For the past few weeks, Nigerians have had more than a sufficient dose of the toxin in power and ambition. Party primaries became warfare, as core power elite and aspirants seeking the tickets of the leading political parties turned venues of the intra-party poll to a theatre of war, with the attendant loss of lives and palpable tension.
Internal democracy and lobbying were substituted with Machiavellian antics and reign of impunity and terror, especially in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). With the October 7, 2018 deadline for the submission of the list of candidates to the Independent National electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2019 general election being today, the nation may have so far witnessed the Act One Scene One in the episodic buildup to the elections proper. What remains in the bowl of time is if it would be in the form of another disguised warfare.
Aggrieved political actors across the six geopolitical zones are not giving up over perceived high-handedness by the top echelon of the APC with some influential party elders, doing all they could to salvage “the situation.” Ironically, the ranks of those involved in subdued anger and frustration in the party are a couple of state governors whose preferred choices as likely successors or anointed candidates for other levels of Grade A contest had their individual ambitions torpedoed by powerful forces in Abuja. Even after the party on Friday unveiled a list of 24 governorship candidates, the dissonance resonated from Lagos to Kaduna, down to Imo, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Ogun, Zamfara and Bauchi states.
A terse statement by national publicity secretary of the party, Yekinni Nabena, was silent on the fate of those candidates whose emergence was still mired in controversy. Neither did the statement say anything on the skewed process that threw up a number of the names. It merely stated: “Following the Governorship Primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC) held across the country, the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) at its meeting held on Thursday, 4th October, 2018 ratified the reports of the various Electoral Committees and adopts the under-listed as governorship candidates of the APC for the forthcoming 2019 general elections.”
In the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC), among others, the story is not too different, as protests against the manner of primaries and alleged imposition continue to resonate across the states where the parties have the strongholds. From Gombe to Benue to Oyo, stories of aspirants threatening fire and brimstone over the primaries abound, with some even already defecting to other parties.
As the parties scramble to meet INEC’s deadline today, the question political observers ask what is the form and shape of the battle that has left blood tears and sorrow for the ordinary citizens across the states? How are the dramatis personae digging in and stoking the fire? And what is the shape of the things to come ahead of the general election?
Lagos: The scrambles in political parties
POLITICAL parties in Lagos State are no doubt scrambling to conduct primaries to pick their candidates for governorship, senatorial, House of Representatives and State House of Assembly seats ahead of the general elections holding across the country next year.
Already, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has finally produced its governorship candidate in person of Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who defeated the incumbent governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode in a direct primary conducted across the 245 wards in the state. Sanwo-Olu, a three-time commissioner in the state, polled 970,851, while Ambode got 72,901.
Similarly, the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has just concluded its governorship primary at its usual venue in Oregun area of the state where Jimi Agbaje emerged the party’s candidate.
The exercise, which commenced on Thursday at around noon, witnessing the turnout of delegates, and party faithful in thousands, posing a security challenge that made the huge crowd forced their way into the very strong iron gate leading to the venue, did not end until the late noon of Friday.
The Alliance for Democracy (AD) had days back held its own governorship primary at its secretariat on Ikorodu Road, where Mr Salis, who was the sole aspirant emerged as its standard-bearer. The party also produced alongside Salis, its candidates for senatorial, House Representatives and State House of Assembly elections.
Just on Wednesday, delegates of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) gathered at the National Stadium to elect Dr. Tokunbo Pearse as the party’s governorship candidate for the 2019 governorship election holding across the country. Both Salis and Pearse were former chieftains of Peoples Democratic Party before they moved over to their new parties.
But the APC primary in the state was not something that went without Ambode putting up a fight. It was indeed a battle of his life, but try as he did, together with his core of supporters; he failed to defeat his opponent, Sanwo-Olu who had the National Leader of APC, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, nearly all the party leaders in the state queued behind him for support.
Perhaps, at the final stretch of the race, the incumbent, who was seeking the APC ticket for his second term in office failed finally to realise his ambition, when the election panel set up by National Working Committee (NWC) headed by former Governor Clement Ebri took a reverse gear to sign the results of an exercise that it had earlier declared a nullity, because it was not held in line with the provisions and guidelines laid by the party’s constitution.
Earlier report said the APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhle, had met with President Muhammadu Buhari and told him that the primary held in Lagos was quite okay and could not be faulted, an established fact that both Buhari and Oshiomhle were on the same page that Ebri and members of his panel had no reason whatsoever not to approve and acknowledge the victory of Sanwo-Olu even though they were not on the field to monitor the exercise.
For some few weeks before the primary, Ambode had been having a running battle with leaders of the party, who had indicated their preference for Sanwo-Olu, accusing the governor of having abandoned them since he was elected and sworn-in despite all efforts they individually and collectively made towards his victory in the 2019 election.
Tinubu was said to have insisted on a replacement for Governor Ambode, who he later publicly accused, through a signed statement, of jettisoning the Lagos master plan developed over the years which he (Tinubu) and former Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola implemented to the letter while serving the state. Ambode was said to have jettisoned the master plan for his own plan that had allegedly made him derailed and the state the worse for it.
But the governor, who not a few Lagosians had thought would still have perished his thought to contest the party’s primary giving the fact that Tinubu, who singlehandedly imposed him on the party in 2015 had withdrawn his support, had since conceded defeat and congratulated Sanwo-Olu, promising to work for the party and Sanwo-Olu to ensure that he becomes next governor of Lagos.
Is Governor Ambode planning to defect to another party? Are the other aggrieved contestants on a party platform, whose senatorial and House of Representatives primaries have been turned to a serious battlefield where gunshots were reported flying and running helter-skelter for dear life planning to do the same?
Not a few people had felt that Governor Ambode was thinking along the same line, given the humiliation he was said to have gone through despite begging Tinubu and sending his governor-colleagues, among others, on same mission that he be forgiven.
Political pundits had even reasoned that the main opposition party in Lagos, the PDP, had continued to push forward its own governorship primary, which it eventually embarked upon on Thursday simply because it had expected Ambode to come on board and be handed over the PDP ticket. It is clear and it is something that has been published by some national dailies that both the PDP and the Action Democratic Congress (ADC) wanted Ambode to come over to the folds but that is not to be, as the governor made it pointedly clear in his statewide broadcast to the people of Lagos that he remained a member of APC and nothing would make him abandon the APC ship.
The conundrum ahead of 2019 general elections in Delta State
WHAT lies ahead of Delta State in the coming 2019 general elections could be described as ominous. A lot of shenanigans have trailed the major political parties’ primaries that held last week in the state, amid much generated disaffection and bad blood. It’s convenient to state, therefore, that the battle lines among political gladiators in Delta State especially in opposition APC are drawn.
Governorship primaries
Incumbent governor of the state, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa of the PDP emerged unopposed at the party’s primary held at the Cenotaph in Asaba last Sunday. His emergence was more of an affirmation than a contest. The PDP enjoys a gentleman agreement of governorship rotation among the three senatorial districts in the state and the office is being currently occupied by Delta North with a view to completing its eight-year tenure like Delta South and Delta Central did. Okowa’s major fears now could be how to come tops against the APC whose gladiators are on each other’s throats.
Delta APC has continued to enmesh itself in a perpetual journey of self-destruct. Like the May 2018 congresses in the state, two different governorship primaries had held in Asaba within the week. Erudite political economist, Professor Pat Utomi reportedly emerged candidate of the Chief Cyril Ogodo-led faction which could be said to enjoy a legal backing, having been properly constituted by the outgone Chief John Oyegun National Working Committee (NWC), but waved aside by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole after his inauguration.
Oshiomhole threw his weight behind the Prophet Jones Erue-led faction which, at its own parallel governorship primary in Asaba, came up with the people’s general, Chief Great Ogboru as governorship candidate amid disenchantments from his opponents, Prof Pat Utomi, Chief Cairo Ojougboh and Hon. Victor Ochei, who accused the State Working Committee of the faction of refusing to adhere to the provisions guiding the process such as making available and public the delegates’ list before the primaries.
Midnight of Monday before voting commenced, some shootings reportedly rocked the Federal College of Education (Technical) where the Prophet Erue-led faction’s governorship primary held and reports added that Ochei was allegedly bundled out of the venue by security operatives for vehemently opposing the grand plot to skew the candidacy in favour of Ogboru by the power that be.
The sustained intrigues that ousted the trio of Utomi, Ojougboh and Ochei have culminated in threats emanating from them to the effect that they would rock the boat of the APC in the 2019 general elections except the infractions were redressed.
Ochei, a former speaker of the state’s House of Assembly under the PDP, has vowed that his party, APC, would pay dearly for undermining the feelings of the Anioma people who believe, like other districts, that they deserve a second term instead of Ogboru, an Urhobo, whose ethnic stock had had eight-year tenure through James Ibori.
Utomi, on his part, has threatened to resign his membership of the APC if the party’s NWC led by Comrade Oshiomhole fails to attend fairly to his petitions. He declared that there was no APC governorship primary and will further take his complaints to the party’s leadership in Abuja, after which if nothing happens, “I will quietly resign my membership of the party.”
The former presidential candidate, however, dissociated himself from the primary held by the Ogodo faction of the party, which proclaimed him the party’s governorship candidate in absentia for the 2019 general elections.
“I was not in the place; I did not even know there was such until Monday morning when I was told the outcome,” he enthused.
It was, however, gathered that Chief Ojougboh might have accepted the decision of the party to feature Ogboru as the APC governorship candidate amid the myriad protestations.
With the stage set for the battle royal, Ogboru’s candidacy may not augur well for APC Delta North given the reality that it is their legitimate right, too, to have a shot at the governorship seat twice like their counterparts, hence Chief Ojougboh’s campaign slogan of seeking only a four-year-term if he emerged APC candidate and then governor in 2019.
Again, less tension greeted the PDP Senatorial primaries across the three districts. As of Tuesday, four-term Senator, James Manager, coasted home victory to defeat his top contender, Chief Michael Diden at the Delta South Senatorial District primary held at Oleh. Ditto incumbent Senator Peter Nwaoboshi who defeated his opponents at the Delta North Senatorial district primary that also held in Asaba. Peter Nwaoboshi polled 506 votes, to beat Paul Osaji, who scored 216 and Ned Nwoko, a former member of House of Reps who polled 453 votes.
In the PDP Delta Central Senatorial district primary, incumbent member of the House of Representatives, Chief Evelyn Oboro defeated ousted Senator Ighoyota Amori and others at the Senatorial primary that held at Sapele Township Stadium in Sapele. Oboro polled 586 votes of the total of 1,008 while Amori, his closest contender, grabbed 486 and Chief Ufuoma Obule, scored 06 votes. The exercise was described as a battle for the highest bidder, just as defeated Chief Amori was alleged to have collapsed and consequently rushed to an undisclosed hospital after the announcement of the result.
But Oboro has either of APC’s Chief O’tega Emerhor and incumbent Senator Ovie Omo-Agege to contend with at the general poll. Emerhor and Omo-Agege of the Ogodo and Erue-led Delta APC factions respectively emerged from the unstable APC Delta Central Senatorial district primary that held on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday October 2 was billed for the primary, but Delta Central had two venues for the exercise.
The Ogodo-led Delta APC had theirs with Emerhor polling 2, 492 votes against Omo-Agege who scored only four votes in absentia. At about 4:00p.m when Emerhor was declared as candidate in the Ughelli venue of the exercise, a purported online circular had emerged from the NWC of the party effecting a postponement of the exercise across the country. As of this time, the Prophet Erue-led faction, having been in the know of the postponement, delayed its delegates to the following morning of October 3 when the primary was held and Omo-Agege declared winner with 2, 360 votes over Emerhor who, in absentia too, scored zero vote.
The Emerhor camp seems to be depending on the court injunction restraining APC National Chairman, Comrade Oshiomhole, shortly after his emergence, from recognizing the Prophet Erue/Omo-Agege led faction as the authentic state executive which he disobeyed. It will be recalled that the Ogodo/Emerhor-led state executive was the duly inaugurated APC Delta executive by the Chief Oyegun NWC after the May 2018 state congress.
Amid the two APC factions spoiling for further showdown after their disgraceful outing at the National convention of the party at the Eagle Square in Abuja, Political pundits believe that if the case is not fairly and swiftly resolved, a major crisis as well as serial defeats might be in the offing at the coming polls.
A school of thought is, however, of the opinion that the APC issue might go the way of Omeha versus Amaechi in Rivers State where the latter was voted for but uprooted by the former as governor after a dramatic judicial proclamation. APC Delta Central has been described as the troubler of the Delta APC family by Air Vice Marshal Terry Okororudu, a Delta South Senatorial aspirant, during a chat with journalists.
AVM Okororudu, Chief Michael Johnny and immediate past Governor of Delta State, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan and two others were the top shots for the Delta South Senatorial District ticket. Although Dr Uduaghan was on Wednesday at the Civic Centre, Oleh in Isoko South Local Government Area, affirmed as sole candidate of the district under APC, tongues are already wagging over his manner of emergence. Delegates for the primary were reportedly gathered in their number at the venue on Tuesday October 2, from 9:00a.m only to be told that the primary had been shifted to Wednesday, the following day. Interestingly, however, Delta South Senatorial District has no record of factions holding parallel primaries at different venues, but other aspirants who were to slug it out with the former Governor Uduaghan were reportedly screened out by the NWC during the screening exercise. The result of the development was the affirmation of Dr Uduaghan as the unopposed candidate of the party at exactly 4:00p.m on Wednesday at the Civic Centre, Oleh by a reportedly detailed member of the NWC-appointed Returning Officer, Rtd General Lawrence Onoja-led panel.
As of Thursday, one of the aggrieved aspirants, Okororudu (retd), while speaking with journalists in Warri, declared that there was no senatorial primary in Delta South at Oleh on Wednesday. The embittered officer appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and Comrade Oshiomhole to swiftly intervene in the purported outcome of the purported Delta South Senatorial primary that, he maintained, did not hold.
From all indications, there’s no doubt the fact that all aggrieved PDP and APC aspirants who purportedly lost out in the governorship, Senatorial and House of Reps primaries will not lie low ahead of the general election without taking their own pound of flesh as the case may be unless acceptable bargainings prevail. And unless with the promised intervention of Dr Uduaghan who’s also saddled with his own challenges, to unite the party members, the APC is obviously heading for the rocks in the state barring last minute compromises and the federal Might factor.
Will the Gombe PDP go up in flames?
While reacting to the outcome of the governorship primary election of the PDP where he was defeated along with 11 others by Senator Usman Bayero Nafada, Gwamna said that the primary was a daylight robbery and described the exercise as a charade, alleging that the voting was carried out by delinquents and not delegates. He vowed that he and his supporters will henceforth work for President Muhammadu Buhari’s return in the 2019 general election.
While the aspirants were angry over alleged manipulation of the party’s primary election, which they alleged favoured Nafada, it is also speculated that most of the executive members were not comfortable with his emergence as the party’s candidate.
Another pointer to this fact was that apart from the state chairman of the party and the organising secretary, all other executives as well as five of the contestants were absent at the primary, because it was alleged that most of the state executives had presented their resignation letters, which the governor rejected.
With these developments, there is high possibility of mass defections of PDP members to other parties in protest to the outcome of the exercise, a development that may signal the end of the reign of the party in Gombe State.
As it is now, unless urgent steps are taken to amicably resolve the issue, the PDP which has been ruling the state since 2003, may be on the way out of power considering the fact that most of those aggrieved with the outcome of the primary might find alternative means of reaching their targets.
As for the APC, the primaries went on well and Inuwa Yahaya, who was the party’s gubernatorial candidate in 2015 once again emerged winner and is set to fly the party’s flag as gubernatorial candidate in 2019.
… and Bauchi APC crisis deepens
HOW the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bauchi State will resolve the crisis that greeted its governorship election will remain a key issue even after today’s deadline for the conduct of primaries. Three of the governorship aspirants of the party in the state, Professor Mohammed Ali Pate, Dr Ibrahim Yakubu Lame and Captain Muhammad Bala Jibrin had jointly rejected the primary election purportedly held in the state last Monday.
While addressing journalists jointly at the Secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Bauchi, the three aspirants alleged that the exercise was marred by irregularities such as late arrival of electoral committee members that were supposed to be in the state on Sunday to conduct the election thereby postponing it to Monday.
They also alleged that election materials were also distributed to local governments late evening ‘making it impossible for the election to hold in many centres’ just as they alleged that one of their supporters was shot dead and another one sustained injuries as a result of gun shot at some voting centres by security operatives.
It would be recalled that after series of controversies that trailed the conduct of the state APC gubernatorial primaries, the incumbent governor of the state, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar emerged winner of the exercise.
The National Working Committee of the party had gone ahead to include the governor’s name in the list of those already cleared to fly the flag of the party in the 2019 governorship election in the state.
But observers of events in the state have noted that unless a last minute effort is instituted to contain the situation, things might have fallen apart in the ruling APC, which had for over two years been enmeshed in one crisis or the other.
As for the opposition PDP, former Minister of the FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed emerged as the party’s governorship candidate at the end of the primary election.
Bala Mohammed polled a total of 1,335 votes to defeat his closest contender and former Senate Leader, Abdul Ahmed Ningi, who polled a total of 802 votes while the third contender, Senator Adamu Ibrahim Gumba polled 15 votes.
Election guber primaries in Imo
THE crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Imo State continued with its governorship primary, where two primary election results were given to newsmen in Owerri, the capital of the state following the conduct of the exercise on Tuesday.
Hardly had the secretary of the governorship primary election committee, Henry Idahagbon announced his own version of the result at the party secretariat in Owerri than the state deputy governor, Prince Eze Madumere, brandished a different result signed by the Returning Officer of the election committee, Senator Ahmed Gulak.
In the result sheets that was made available to newsmen, Idahagbon declared Uche Nwosu, Okorocha’s son in-law as the winner of the party’s primaries, having according to him, scored 455,655 votes to beat his arch rival, Senator Hope Uzodinma, who he said pulled a total of 9,159 votes.
According to Idahagbon, Madumere scored 5,067 votes; Jude Ejiogu had 2,197 votes; George Eche 638 votes; Chima Anozie 595; Air Commander Peter Gbujie (retd) had 9,351; Chris Nlemoha had 556 votes, while Chuks Ololo had 700 votes.
However, what would have been a degeneration of the crisis was forestalled by the national leadership of the APC, which cancelled the results of Tuesday primary elections, which had produced two governorship candidates in Uzodinma and Nwosu.
Meanwhile, the election to produce one candidate of the party is going on now in various wards of the state as of the time of filing this report, with the result of the primaries expected today. But will the APC get it right this time?
In the PDP, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha emerged as the governorship candidate of the party in the primary election held in the state.
The battle for Benue
IN Benue, the battle for the 2019 general election has started in earnest following the conduct of the primaries of the political parties.
For the governorship election, the battle is between the incumbent governor, Samuel Ortom and the APC candidate, Emmanuel Jime.
The governorship election will surely assume an interesting dimension due to the crisis between Governor Ortom and his estranged political godfather, Senator George Akume, with the duo having vowed to use the coming election as a platform not only to show their strengths but also to retire each other from politics.
Though the APC candidate, Jime had remained mute in the face of attacks and counter-attacks being exchanged by the gladiators but the battle that lies ahead for the soul of Benue in 2015 will be tough.
Former governor of the state, Gabriel Suswam will renew the battle with Senator Barnabas Gemade and a tax amazon, Mini Orubibi.
The duo had engaged in the superiority battle in 2015, which made the former national chairman of PDP, Gemade to abandon the party and pitch tent with the APC where he picked the ticket and subsequently defeated Suswam.
For Benue North-East senatorial district, the battle will, therefore, be between Suswam, a PDP candidate, Gemade, who is an SDP candidate and Mrs Orubibi, the APC senatorial candidate.
Senator Akume might be having more battles to contend with; while he is fighting to repeat the victory of 2015 for his party by ensuring that the party’s governorship candidate wins the election, his senatorial ambition will be facing a real threat with a serving member of the House of Representatives, Orker Jev, having secured the PDP ticket.
In Benue South senatorial district, PDP may have a serious battle to contend with following the crisis that trailed the senatorial primary. Delegates from three of the zones; Okpokwu, Otukpo and Ohimini local government areas were allegedly disenfranchised, which led to the emergence of a greenhorn in politics, Ojobo to clinch the ticket against the old breed politicians; former minister Abba Moro and Chief Mike Onoja. Except a serious step is taking, the zone known with the PDP may lose to the APC where former deputy governor of the state, Chief Steven Lawani will display his might.
2019: As the battle for Enugu’s soul begins
IN Enugu State, the battle line has been drawn between political office seekers ahead of 2019 general elections following the emergence of governorship and National Assembly candidates in some of the major political parties in the state.
From the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stable, the incumbent governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi emerged as gubernatorial candidate, while in the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ayogu Eze was elected as its standard bearer for the governorship election. The United Democratic Party (UDP) has as its candidate Pastor Donatus Ozoemena.
But the battle for the soul of the Coal City State in 2019 will be between the candidates of the PDP and APC.
Unlike in the past, however, the forthcoming elections, analysts have noted, will be on personalities rather than political parties or sectional interests, as both Ugwuanyi and Eze hailed from the same Enugu North Senatorial District.
With the emergence of former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani and the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu as candidates for Enugu East and Enugu West Senatorial Districts respectively, the political tension in the state seems to have reduced, as many see the development as a boost to Governor Ugwuanyi’s re-election bid.
Senator Ekweremadu defeated Chief OAU Onyema, Oscar Egwuonwu, Uche Onyekwelu, and Isaac Uka to win at the primary held at Awgu, headquarters of Awgu Local Government Area of the State, polling 690 votes while Uka had 84 votes, Onyema scored 61 votes Onyekwelu had 22 votes. .
The victory of Senator Chukwuka Utazi as the Enugu-North Senatorial candidate of the PDP, observers note, would also further brighten the chance of Ugwuanyi’s return to the Government House in 2019.
Utazi was the sole candidate for the party for the 2019 senatorial election with 1,065 yes votes.
For the Enugu-East Senatorial District, the larger than life image built around Ex-governor Nnamani played out as he won the senatorial poll even while he was far away in the United States of America.
Though the PDP governorship primary was hitch-free, same could not be said of the APC primary, which was characterised by hiccups leading to cancellation of its first primary held at the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus stadium where the party used the indirect mode.
As it is, three aspirants are laying claim to having been elected by the APC to contest the gubernatorial poll in 2019; they are Senator Ayogu Eze, George Ogara and Ifeanyi Nwoga.
and then