius Ayim

Ayim has started a push to get the endorsement of stakeholders to contest the election, hoping that the position will be zoned to his southeast region. The former Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF) is encouraged by the support he got recently from political leaders drawn from Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states, who threw their weights behind him after taking “due cognizance of his previous record of distinguished and unblemished service as President of the Senate and Secretary to the Government of the Federation.”

He is upbeat and believes that if he gets the mandate, he will provide effective and efficient management of the nation’s diversity based on equity, justice, fairness, and inclusiveness. His argument: “I have been privileged to understand our national problems and appreciate their enormity and peculiarities in the last 21 years from my vantage positions in both the legislative and the executive arms of government. Therefore, I have a clear view of the task ahead as well as the solutions needed to advance the cause of our country. My records as President of the Senate and as Secretary to the Government of the Federation clearly show that I am more interested in building strong institutions than seeking enhancement of personal power or position. My records show effective and efficient management of the nation’s diversity on the basis of equity, justice, fairness and inclusiveness. I am a committed believer in the rule of law; and will always promote and protect the sanctity of lives as well as the rights and liberties of all citizens. My decision is a product of some years of prayers, reflections and introspection on not just my capacity and preparedness to take on the task ahead, but also deep thoughts on our national challenges and the solutions they demand.”

 

Dele Momodu

Momodu has met with the national leadership of the main opposition party to apprise them of his decision to vie for its ticket in his belief that he represents the best hope for Nigeria as envisioned by the late Abiola. He told the PDP national chair, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, during his recent visit to the national secretariat of the PDP: “It is very obvious that Nigerians are eager to restore that promise of hope and the accompanying peace and joy that we lost. The time has come for full reconciliation and forgiveness and a closure of our ugly past. Nigeria urgently requires a reset and a total redirection…I therefore offer myself to the PDP as the best aspirant to turn the fortunes of our esteemed Party and our well-endowed country around.” He expressed his conviction that the time has come to seriously challenge and dislodge those politicians who, he observed, have held Nigeria to ransom by kidnapping, hijacking, and destroying the future of the younger generation and generations yet unborn.

“I’m proud to follow in the best traditions of my heroic mentor, Chief MoshoodAbiola, who had wanted to banish poverty in our land, but was disastrously disallowed from achieving this laudable objective. Nigeria has paid heavy price and penalty in the last 29 years and suffered untold agony and indignity as result of that tragic misadventure,” he noted, adding: “Nigeria deserves much better than where we are now, and my appeal to fellow Nigerians is that we should collectively rescue our dear country from the suffocating claws of slave masters, overlords, and tyrants, vociferously and vehemently reject any suggestion that Nigeria should continue to tread this dangerous path. The die cast, and we must regain and take back our country.”

 

Sam Ohuanbunwa

Another politician that has stormed out of the block is Ohuanbunwa who recently made a case to the PDP that he is the best suited aspirant to lead the party back to power and rescue the country, which he observed, has been disorganized from the vision of its founding fathers. “I am coming to lay the foundation for proper unity of our nation to create a level playing ground where every child born in every part of this country will have the same opportunity as the other child to achieve his potential the way it happens the United States of America,” he said, adding: “This office of president is a serious office. You must have experience in managing many things at the same time. It is not to take six months to forming your cabinet, take six months to plan how you are going to work. I have the experience I’ve been trained.” “We need to think about our government. So, we need to think government as business whereby we have a contract with the citizens,” Ohuanbunwa admonished.

The next weeks and months ahead will bring clarity to the direction the PDP will go in the run up to the 2023 presidential election particularly its position on whether to zone the ticket or allow a free rein of aspirants across board. The likelihood of more aspirants making formal declaration for the contest is high, but these early birds are confident of their chances of emerging the flag bearer of the main opposition party in the crunch poll. Judging by Ayu’s remark when he hosted Momodu, the aspirants can at least look forward to a fair contest when the time arrives.

“There will be a level playing field for all candidates. We do not have any special candidate; we do not have a preferred candidate. It is the party members who will decide and if at the end of the day, the party members vote for you that you are the one they want, we will queue behind you,” the party boss had promised.