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Tag: Ehichioya Ezomon

  • 2023 countdown (2): Obasanjo turns Tinubu into frenzy – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    2023 countdown (2): Obasanjo turns Tinubu into frenzy – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    In his self-appointed role as the conscience and guardian of Nigeria, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has always inserted himself into the electoral process, in order to influence its outcome.

    But in doing so in the lead-up to the 2023 General Election, Obasanjo may’ve got more than he bargained for, especially as he’d side-punched the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    Rather than garlands for the January 1 (New Year Day) gesture to Obi, Obasanjo’s received criticism and condemnation for penning a letter, highlighting the ills of the society and the way out of the woods.

    The Obasanjo choice mimicks a similar Christmas Day “gift” to Obi by Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom, who’s also supported Obasanjo’s endorsement of Obi and urged Nigerians to vote the Obi-Datti ticket on February 25.

    The Obi adoption was long speculated, gleaned from Obasanjo’s several interactions with him lately, his utterances and undisguised body language.

    But the actual announcement of his total backing for Obi was a bombshell that’s unreceptive in the Presidential Campaign Councils of three other major political parties: the APC, Peoples Democratic Party and the Nigeria Peoples Party.

    Needless to recount most of what Obasanjo said in his viral adoption and recommendation of the candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and his running mate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, to vote for next month.

    Obasanjo’s specifics on electing a doer president is contained in the letter, “My appeal to all Nigerians particularly young Nigerians,” released in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

    In the letter, Obasanjo declares: “We (Nigerians) need selfless, courageous, honest, patriotic, in short, outstanding leadership with character and fear of God beyond what we have had in recent past.

    “None of the contestants is a saint but when one compares their character, antecedent, their understanding, knowledge, discipline and vitality that they can bring to bear and the great efforts required to stay focused on the job particularly looking at where the country is today and with the experience on the job that I personally had, Peter Obi, as a mentee, has an edge.

    To rub in the takedown of the other leading candidates – and perhaps portray Obi as a would-be puppet – Obasanjo said Obi’s sponsors have a leash on him running from North to South of Nigeria.

    “One other important point to make about Peter Obi is that he is a needle with thread attached to it from North and South and he may not get lost. In other words, he has people who can pull his ears, if and when necessary,” Obasanjo said.

    Remarkably, Obasanjo’s objective appears not limited to just brushing aside Obi’s three main competitors: Tinubu of the APC, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the NNPP.

    His other consideration was to take aim at Tinubu, by guiding the youths to his June 2022 controversial declaration of “Emi lo kan” (“It’s my turn” in Yoruba).

    It’s on this score that Obasanjo charged young Nigerians to “come together and bring about a truly meaningful change in your lives.”

    He warns: “If you fail, you have no one to blame. Your present and future are in your hands to make or to mar. The future of Nigeria is in the same manner in your hands and literally so.

    “Get up, get together, get going and get us to where we should be. And you, the youth, it is your time and your turn. ‘Eyin Lokan’ (Your turn).”

    Obasanjo’s deliberate attempts to suppress the aspiration of other candidates, and advance Obi’s has elicited scorn such that he’s now the message, not the messenger.

    In tackling Obasanjo, the APC’s unsparing, partly in a veiled response to Obasanjo’s jibe at Tinubu, for deploying “Emi lo kan” (It’s my turn) during a primary campaign in Abeokuta, indicating it’s his (Tinubu’s) turn to be the APC candidate, which he eventually secured.

    But alleged detractors have misconstrued this as Tinubu claiming he’s entitled to the presidency of Nigeria on account of his reported contributions to the sustenance of the nation’s democracy, and birthing of the APC in 2013 and the Muhammadu Buhari administration therefrom.

    So, responding to Obi’s adoption, Tinubu recalled Obasanjo’s public image that robs him of democratic credentials, or electoral value in the past and in the 2023 poll cycle.

    Tinubu, via Bayo Onanuga, director, media and publicity of APC’s PCC, described Obasanjo’s approval of the Obi-Datti ticket as “worthless.”

    “We make bold to say that our party and candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will not lose sleep over Obasanjo’s move, as Obasanjo is… always opposing progressive political forces, as he did against MKO Abiola in 1993,” Mr Onanuga said in a statement.

    “The endorsement is actually worthless because the former President does not possess any political goodwill or leverage anywhere in Nigeria to make anyone win a presidential election. He is a political paperweight.”

    Onanuga noted that from their records, Obasanjo hasn’t successfully made anyone win election in Nigeria since then, stressing that, “not even in Ogun State can anyone rely on his support or endorsement to become a governor or councillor.”

    “Chief Obasanjo similarly endorsed Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Peoples Democratic Party candidate in 2019 against President Muhammadu Buhari. Atiku was walloped by Buhari with a wide margin in the election.

    “Chief Obasanjo’s endorsement is not a political currency Mr. Peter Obi can spend anywhere in Nigeria because he is not a political force, even in his part of the country.

    “We pity Peter Gregory Obi as we are confident that Chief Obasanjo can not win his polling unit and ward in Abeokuta for Obi in the coming presidential election on 25 February, 2023.”

    Onanuga dismissed Obasanjo as a democrat, referencing the heavily flawed 2003 and 2007 polls held on Obasanjo’s watch.

    “We recall that in 2003 and 2007 General election when he was a sitting President, Obasanjo used all the coercive instruments of State at his disposal to railroad people into elective offices against the will of Nigerians as expressed at the polls, Onanuga said.

    “In 2007, he declared the polls a do or die affair after he failed in his bid to amend our constitution to have a third term,” he added.

    Tinubu’s taken the Obasanjo gauntlet a notch higher by making his decades-long political fights with him as part of the rhetorics to fire up rallies on the homestretch.

    *Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

  • 2023 countdown (1): Will Ortom’s ‘endorse’ help Obi’s cause? – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    2023 countdown (1): Will Ortom’s ‘endorse’ help Obi’s cause? – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    Barely 54 days to the 2023 General Election – the most crucial time for candidates to crave for endorsements – two candidates in the February 25 presidential election anxiously await the adoption of their tickets by five estranged governors of the Peoples Democratic Party.

    Who, between the candidates of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the Labour Party, Peter Obi, will secure approval of the “Integrity Group” of five PDP governors (PDP-G5) for the February 25 poll?

    The governors of Abia, Benue, Enugu, Oyo and Rivers states were in a rendezvous in London in the past week, to reportedly finalise their months-long consultations with candidates of the APC and LP.

    Governors Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Samuel Ortom (Benue), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), Seyi Makinde (Oyo) and Nyesom Wike (Rivers) have offered themselves to the highest bidder since the May 2022 presidential primaries won by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

    Led by Wike, who came second at the primaries – and was sidestepped by Atiku to pick Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as running mate – the governors have asked for resignation of PDP’s National Chairman Iyorcha Ayu for a Southern replacement.

    As Ayu failed to resign due partly to the tacit backing of the PDP leadership, the governors have foreclosed a truce with the party, and support for the Atiku-Okowa ticket.

    Going by media reports, the governors need to approve a candidate that has the capacity to defeat Atiku at the poll. And having considered Tinubu and Obi as viable candidates, who will the governors pick between the two?

    On paper – owing to APC’s structures as the ruling party, and Tinubu’s political bridges built over the years across Nigeria – the former Lagos State governor stands a better chance to tackle Atiku at the poll.

    And coupled with his war chest, the governors are likely to endorse Tinubu, to overwhelm Atiku, and vindicate their split with the PDP leadership.

    But there’s a comma: The APC Muslim-Muslim ticket that’s become an albatross around the necks of Tinubu and his running mate, former Borno Governor Kashim Shettima.

    Notably, the five governors’ states of Abia, Benue, Enugu, Oyo and Rivers are predominantly Christians, whose leaders oppose the APC same-faith ticket. So, what role will religion play in their choice of who to adopt?

    Meanwhile, Obi, more than any other candidate, has courted the PDP-G5 to adopt him and his running mate, former Senator Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, for the February election.

    Since defecting from the PDP to LP in May 2022, Obi hasn’t relented, as his new platform mostly exists in the register of the Independent National Electoral Commission.

    Many polity watchers and supporters of the APC and PDP didn’t give Obi any breathing space, deriding him for running under a party that lacked the structures to compete at the poll.

    But Obi and his supporters in the “ObIdients Movement” argued that their structures were the voters that would birth Obi’s touted New Nigeria.

    Thus, the supporters have seized the media space, hit the towns and cities with “million-man” on the go, and crowded Obi-Datti’s rallies everywhere.

    Despite the momentum – and several alleged controversial opinion polls indicating Obi’s leading the pack – the Obi-Datti ticket knows nothing is “a done deal” in the world of politics.

    Obi’s soliciting the PDP-5G adoption received some sort of approval a few weeks ago when Wike promised to provide him with “logistics support” whenever he’s in Rivers to campaign.

    When Obi rallied in Port Harcourt, Wike provided him with armoured trucks and security personnel, for his movements and to protect the venue.

    But the big break for the Obi-Datti campaign came on Christmas Day in Benue, when Governor Ortom urged Nigerians to vote the LP ticket.

    It wasn’t the first time Ortom would plead Obi’s cause, but the “Christmas gift” was unambiguous – showing a possible direction Ortom’s colleagues could cast their lot for Obi or Tinubu.

    Obi’s in Makurdi, the Benue capital city, to celebrate Christmas with Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) – victims of mostly herdsmen’s attacks, and recent flooding across Nigeria.

    It’s on the back of spending time with the IDPs that Ortom unpacked the political goodies for Obi, who donated N3 million for the members’ upkeep.

    Commending Obi for visiting the IDPs on Christmas Day, Ortom described him as the best person to deliver Nigeria from its challenges.

    Ortom’s words: “Several presidential candidates have come here, and none of them has chosen to visit those IDPs’ camps and look at their plight to see how they are doing and give them hope that when they win, they will bring them succour, help, and hope.

    “For you (Obi) to have chosen to visit the IDPs on a Christmas Day that you should be celebrating with your family, for me as a Christian, I say God will bless you and your aspiration.

    “My prayer is that God will bless your aspiration to be the president of this country. Because I have seen capacity, faith, and hope.

    “And I have seen someone who can bring the required equity, justice, and fairness that I have been pursuing since I became governor in 2015.

    “If I were not in PDP, I would have been following you all over the place, to canvass and vote for you.

    “But because I’m in PDP, I’m telling Nigerians that this man (Obi) can help deliver this country from its challenges.”

    What better Christmas “gift” does Obi need than Ortom’s full-throated endorsement and canvassing for votes of Nigerians for him to be president!

    The odds seem to favour Obi in the PDP-G5 camp. But the game isn’t in the bag yet, as he needs the backing of Ortom’s four colleagues – Ikpeazu, Ugwuanyi, Makinde and Wike – to wrap things up.

    Will Obi fully or partly secure their support or lose entirely the quartet’s adoption to Tinubu for 2023? It’s a matter of days for the coast to clear!

    *Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

  • Interrogating Northern leaders’ pick of Atiku-Okowa ticket (3) – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    Interrogating Northern leaders’ pick of Atiku-Okowa ticket (3) – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    The Northern Leaders Consultative Forum’s endorsement of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa for the February 25, 2023, presidential election comes as a shot in the arm for the Peoples Democratic Party.

    The PDP’s been divided since the Atiku-Okowa ticket emerged, with five governors of Abia, Benue, Enugu, Oyo and Rivers shunning the Presidential Campaign Council and its campaigns.

    So, the December 2, 2022, adoption by some leaders in Northern Nigeria’s 19 States and the FCT is a turnaround for the PDP that its PCC spokesman, Kola Ologbodiyan, attributes to a Nigerian consensus.

    “This adoption conforms with the consensus by the larger majority of Nigerians that all options weighed and considered, Atiku is the best among those seeking to govern Nigeria,” Ologbodiyan said.

    But for other leading parties – the All Progressives Congress, Labour Party and New Nigeria Peoples Party – which the Forum also vetted their tickets, the leaders’ endorsement is self-serving and hypocritical.

    Recall that leaders in the Christian community, particularly in the North, have rejected the APC Muslim-Muslim ticket of former Lagos State Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu and former Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima.

    Accordingly, a section of the polity had expected that with the agitation for a Southern president, the Northern leaders would adopt the LP ticket of former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi and former Senator Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed.

    But that didn’t happen, and the reactions were scathing, with former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babacir Lawal, describing the Atiku-Okowa ticket as “the worst form of a Muslim-Muslim ticket.”

    Lawal, who endorses the Obi-Datti ticket, notes that the Atiku-Okowa ticket amounts to “a transition from one Muslim Fulani president (Muhammadu Buhari) to another Muslim Fulani president (Atiku),” and that an Atiku predidency “would represent ethnic domination by one ethnic group over others.”

    Lawal also talks about his yearly battles with Fulani herdsmen determined to have their animals invade his farms and eat up his crops, and take over his kinsmen’s ancestral farmlands, “as everywhere in the North,” he said, “while their elite kinsmen dominant in the government keep mute.”

    Saying he “remains a Peter Obi diehard,” and “any news to the contrary is fake news,” Lawal reaffirms his commitment to actualising Obi’s ambition in the 2023 elections.

    To the Obi-Datti campaign, former Reps Speaker Yakubu Dogara, who joined Lawal as arrowheads of the anti-APC ticket, bears the blame for the Northern leaders’ adoption of the PDP and Atiku-Okowa ticket.

    (Perhaps for “a job well done,” Atiku’s appointed Dogara as a member of the PDP PCC, as announced on December 4 by the council’s Director-General and Sokoko Governor Aminu Tambuwal)

    The campaign’s position: “We in the Obi-Datti Media see Hon Dogara’s unpopular stand as a clear measure of double standard and a grave error in seeing same faith ticket in his party as wrong but jump to embrace another injustice of a party that refuses to follow its own constitution and respect for political fairness and accommodation.

    “Clearly, the former Speaker knows that he is swimming against the tide by his unpopular decision, which amounts to running from frying pan to fire; from one injustice to another, and claiming to be acting on behalf of his people whose anger for the two wrongs of the two main political parties (APC and PDP) are glaring.

    “Hon Dogara knows as a fact that his position does not reflect the heart and mind of majority of Nigerian populace who are already on the (LP) moving train to take back the country from primeval political thinkers like him.

    “The former Speaker knows as a fact that his choice is against the tide, as the country stands on two prongs today ahead of 2023; justice and equity on one hand and capacity and competence on the other and not on primordial interest of political party lines.

    “The Obi-Datti Media Office, therefore, sympathizes with Hon. Dogara for failing woefully to grab the ample opportunity that every politician looks forward to, standing for their people at a critical time of their abandonment.

    “History will certainly place him as a leader who turned his back on his people when they rose against injustice and oppression.”

    The APC and Tinubu-Shettima campaign have laughed off the Northern leaders’ action as a huge joke of “PDP endorsing PDP” – a snide reference to the Forum’s many PDP members reportedly loyal to Atiku.

    Festus Keyamo, Minister of State for Labour and Employment and chief spokesman for the APC PCC, says the Dogara-led action hasn’t altered any political permutation.

    His words: “My very good and amiable friend and classmate, Yakubu Dogara, should have spared us all the drama. From PDP and back to PDP, nothing has changed; no alteration of political permutations. They were not with us in 2019 when we won. Wishing them all the best, except victory in 2023!

    “It is just a case of PDP adopting PDP. A group of PDP members, supporters and sympathisers sat down and purportedly adopted PDP as ‘their best option.’

    “That is, PDP adopting PDP, yet trying to pass it off as if there is some major shift in political alignment. All drama, no real content; all motion, no real movement.”

    Also reacting, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, who heads the rebellious “Integrity Group” of five governors of the PDP (PDP-G5), blasts Dogara as an unstable character that can’t be pinned down to principles.

    Wike claims that Dogara had insisted on the presidency returning to Southern Nigeria, and yet reversed and adopted the PDP and Atiku-Okowa ticket.

    “What I don’t like in life is people that don’t have character. I can’t stand it,” Wike said, adding, “at the appropriate time, I will challenge them to a debate.”

    In a manner of mockery, Wike said: “Ask Dogara: What made you leave PDP? Dogara was to see me (but) unknown to me, he gave me an excuse. And (thereafter) I was watching Dogara on TV being received by President Muhammadu Buhari that he has gone (back) to APC. I say, ‘Okay, no problem.’

    “The same Dogara said the presidency should be zoned to southern Nigeria for there to be peace. Now, I hear about the same Dogara (backing Atiku from northern Nigeria). Is that how you do things? Can’t you say something and stand by it?”

    Similarly, the NNPP, running with the former Kano State Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and Bishop Isaac Idahosa ticket, has expressed disappointment, but not surprise at the Northern leaders’ adoption of the PDP and Atiku-Okowa ticket.

    The NNPP national chairman, Prof. Rufai Ahmed Alkali, says the party “will respond decisively” to the Northern leaders’ action.

    “We just received the story and the communique by the group,” Alkali said. “We are disappointed but not surprised at what Yakubu Dogara and his co-travellers said. We are going to respond to them decisively in the language they will understand.”

    In summary, what the PDP and Atiku-Okowa ticket regard as a major boost may be minimal due to split in the Northern Leaders Consultative Forum, and the presidential campaigns boycott by the PDP-G5 membes for the February 25, 2023, poll.

     

    *Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

  • Interrogating Northern leaders’ pick of Atiku-Okowa ticket (2) – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    Interrogating Northern leaders’ pick of Atiku-Okowa ticket (2) – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    As noted under this heading of December 12, 2022, the religion-inspired Northern Leaders Consultative Forum had set up a Technical Criteria Committee to achieve three main goals:

    To rubber-stamp a “rejection” of the All Progressives Congress Muslim-Muslim ticket by Christians; search for excuses to deny support for the New Nigeria Peoples Party and Labour Party tickets; and return the Peoples Democratic Party and its ticket as the favourites for the February 2023 presidential poll.

    The leaders from the North’s 19 States and the FCT stated that the committee “was necessitated by the rejection of the same faith Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC,” and thus dismissed the ticket as “excluding a large demography of Christians, who do not feel represented by the ticket.”

    The leaders’ words: “The APC presidential ticket does not promote inclusiveness, unity, religious harmony and cohesion. A large population of Muslims have also expressed reservations to this ticket and have called for fairness and inclusivity.

    “Consequently, this (APC) ticket is outrightly rejected by the Forum and the Forum calls on all lovers of democracy, peaceful coexistence, unity and religious harmony to reject the ticket in its entirety,” the leaders said.

    Having dispensed with the APC and its ticket holders: Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, it’s the turn of the NNPP and LP to be placed on the leaders’ crucible.

    While affirming the two tickets as “inclusive, representing our religious diversity as a country populated by a dominant population of Muslims and Christians,” the leaders expressed inability to assess both parties without a “Strategic Policy Plan for Nigerians to interrogate.”

    “It is safe to say that no one except the two parties know the direction in which they intend to take the country,” the leaders said. “Nigerians cannot go into an election blind-folded, especially in view of the myriad of problems bedevilling the nation.”

    The leaders noted that based on INEC’s final list of candidates for the 2023 polls, “the NNPP could not field in all the seats for the office of Governor and House of Representatives.”

    Similarly, “the LP could not field in all the candidates at the levels of Governor, National Assembly, and State Houses of Assembly.”

    The leaders claimed the NNPP and LP “lack all-round grassroots structures required of a political party seeking the highest office in the country, (and) a reasonable presence of its members in positions of governance at national, state and local government levels.”

    They said the few NNPP and LP’s members in government “have only recently decamped to the parties,” adding, “There seems to be a dearth of experienced hands within their parties to pilot the affairs of state.”

    As the leaders surmised, if the NNPP or LP wins the poll, “they cannot smoothly run the government as they will not have the required parliamentary majority to successfully pilot the affairs of government.”

    Surely, the leaders’ takedown of the NNPP and LP was primed to deny their tickets: the NNPP’s Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and Bishop Isaac Idahosa; and LP’s Peter Obi and Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed.

    Very instructive is the leaders’ snubbing of the Obi-Datti ticket which’s backed by former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babacir Lawal.

    It’s Lawal and former Reps Speaker Yakubu Dogara who instigated a backlash against the APC same-faith ticket among Christians in Northern Nigeria.

    Lawal’s later to declare adoption of the LP and Obi-Datti ticket, a claim Dogara and some of the leaders denied, promting the December 2 gathering in Kaduna.

    The leaders, who met in the Atiku Abubakar Hall of the Shehu Yar’Adua Centre in Kaduna, adopted the technical criteria committee’s report, and issued a communiqué therefrom.

    Recall that an item in the terms of reference asked the committee “to pick a candidate with presidential experience,” and only Atiku, as a former Vice President (1999 -2007), has that “experience” among the candidates.

    So, the leaders proclaimed Atiku as “having the knowledge and experience of managing the country at the presidential level… This gives him the advantage to set the ball rolling from day one.”

    The leaders held that Atiku “has a track record of working harmoniously with all classes of people across religious and ethnic divides,” and… the “capacity to hunt highly-experienced talents across different sectors and bring them into government.”

    They said “Nigeria needs highly-talented people at this critical time to pull it out of the doldrums and bring it back to the path of stability, security and prosperity.”

    Hence the leaders adopted the PDP and Atiku-Okowa ticket as “the right ticket to support in the 2023 presidential election, as it addresses all the concerns of inclusiveness, fairness and national cohesion.”

    “The Forum recommends for support the Atiku Abubakar-Ifeanyi Okowa presidential ticket to all well-meaning Nigerians across the ethnic, sectional and religious diversities, in order to foster unity, peace, development and progress,” the Northern leaders said.

    You wonder why these sectional leaders took Nigerians through a vetting “smokescreen” rather than endorse – without much ado – the PDP and the Atiku-Okowa ticket from the get go!

    Next week: Atiku, Lawal, the APC, LP and Wike react to the Northern Leaders Consultative Forum’s adoption of the PDP and Atiku-Okowa ticket for 2023.

     

    *Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

  • Interrogating Northern leaders’ pick of Atiku-Okowa ticket (1) – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    Interrogating Northern leaders’ pick of Atiku-Okowa ticket (1) – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    On December 2, Nigerians were told about the adoption of the presidential ticket of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa for the General Election slated for February 25, 2023.

    The endorsement by a Northern Leaders Consultative Forum wasn’t the usual “Breaking news,” as it’s long-expected, given the antics and theatrics of the promoters.

    The members, baying for a backlash since a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket emerged, set up a Technical Criteria Committee “to recommend a pan-Nigerian platform to adopt in the 2023 presidential election.”

    Former Lagos State governor and candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, provided the oxygen for the Forum when he chose former Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima, as his running mate.

    The ticket particularly caused a stir in the North, with former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babacir Lawal, and former Reps Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, vowing to mobilise against it in the region.

    Fiercely pushing the agenda, Lawal and Dogara found supports among the Christian and Muslim leaders in North’s 19 States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    Yet, Lawal, seeming to break rank, later declared the Forum’s adoption of the ticket of former Anambra State governor and presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and his running mate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed.

    It’s unclear if Lawal’s trying to pre-empt or prevent the report of the technical committee, which he probably viewed as going against his preferred LP candidate Obi.

    But some members quickly denied Lawal’s solo run, and promised “to unveil the true position soon,” which they did on December 2 in Kaduna by adopting the Peoples Democratic Party and the Atiku-Okowa ticket for 2023.

    Surprisingly, most Nigerians have scant details about how the Northern leaders – exploiting religious sentiments – arrived at adopting the PDP and the Atiku-Okowa ticket.

    Those details are contained in a communiqué, signed by Prof. Doknan DD Sheni and Mr Mukhtari Shehu Shagari, that the Forum issued at a meeting on December 2, at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Kaduna – and specifically held in the centre’s Atiku Abubakar Hall, named after the Northern leaders’ eventual shoo-in candidate.

    The leaders had mandated the technical committee to “recommend, among the leading political parties and their presidential candidates, the ticket that represents our religious, ethnic and geographical diversities, capable of bringing about peace, unity, cohesion and inclusiveness.”

    At the meeting, Dogara issued a statement, even as the committee presented its report – with both statements expressing bias against the APC Muslim-Muslim ticket.

    Dogara said the APC’s adoption of a Muslim-Muslim ticket “doesn’t align with the vision of a united Nigeria, nor does it promote a collective sense of belonging,” adding, “what will destroy Nigeria is not ethnicity but religion.”

    The committee’s report, signed by its chairman, Hon. Mohammed Kumaila and secretary, Nunghe Kele (SAN), and presented by former Kogi State Deputy Governor Simon Achuba, explained some of the criteria used in picking the party and candidate to endorse for 2023.

    The parameters, weighted in a 15-point maximum score, are: presidential experience; requisite track record in public service, business and education; evidence of national penetration; religious and ethnic balance; reasonable popularity; and physical fitness.

    Going by the report, Atiku of the PDP scored all 15 points; Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP scored 10 points; while APC’s Tinubu and LP’s Obi got nine points each.

    Not surprising, the report singled out the APC for excoriation. It said: “It is evident that the All Progressives Congress (APC) is heading for implosion and extinction; hence, it cannot be the party for now and in the future, because of its rejection to embrace inclusiveness in a diverse country like Nigeria.

    “After the 2023 elections, APC may be dead and buried as a political party. While the duo (NNPP and LP) may emerge as strong contenders in the political arena in the future. From all indications, PDP appears to be the best option to adopt and support.”

    As an afterthought, the report added a caveat: “The endorsement (of the PDP and the Atiku-Okowa ticket) is subject to assurance from the party to run an all-inclusive government” if it wins the February 25, 2023 poll.

    So, displaying no qualms, the leaders bought wholesale the report of the committee – indicating unmistakably that they’d made up their minds on the party and ticket they desire and the one(s) to reject and denigrate.

    For instance, the leaders didn’t cloak the real purpose for empaneling the committee, as its brief was to return a verdict of total rejection of the APC Muslim-Muslim ticket by northern Muslims and Christians.

    The committee was asked “to consult among all strata of people in Northern Nigeria with a view to identifying the political party to support for the 2023 presidential elections. This was necessitated by the rejection of the same faith Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC.”

    Hence the leaders dismissed APC’s same faith (Muslim-Muslim) ticket for excluding “a large demography of Christians, who do not feel represented by the ticket.”

    The leaders’ words: “The APC presidential ticket does not promote inclusiveness, unity, religious harmony and cohesion. A large population of Muslims have also expressed reservations to this ticket and have called for fairness and inclusivity.

    “Consequently, this ticket is outrightly rejected by the Forum and the Forum hereby calls on all lovers of democracy, peaceful coexistence, unity and religious harmony to reject the ticket in its entirety.”

    Undoubtably, the leaders’ aim was two-fold: Return a verdict of rejection of the APC presidential ticket by northern Muslims and Christians; and search for untenable excuses not to also support the NNPP and LP tickets.

    And that leaves on the plate only the PDP and the Atiku-Okowa ticket! So, the leaders could’ve spared Nigerians the rigmarole of a “smokescreen” and straightaway endorse the PDP and its presidential ticket.

    Next week: The communiqué by the Northern Leaders Consultative Forum, exposing how the members – after outrightly dismissing the APC and its Muslim-Muslim ticket – fished for flimsy excuses to eliminate the candidates of the NNPP and LP, and adopt and recommend the PDP and Atiku-Okowa ticket to Nigerians for the February 25 poll!

     

    *Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

  • Rampant disobedience of court orders by security organs – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    Rampant disobedience of court orders by security organs – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    The rule of law is both foundational and fundamental to democratic governance in a civilised society. Absence of the rule of law inevitably breeds the rule of the jungle.

    One of the tenets that undergird the rule of law is order of court, whose disregard of or disrespect to may lead to anarchy that thrives on might and tramples upon rights.

    That’s why November 2022 is significant, as Nigeria seeks to move away further and farther from the era of the jackboots, to deepening the country’s democratic ethos.

    In the past month, the courts have shone more light on what’s always been visible to the public: The regular and continuous disrespect to court orders by the heads – at whatever level – of Nigeria’s multiple security agencies.

    Within three weeks, three judges of High Courts in Abuja and Minna have ordered the arrest and imprisonment of four high-profile security officers “for contempt of court.”

    Those indicted: Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); Inspector General of Police (IGP); Chief of Army Staff (COAS); and Commandant of Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC).

    While the court censor of EFCC Chairman Abdulrasheed Bawa came early in November, the orders on IGP Usman Alkali Baba, COAS General Farouk Yahaya and TRADOC Commander Major-General Stevenson Oluwagbenga Olabanji, respectively, were given in late November.

    It doesn’t matter if these officers superintend regular, quasi or para-security outfits, bear arms or legally recognised to carry out the duties they so discharge.

    A similar thread runs through them: Brazen disregard of and disrespect to court orders, as if they’re above the law, which they take into their hands with reckless abandon.

    This decadeslong proclivity is what the November court rulings spotlighted as a growing concern within the Officer Corps, and among the rank and file of the security.

    Often, you hear officers – mainly of the lower ranks – boasting, “I will deal with you mercilessly, and nothing will happen. You can go and report to the IG or the Commander-in-Chief, and I tell you nothing will happen.”

    If the rank and file exhibit such a level of indiscipline, why would you expect members of the Officer Corps to respect mere orders of courts issued by “bloody civilians?”

    Hence the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) was against the “norm” when it asked IGP Baba to “pack your bags (and) head to Kuje prison now.”

    Because the IGP won’t obey the order – not even for its symbolism – and report himself to prison with his office and power behind him: armed escorts and blaring sirens.

    HURIWA had urged the IGP to obey the three-month prison sentence immediately, and “surrender himself with his prison bag straight to the Correctional Centre in Kuje.”

    “He (Baba) should not treat this court order with ignominy or contempt,” HURIWA said in a statement, adding, “Anything outside of strict compliance with this court order will mean that Nigeria has become a banana republic.”

    HURIWA called on President Muhammadu Buhari “to personally supervise the surrender of the IGP to the Federal Correctional Centre, Kuje, without wasting time.”

    But rather than obey by “complying with the judgment or getting a stay of execution order quickly,” as HURIWA counselled, the IGP’s complaining and issuing excuses of “I’m not aware of such a court order.”

    The Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, claimed that, “the (IGP’s) office is not aware of any Court Order, during the current IGP’s tenure, with respect to a matter… that the IGP disobeyed a Court Order for the reinstatement of a dismissed officer of the Force.”

    “It is instructive to note that the case in point concerns an officer who was dismissed as far back as 1992, a few years after the current IGP joined the Nigeria Police Force, based on available facts gleaned from the reports.

    “The most recent judgement on the matter was given in 2011 which should ordinarily not fall under the direct purview of the current administration of the Force. Thus, the news is strange and astonishing.

    “The IGP has however directed the Commissioner of Police in charge of the Force Legal Unit to investigate the allegation in a bid to ascertain the position of the court and proffer informed legal advice for the IGP’s prompt and necessary action,” Adejobi said.

    Meanwhile, the IGP’s filed a motion to vacate the order for his arrest and committal to prison, arguing that the processes for the contempt proceedings were served in 2018, and 2019 “on the former IG, and not on him as the incumbent.”

    “This was evidenced by an official letter addressed to the Police Service Commission, on the approval of the then IG, as far back as 2015, before the court order of November 29, 2022,” PPRO Adejobi said in a statement.

    “The then IG requested the commission to issue a reinstatement letter to the plaintiff, and effect his promotion, in line with the order of the court in the exercise of its statutory authority.”

    Similarly, without complying with his committal to prison, Mr Bawa quickly appealed the ruling from a 2018 court order that the EFCC return a Range Rover and N40 million it’d seized from retired Air Vice Marshal Adeniyi Ojuawo.

    The trial Justice Chizoba Oji had discharged and acquitted Ojuawo for lack of diligent prosecution, and ordered that his car and money be returned to him.

    But last November – after four years – Ojuawo filed an application over non-compliance with the court order, leading Justice Oji to order Bawa’s arrest and jailing for three months, “having continued wilfully in disobedience to the order of this court… until he purges himself of the contempt.”

    Two days later, the Judge vacated the order when she’s satisfied with the evidence placed before her that the EFCC had returned the car to Ojuawo, with arrangements in place to refund the N40 million to the applicant.

    The circumstances of the case involving the COAS and TRADOC’s commander are unclear, but the Niger State Chief Judge, Justice Halima Ibrahim Abdulmalik, has committed Gen. Yahaya and Maj.-Gen. Olabanji to prison in Minna for three months “until they purge themselves of contempt.”

    The matter is based on a 2019 suit (NSHC/225/2019 in Minna) between Adamu Makama and 42 others versus the Executive Governor of Niger State and seven others.

    At its resumed hearing on October 12, 2022, Justice Abdulmalik gave an order – which the COAS and TRADOC commander reportedly flouted – prompting Mohammed Liman, the plaintiffs’ counsel, to file for contempt.

    The case has been adjourned to December 8, but as it happened with the IGP and EFCC’s Chairman, Nigerians are yet to hear about the arrest and imprisonment of the COAS and TRADOC commander for contempt.

    Will these Military top shots also appeal the court order for their arrest and committal to prison, make themselves available for transfer to the correctional centre in Minna or join others that place themselves “above the law”?

     

    *Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

  • 2023: Situating Obi’s ‘lucky day’ with Wike (2) – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    2023: Situating Obi’s ‘lucky day’ with Wike (2) – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    In closing the first instalment of this analysis on November 21, two questions sprouted as regards the political romance between Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike and Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

    They’re: Can Wike level (be straightforward, sincere or truthful) with Obi about his promise of logistics support to the Obi-Datti campaign in Rivers? Is the gesture the game-changer that Obi needs to advance his aspiration at this critical stage on the road to 2023?

    In probing the first question, it’s apt to ask: Is Wike’s promise to provide logistics support to Obi’s campaign in Rivers equivalent to assisting him to secure the votes to win the presidential poll in the state next February?

    This poser is germane, as Wike’s also pledged “logistics support” for the New Nigeria Peoples Party presidential candidate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who’s in Port Harcourt on November 21, to inaugurate a road project.

    Quizzical is Wike’s rationale for extending logistics support to Obi and Kwankwaso: “Obi is a former governor, a presidential candidate, and a very humble man.”

    As for Kwankwaso, “He is a former governor of Kano State, a presidential candidate, a man of integrity and one among the (kind of) leaders that Nigeria needs.”

    Wike would on November 18 clarify his offer to Obi on November 17 – in apparent response to the interpretation given to the promise as an electoral backing for Obi.

    “I have no regret in saying I will support Obi with logistics,” Wike said in Port Harcourt. “He (Obi) is a former governor, and if he is coming to campaign here, I will give him logistics support. I will give him vehicles, and security; I must give him logistics support.”

    Stripped of any ambiguity, Wike’s gesture is unlikely the game-changer that Obi needs to move forward his aspiration for 2023, as Wike even told him there’re no vacant political offices for any other party in Rivers.

    Wike’s words: “I told him (Obi) yesterday that his party will not get even one position in Rivers, not House of Assembly; there is no other party in Rivers. The only party we have here is PDP, Rivers State chapter.”

    This is despite Obi’s pleading with Wike to allow him (and the LP) to claim the presidency in Rivers, while Wike would produce the next governor on the platform of the PDP.

    “I’m kneeling down and begging (you), take this one (governorship), and give me this one (presidency),” Obi urged Wike, promising he’d use the presidency to “make sure Rivers State becomes better and better.”

    Obi also proclaimed the PDP candidate, Siminialayi Fubara, as “the incoming Governor” – to demonstrate LP’s willingness to trade off the governorship seat in 2023.

    What Obi advocates is “Split-ticket voting,” which Wikipedia explains as, “when a voter in an election votes for candidates from different political parties when multiple offices are being decided by a single election.”

    This differs from a straight-ticket voting, “where a voter chooses candidates from the same political party for every office up for election.”

    Split-ticket voting isn’t a commonplace practice in Nigeria, except in a few instances, remarkably the 2003 polls that left sour experiences for some politicians.

    The 2003 General Election in the South-West of Nigeria was like a “palace coup” – plotted and executed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a retired General and former military Head of State.

    Thrust on the scene soon after his release from detention over a phantom coup plot, Obasanjo had practically no political base in the South-West, but he won the 1999 presidency under the Peoples Democratic Party.

    To avoid a repeat of low votes he’d scored in the zone in 1999, Obasanjo solicited support of the six Alliance for Democracy state governors, to mobilise votes for him in 2003, pledging to allow them an unfettered re-election.

    A wily Dr Obasanjo had calculated that the voters in the South-West would vote for the PDP in the down ballots, especially the governorship if they voted for him during the  presidential election that held about two weeks prior.

    And true to his permutations, all five of six South-West governors – except Bola Ahmed Tinubu – that worked for Obasanjo to receive hefty votes, lost their re-election, as the electorate voted for the PDP in the down-ballots.

    So, the political ramifications of split-ticket voting in the South-West in 2003 maybe one of the major reasons that members of the PDP “Integrity Group” of five governors and many chieftains haven’t dumped the party.

    Besides Atiku and his running mate, Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, can the aggrieved PDP members, led by Wike, trust any other political party’s candidate to keep to terms of a split-ticket agreement in the 2023 polls?

    That’s why the group members – despite their obvious bravado – have stated, again and again, that they’re not leaving the PDP, and are “open to reconciliation.”

    Of course, only on the basis of their demand that the PDP National Chairman Iyorcha Ayu resigns to pave way for a party official from the South to hold the position!

    But that seems a tall order, as Ayu’s rebuffed the ask, leaving the group to hold strategy meetings at different locations, so as not to lose face, and the presidential slot and the down ballots to an opposition party.

    The five governors (PDP-G5) are consolidating for 2023 by jointly launching campaigns in the states they control, absent PDP’s leadership and the Atiku-Okowa campaign.

    This is Obi’s dilemma – and any other candidates priming for split-ticket votes in 2023! It’s an issue of trust, which’s a scarce commodity among politicians.

    Can Wike trust Obi to keep to the bargain after securing the presidential votes in Rivers on February 25, 2023? Will Obi renege, as the tactical Obasanjo did to the South-West AD governors in 2003 that literally ended their political career? Who would want to travel that route exactly 20 years after? Certainly not Wike and his Integrity Group!

    But don’t count Obi out yet, mostly as the optimism for reconciling the PDP factions seems to recede further each day, even as the countdown to 2023 shortens per second.

    With their demand unmet, leaders of the Integrity Group could take a calculated risk and adopt the Obi-Datti ticket as theirs for their supporters and followers to vote for!

     

    *Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

  • 2023: Situating Obi’s ‘lucky day’ with Wike (1) – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    2023: Situating Obi’s ‘lucky day’ with Wike (1) – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    It’s one of several visits in the course of the presidential run of the Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi, to Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike – leader of the rebellious group of five governors (PDP-G5) in the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party. But this visit was special!

    Obi honoured the November 17, 2022, courtesy to commission the Nkpolu-Oroworokwo Flyover in Port Harcourt – the ninth of such high-rise legacy roads built by the Wike administration since 2015.

    Obi, accompanied by his running mate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, was welcomed into Port Harcourt – and to the venue of the project launch – by a monstrous crowd of the “ObIdients” – supporters of the Obi-Datti campaign.

    While he’s on it, Obi had an ace up his sleeve: To put in a word for himself as regards the February-March 2023 General Election, which he’d entered as an underdog, but has gained a frontline status in a matter of months.

    Obi, who’s prepared to “kneel and beg” to conquer, urged Wike to allow him claim the presidential poll in Rivers, and in exchange, oblige Wike the freedom to produce the next governor on the platform of the PDP.

    For the quid pro quo (I rub your back, you rub my back) strategy, Obi pledged: “I will talk to my people and we will negotiate. If we leave the state (governor’s slot) for him (Wike), he will leave the centre (president’s post) for us.

    “We will not quarrel with you (Wike). Please, give us this one (presidency) and collect the other one (governorship). I will accommodate them (Rivers people) in the other one (Obi’s government, if he’s elected president in 2023).

    “Remember this agreement today. I’m kneeling down and begging, take this one (governorship), and give me this one (presidency). I assure you the one I will take, I will use it to make sure Rivers State becomes better and better.”

    To show LP’s willingness to forego the governorship for the PDP in the March 2023 poll, Obi proclaimed the PDP candidate, Siminialayi Fubara, as “the incoming Governor,” to the applause of the LP members and supporters.

    Though Wike didn’t respond in kind to Obi’s entreaty, he described him as “a former governor, a presidential candidate, and a very humble man,” and promised that, “as a state government, we will give you (Obi) logistics support for your campaigns.”

    “Each time you want to campaign in the state, let me know. All the logistics support, we will give to you,” Wike told an elated Obi, who’s among top tier candidates wooing Wike and his PDP-G5 colleagues for poll collaboration or outright defection to their parties.

    The PDP-G5 fell out with the party leadership in May 2022, aftermath of the presidential primaries in which Wike came second to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

    Wike, who blamed the party for swinging the ticket for Atiku, solidified his anger when Atiku sidestepped him to pick Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as running mate.

    Wike’s the backing of four governors: Messrs Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, Samuel Ortom (Benue), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, and many past governors and chieftains of the party.

    With this strong force virtually at his beck and call, Wike demanded resignation of PDP’s National Chairman Iyorcha Ayu, as precondition for his group’s support for particularly the Atiku-Okowa ticket in the 2023 elections.

    Dr Ayu’s shunned the pressure to resign as the PDP chair, resulting in hardening of positions on either side, with Wike and the PDP-G5 boycotting the party’s activities, including membership of the Presidential Campaign Council, and launch of the council and the Atiku-Okowa campaigns.

    Now the “beautiful bride” of the 2023 election cycle, Wike’s courted by the candidates and surrogates of the leading parties: Atiku of the PDP; Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress; Obi of the LP; and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party.

    Wike’s routinely invited especially prominent members of the PDP to commission projects in Rivers, using the made-for-television avenues for photo-ups and campaigns.

    The pace of such invites has increased in the 2023 poll season, particularly to opposition politicians, and Wike deploys the occasions to mend fences he’d broken in his fierce projection and defence of PDP and its members.

    Former Edo State governor and past national chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, was Wike’s guest barely 24 hours pre-Obi’s invite to commission a project.

    Oshiomhole, in Port Harcourt on November 16 to inaugurate the Rumuepirikom Flyover – the 8th under Wike’s belt – received an apology for being the target of Wike’s attacks during the 2020 governorship poll in Edo.

    Wike, as PDP’s lightning rod against Oshiomhole and APC’s onslaught, had campaigned for the re-election of Governor Godwin Obaseki, who’s denied the APC ticket at the primaries conducted by then Oshiomhole-headed National Working Committee.

    But two years down the line – and with Wike and Obaseki becoming strange bedfellows in the PDP – Wike told Oshiomhole: “You know I came to Edo State to make sure your candidate (Osaze Ize-Iyamu) didn’t win election. I was virtually in charge, everyday coming out on television to take you on.

    “And I said you will not win, and you didn’t win. Well, that assignment has been done, we now know who is who. I want to tell my people, I sincerely apologise to you.”

    This turnaround happens in politics in which there’re no permanent enemies but permanent interests, such that would bring Wike and Oshiomhole together while they stump for different political parties and candidates for 2023.

    It’s those permanent interests that’ve kept Obi going to Port Harcourt, to meet and woo Wike who, despite his entanglement with the PDP leadership, has committed to remaining in the party, even as he’s shown a seeming inclination to collaborate with opposition candidates.

    In that wise, can Wike level with Obi in his promise of logistics support to the Obi-Datti campaign in Rivers? Is the gesture the game-changer for the former Anambra State governor to advance his aspiration at this critical stage on the road to 2023? We’ll explore this further!

     

    *Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

  • 2023: The fallacy of crowd as winning strategy – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    2023: The fallacy of crowd as winning strategy – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    If campaign rallies are a winning strategy, former United States President Donald Trump would’ve won the 2020 election in a landslide, to return to the White House.

    As Trump gathered huge crowds across the U.S., his challenger, Joe Biden, hardly got a couple of thousands in the few times he ventured on the campaign trail.

    But based on returns in the November 3 polls, Biden secured the required 270 Electoral Votes to be president, and also defeated Trump with about eight million votes.

    In Nigeria, the axiom, “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride,” is playing out in real time, as politicians use rallies as a measure of victory in the 2023 elections.

    The other day, the senator representing Kano South, Kabiru Gaya, said he’d defeat his rival, Kawu Sumaila of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, in the February 25 polls.

    While Gaya of the All Progressives Congress admits that Sumaila “is pulling crowd,” he says he’ll be returned to the Senate because “Kawu is doing well, but I have more crowd than him and I believe I will win the election.”

    Likewise, Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun – taking in the crowd that graced “a solidarity walk” for the APC presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his own re-election – declares the 2023 polls as a done deal.

    “This massive crowd is a sign to scare any opposition,” Abiodun said” on November 9, adding, “The walk… is intimidating. It is a show of love that you (the marchers) support Tinubu and Abiodun’s election victory in 2023.”

    Similar arguments of predicting victory – on account of rally crowds – run the gamut of the major parties vying for power in the February-March 2023 General Election.

    Surely, rallies are predictive of how popular a candidate or a political party is. But “rallies don’t win elections,” says Dele Momodu, director of strategic communications of the Peoples Democratic Party presidential campaign council.

    Momodu, a former presidential aspirant, was reacting to the report of a huge crowd at a rally of the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, in Asaba, Delta State.

    Momodu, on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, said Obi’s popularity among the youths won’t lead to victory, as “noise” and “rallies” don’t win elections.

    “We can make all the noise,… but rallies alone will not win the 2023 election,” Momodu said, referencing the Osun State governorship poll in which the LP was drubbed despite Obi stomping for the party candidate two days to the polls amid a mammoth crowd in the capital, Osogbo.

    On Obi’s rally in Asaba, Momodu said: “I have no doubt that Peter Obi is a popular candidate, but don’t forget the proximity of the South-East to Delta State. They are almost one and the same.

    “If you have a rally in the Delta, all you have to do is cross over from Awka, Onitsha and everywhere; these things can be arranged,” – a hint that the LP must’ve ferried attendees to the Asaba rally from neighbouring states.

    But that’s a negation of the Obi campaign and its vociferous supporters’ avowal that “we don’t give ‘shi shi.’” Meaning the LP doesn’t procure its rally attendees.

    However, the “ObIdients” – a mass youth movement in support of Obi’s presidential run for 2023 – deserves the plaudits for starting the new level of rallies across Nigeria.

    From June to September 2022, supporters of the 2019 vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party conducted almost daily “Million-man” marches.

    Propelled by dissatisfaction with the ruling order since 1999, the LP supporters took advantage of the APC and PDP likely resolve to observe the Independent National Electoral Commission’s timeline for campaigns, to hold rallies in cities and towns.

    Dominating the media space, Obi, a former Anambra State governor, and his running mate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, touted the rally crowds as a pointer that the February poll – and indeed the entire 2023 elections – was theirs to lose.

    They’re buoyed by online polls indicating that the Obi-Datti ticket would win by a wide margin in the largely four-way contest by candidates of the APC, PDP, LP and NNPP.

    But since the INEC unbanned campaigns on September 28, supporters of other political parties have organised million-man” monstrous rallies across the country.

    On September 28, an APC “City Boys” political group staged a “testing-of-the-mic” rally in Abuja, at the instance of the Tinubu and Kashim Shettima presidential ticket.

    It’s a mini-campaign launch, as Tinubu – expected to inaugurate the APC Presidential Campaign Council, and kick-off the campaigns – was abroad for unspecified reasons that triggered speculations he’s seriously ill.

    Some tale bearers even reported that Tinubu had died, prompting him to post videos and pictures of his workouts, and meetings with aides, friends and grandchildren at his London home, in the United Kingdom.

    Until Tinubu came back to Nigeria in early October, sceptics had dismissed those pictorials as photoshopped intended to hoodwink unwary and uninformed Nigerians.

    Days after the Abuja APC youth rally, the party’s women marched in Lagos for the Tinubu-Shettima ticket, and re-election of Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

    Then came a “5 Million-Mother-of-All-Rallies” on October 5 for the APC in Lagos – a 10-kilometre walk that lasted from 8am to 2pm – organised by the chairman of Lagos Parks and Garages Management Committee, Musiliu Akinsanya, alias “MC Oluomo,” a former chair of the state branch of the National Union of Road Transport Workers.

    Two other mega rallies were to follow in Delta and Kano States, with supporters of Delta State governor and vice presidential candidate of the PDP, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, staging a “show-of-force” at his hometown of Owa-Alero in Ika North East local government area of the state.

    The rally, according to a respondent, was to awaken the community people “to the reality of their illustrious son gunning for the office of Vice President, which we pray the Almighty to sanction for us, in Jesus name.”

    In Kano, a multitude of the “Kwankwasiyya Movement” and supporters of the NNPP presidential candidate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso – adorned in their familiar red caps – rallied for hours under the blazing sun.

    Dr Kwankwaso, a former Kano governor, is challenging the hegemony of the PDP and APC in the state that produces the highest number of votes in recent elections.

    To cap the “my-rally-is-bigger-than-yours,” supporters of the PDP on October 10 overwhelmed the Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo, Akwa Ibom, where former Vice President Atiku Abubakar formally launched the PDP campaigns for the February 25 presidential election.

    Save the press highlighting the absence of notable PDP chieftains – particularly members of the “Group of Five” (PDP-G5) governors led by Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike – the event resembled a coronation for 2023.

    Bigger, larger and more elaborate rallies have been staged nationwide for the 2023 polls, but the “Nigerian factor” of corrupting the system has rubbished such rallies as a guide to electoral outcomes, as most people only attend the gatherings for instant financial rewards.

    Hence, at the end of the rallies, participants wait behind to get their share of the agreed largesse, and those cheated outright or shortchanged by the rally organisers often cause crisis, leading to shouting bouts and/or fisticuffs.

     

    *Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

  • 2023: Obi’s ‘deal’ with the ‘PDP-G5’ governors – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    2023: Obi’s ‘deal’ with the ‘PDP-G5’ governors – By Ehichioya Ezomon

    It’s too early to assume that Peter Obi of the Labour Party has hashed out a “working agreement” with a “faction” of the Peoples Democratic Party, but things are looking up for the former Anambra State governor going into 2023.

    Were such an agreement to materialise, it’d be on the back of the intra-party feud that’s torn the PDP apart after the May 2022 presidential primaries in which former Vice President Atiku Abubakar clinched the party ticket.

    Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike – who came second at the PDP primaries – has denounced the process that threw up the standard bearer, and the emergence of Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as Atiku’s running mate.

    Wike, heading four other governors – Dr Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, Dr Samuel Ortom (Benue State), Dr Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu State) and Mr Seyi Makinde (Oyo State) – has rebelled against the PDP and Atiku.

    Wike and his colleagues demand resignation of the PDP National Chairman Iyorcha Ayu, failing which the group of five governors (PDP-G5) would withhold support for Atiku’s February 25, 2023, shot at the presidency.

    For a start, the PDP-G5 and party chieftains aligned with them, have ruled themselves out of the list of members of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, its inauguration, and launch of the presidential campaigns.

    And Wike’s become the “beautiful bride,” courted by candidates of the major parties – Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, Peter Obi of the LP and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party – visiting and wooing him in Nigeria and overseas.

    Their request: The Wike group should support their aspiration – via a working agreement or outright defection to their platforms ahead of the 2023 General Election.

    What’s emerged in the past week seems to indicate that the two factions in the PDP may’ve reached a point of irreconcilability, with Wike declaring that the PDP would win all positions in Rivers except the presidential slot.

    Wike’s words: “PDP will win our state. I am not hiding it as far as the Governorship, House of Reps, Senate and State Assembly (polls) is concerned. The other one (Presidency) we have not decided, until the right thing is done.”

    The “until the right thing is done” refers to Wike and his group’s demand for Dr Ayu to resign as the PDP chair – a challenge Ayu’s rebuffed – and supported undisguisedly by the National Executive Committee of the party.

    That tacit “vote of confidence” in Ayu led to Wike’s November 1 threat that Rivers PDP might not vote for the Atiku-Okowa presidential ticket next February.

    Wike spoke in Port Harcourt at the swearing-in of newly-engaged 319 Ward and 32 Constituency Liaison Officers – part of over 200,000 “Special Assistants” employed within a fortnight as foot soldiers for the 2023 polls.

    Wike’s charge to the Liaison Officers: “Your business is to co-ordinate the Special Assistants, who will give you feedback on what the people at the unit levels are talking about us; where they want us to go; are we doing well politically, are we doing well in the economy?”

    The novel hiring of the “polling unit” aides shows Wike’s readiness for 2023, with his dissing of Atiku giving room for another candidate to secure Rivers PDP’s poll support.

    Note that as Wike’s flaunting his political prowess – a regular pastime even during church services – elsewhere, Obi’s signalling he’d reached a “deal” with the PDP-G5 “for a common interest in finding a better Nigeria amid increasing security threat and a humanitarian crisis.”

    “The only deal I have with them is that they are passionate about Nigeria,” Obi said matter-of-factly on November 1 at a visit to Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom.

    It’s the second time in as many months that Obi would visit Benue in the course of his presidential jostling, with his October 19 courtesy primarily to commiserate with the people devastated in recent flooding across Nigeria.

    Trust politicians: They don’t miss any opportunity to put a word for themselves and criticise their opponents. So, Obi, at such a solemn event, jabbed the APC government.

    The Muhammadu Buhari government “is displaying a lack of leadership during the current (security and floods) crisis,” Obi said, even as he praised Ortom for “confronting insecurity in Benue at personal risk and comfort.”

    This time, as first reported by Vanguard, Obi’s in Benue to pay homage to the Tor Tiv, Prof. James Ayatse and the Ochi’ Idoma, Elaigwu Odogbo, and seek their blessings.

    The royal homage over, Obi visited Ortom, who spared no word in eulogising and handling him what appears his first “endorsement” by a governor of a rival political party.

    Ortom’s words: “You (Obi) is the finest in terms of education, in terms of character, in terms of performance, in terms of reaching out, in terms of accommodation, in terms of being a pan-Nigerian and in terms of passion to ensure that our country is liberated from where we are: from insecurity to security and out of the economic woes to economic vibrancy and out of lack to adequate social life. You have the capacity to make things work.

    “Let me say this again, where we are in our country, Nigeria, today, we should not be looking at party or where someone comes from, but we should be looking at the capacity of the personality that will be able to deliver us from the mess we are in Nigeria today… If Nigerians were given a chance to make a choice, you are one of the finest candidates that we have in this country.”

    Like he proposed at Obi’s October sympathy visit, Ortom iterated his advocacy for “a collective effort to salvage Nigeria,” declaring that, “If I were not in PDP, I would work for you to be president,” and advised Obi to “negotiate power with other leading presidential candidates…”

    Like he proposed during Obi’s October sympathy visit, Ortom iterated his advocacy for “a collective effort to salvage Nigeria,” declaring that, “If I were not in PDP, I would work for you to be president,” and advised Obi to “negotiate power with other leading presidential candidates with a commitment to serve the people.”

    Quoting John 3:23, Ortom said if he were God, he’d crown Obi’s presidential run due to “his antecedents, his capacity and commitment to the wellbeing of our people.”

    “If I were God, I would have said… but I am not God, but I admire your courage, your capacity to deliver to our people,” Ortom said, adding, “All I can say is that the God that sees the heart let Him bless you. The God that blesses and crowns, if it’s His will, let Him crown you.”

    Though not yet cast in stone, Obi’s pathway to the presidency maybe getting clearer, given Ortom’s embrace and prayers, and Wike’s PDP-presidency-in-the-air stance.

    Thus, Obi’s poll prospect looks promising except for the political calculations four of the PDP-5G governors have to make regarding their running for elective offices in 2023.

    Governors Ikpeazu, Ortom and Ugwanyi – in the last lap of their eight-year tenure – are vying for senatorial seats, while Governor Makinde’s seeking a second term in office.

    Will Wike and his collaborating governors in Abia, Benue, Enugu and Oyo – in the event of “protest votes” against Atiku – cast their ballots for Obi? It’s too early to tell, as the warring factions in the PDP can still reconcile!

     

    *Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.