With 72 hours to the deadline for parties to substitute the names of their candidates for the 2023 elections, KUNLE ODEREMI examines the controversies over the choice of running mates by presidential candidates.
PERHAPS, one of the international figures with more than a passing interest in the affairs of Nigeria, is a former United States’ ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell. Since he left the country after serving in the country between May 12, 2004 and July 19, 2007, the erudite scholar has consistently expressed his deep concern about the despicable level of leadership with the dire consequences. Ironically, some of his interventions, which most times resonate with most Nigerians, are often perceived as persecutory by the powers-that-be. Yet, one of his books with the title: In Nigeria and the Nation-State, he succinctly captures the seemingly steady slip by the country years after it restored civil in 1999 due to the rapacious appetite of the elite that exploits weakness in institutional frameworks. Part of his convictions is that the Nigerian state is run by a small cartel of self-serving elites, creating religious and ethnic divisions.
As the dawn of the Buhari administration beckons the state of the nation remains precarious. The issue of insecurity of lives has almost blighted whatever the administration could rate as its record of achievements in other critical sectors. There are pointers that many of the challenges the administration inherited from the last administration could transferred to a new one after the 2023 general election, thus the genuine concern being expressed by a lot of Nigerians on the need for quality leadership in the next political dispensation.
With the emergence of the presidential candidates for the election has come the challenge of running mates. Controversies on the matter cut across the political parties, especially the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP). The widespread diverse views elicited largely on the choice of Senator Kashimi Shettima , as running mate by APC candidate, Senator Bola Tinubu and Ifeanyi Okowa, by the standard-bearer of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar notwithstanding, the trajectories of similar exercises in political engagements in the country are not devoid of intrigues across regional-, ethnic lines.
A chieftain of the PDP, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, was the Director of Organisation of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) founded by the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The party was regarded as the best organised in the history of Nigeria. The search for a running mate of Chief Awolowo was characterized by intense horse-trading prior to the 1979 general election. Babatope narrated the manner of intrigues that played out before the sage eventually settled for his running mate. He recalled way back in 2010: “Did you know that Papa Awolowo contacted some of his trusted friends in the North, requesting that one of them should come and be his running-mate but they turned him down? They rejected, especially those from the Hausa-Fulani clan. One of them, who was Papa’s good friend, Papa Yahaya Gusau, he told Awolowo that it would be meaningless for him to come and be a running-mate because people are not going to vote for us. Papa also contacted the late Ibrahim Tahir and Tahir said it was going to be difficult for him to team up with Papa. Papa then moved to the Middle-Belt states. He said he would love to pick one Chia Suma. But our UPN colleagues in the Middle-Belt states then advised Papa that if you pick Chia Suma, you would only be appealing to the Tiv people and for every 30 or so miles in the Middle-Belt region, you meet a completely new tribe with different tongues so that choice was never going to achieve anything. Papa then had to settle for the late Chief Phillip Umeadi from Anambra State and said ‘if you guys won’t team up with me, then I can pick any other person from the South’ and when he picked Umeadi, people came up again to say he made a mistake by picking an Igbo man but the reality was that that was what the circumstances demanded.”
Another instance with much hype over the choice of a running mate was recorded in the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN), which formed government at the centre in 1979. According to reports, a colourful politician from the South-East, the late Chief Kenneth Ozumba Mbadiwe was touted as the likely running mate of the presidential candidate of the party at the time, Alhaji Shehu Shagari. But the latter opted for Dr Alex Ekwueme who had earlier lost the governorship primary NPN to Chief C. C. Onoh. Ekwueme had just cut his teeth in politics. The scenario that characterized the choice of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in 1999 by General Olusegun Obasanjo was laced in high-tech politicking in PDP. The initial projection was that Obasanjo would choose a former governor of Kano State, the late Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, given his pedigree, especially in the North. But Obasanjo went for Atiku who was the governor-elect of Adamawa State.
There was also the assumption that a former governor of Rivers State, Dr Peter Odili was preferred choice of the late Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as running mate for the 2007 presidential pol. But that was not to be as Yar’Adua chose Dr Goodluck Jonathan as his preferred running mate. By a twist of fate, Jonathan became President and picked a former governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Namadi Sambo, as his vice president and later running mate in the 2011 poll. In 2019, Atiku picked Mr. Peter Obi as his running mate, in spite of the existence of a bloc of sitting PDP
There was much power play and tussle before Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was named as the running mate of Obasanjo after he won the ticket of PDP in 1999. It was not the first Atiku would go through such ‘crucible’ as he lost a similar slot to Ambassador Babagana Kingibe when the late Chief MKO Abiola picked the ticket of the then Social Democratic Party (SDP). The choice of the popular cleric, Pastor Tunde Bakare in 2011 by Buhari as his running mate came after wide consultations that were marked by intrigues and manoeuvers by other interest groups and blocs in the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Congress for Progressives Change (CPC).There was a lot of uproar when Atiku also chose Senator Ben Obi from the South-East as his running mate.
July 15 deadline
It is about 72 hours to the official deadline for the substitution of the names of candidates for the election. Under the electoral act, the parties have till July 15, 2022 to substitute the names they forwarded to trhe commission after the conduct of party primaries to pick candidates for the election. PDP and APC have named their running mates, just as the Labour Party has named Senator Ibrahim Datti-Ahmed. But Senator Kwankwaso is yet to unveil his running mate after the collapse of talks with Mr Peter Obi of the Labour party for a possible alliance reminiscent of the Olu Falae/Shinkaffi ticket.
New dynamics
There are new dynamics in the quest for political power in the country. The role of social media has upped the game, with various power blocs latching on to the different platforms to mobilize the prospective voters and galvanise the populace. Issues bordering on gender have also become stronger. Campaign for more female gender inclusion is on the rise, with many women groups as the arrowheads of the push.
Hitherto, some narratives, among, which was that other ethnic nationalities other than the one that produced the current national leadership should allow a paradigm shift subsisted until the outcome of the PDP presidential primary. The issue of Muslim-Muslim ticket by APC extended the debate over the clamour for inclusiveness. The sensitivity of a lot of Nigerians to issues bordering on faith now seems to surpass the era of 1993 that produced the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election in the country.
During the military era, the catchphrase was equal joiner; that every member had an equal stake in the military–midwived defunct SDP and the NRC. But in reality, that was not the case. A powerful force in the seat of power determined the fate of the party and even the main political gladiators therein. The slight difference after military exit from political power in 1999 is that a band of new power brokers emerged. They hold party organs by the jugular dictating the pace, shape and form of events based on the narrow interest of influential individuals or a clique, thus subsuming national goal.
According to some observers, there is undue attention being paid to the tickets of the PDP and the APC. To them, the trend erodes public confidence in the much-orchestrated not-too-young to run law, as a lot of young Nigerians who are interest in elective offices have chosen to seek the tickets of the two parties, instead of exploring and availing themselves of the vast opportunities in the other political parties determined to field candidates for the 2023 elections. Other pundits equally said the furore over the choice of running mate was a distraction since the fate of the parties and their candidates will ultimately be determined by the electorate.
Some experts said it is within the prerogative of the candidates to choose their running mates. To them, one of the major determining criteria is how to guarantee victory at the poll. A prominent leader and analysts, Dr Akin Fapounda shed light on the issue. He said: “The choice merely reveals the worldwide view and the workings of the inner mind of the candidate. but it is always about expediency and the quest to win. After the election is over, it is mostly regrets as the deputy was merely used as a stepping stone.”
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