The All Progressives Congress, APC, is in desperate search for a credible
presidential candidate as more of its key leaders defect just months to the
2015 presidential election
After a closed door meeting in Kaduna last week, indications emerged that
the governor of Kano state, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, may have declared for
the presidential ticket under the All Progressives Congress, APC. According
to sources, he has called on the lawmakers from the North-west zone to
rally round him and support him as the sole Northern candidate. Nothing,
however, has been heard from Muhammadu Buhari, a chieftain of the APC
and the man widely expected to clinch the party nomination.
Last week, a meeting was called by Buhari to discuss the issue and to make sure the North
speaks with a common voice on the Issue. Those invited to the parley were the convener,
Muhammadu Buhari; Governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko of Sokoto state; Rabiu Musa
Kwankwaso of Kano state and Abdulazeez Yari of Zamfara state. the meeting, The Source
learnt, was held in Kaduna early last week, though the meeting was said to have been
summoned by the APC National Vice Chairman for the North west zone, Inua Abdulkadir. It
was at the instance of Buhari. Expectedly, Atiku Abubakar, a former Vice President and
strong contender for nomination was absent from the meeting that mostly discussed how to
raise funds for whoever is chosen for the position. Part of the discussions was to see how to
throw away the double toga of alleged foreign sponsorship of the party and their alleged link
with Boko Haram.
The APC has been described as a credible opposition to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party,
PDP, at inception but many now feel it is not a better alternative. With only months to the
2015 general elections, the issue of who bears the flag for the party is yet to be resolved.
Unlike the PDP, which has a gale of endorsements for the incumbent’s undeclared ambition,
which declaration pundits believe is only soon, there has not been any clear choice for the
APC. The only certainty is that the APC has zoned the presidential ticket to the North and the
vice presidency to the Southern part of the country. For the heavy presence of the party
structure in the South west, sources disclosed that the party is considering the South west for
the vice presidential ticket. The coast has been cleared by the zoning and subsequent picking
of John Oyegun, a former governor from the South-south geopolitical zone as its chairman.
Oyegun was picked in preference to other candidates like Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa state and
Tom Ikimi of Edo state. While Ikimi was said to have been heavily backed by former vice
president Atiku Abubakar, Oyegun was said to be the preferred candidate of the political
heavyweight from the South west, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Sources indicate that since then,
Ikimi has become so aggrieved that he finally left the party last week despite being appointed
a member of the board of trustees of the party.
Atiku himself has been known to be one of the two major front runners of the presidential
ticket. The next is Buhari, a retired general and arrowhead of the defunct Congress for
Progressive Change, CPC, which later collapsed into the APC. Atiku is said to be in charge of
the Yar’Adua political machinery, which he transformed into a gigantic political structure
he intends to fully deploy to checkmate the influence of Tinubu. But this magazine learnt
that Buhari, not having sound financial foundation but widely accepted by the talakawas,
may decide to cede his ambition to a much younger person in this case Rabiu Kwankwaso
who earlier this year played a major role in the enthronement of the Emir of Kano, Sanusi
Abubakar 11. But Kwankwaso, though a consensus of the APC governors who, this magazine
gathered, insists on one of their own becoming the new presidential candidate and deputy,
has low popularity beyond Kano state, and will need the backing of the Northern elite to
even win appreciably within the Northern political zone.
Atiku on his part has decided on what he calls a nationwide reconciliation tour. This is not
an original act as he had done the same thing as a former member of the PDP, where he
allegedly used the period to canvass his position as the credible alternative to president
Goodluck Jonathan. When it became clear to him that his control of the Yar’Adua political
machine cannot match the power of incumbency, he promptly decamped to the APC.
Apart from the issue of presidential candidate, his running mate is ostensively zoned to the
South west, that being the strong bastion of the party in the South. This magazine learnt that
the APC governors were adamant that the president has to be one of them. The position,
according to sources, was communicated to the leadership of the party, including Bola
Ahmed Tinubu, who allegedly walked out of the meeting in anger. The governor of Ekiti
state, Kayode Fayemi, was slated by the governors to be the running mate to Kwankwaso. But
his defeat at the polls put paid to this ambition, since it will be suicidal to field one who
could not even win his state. Other people being speculated are Babatunde Fashola Governor
of Lagos state. But Lagos is having its own share of crisis with the attempted imposition of an
unknown candidate, Akinwumi Ambode by Tinubu, without resort to the incumbent
governor, reopening old wounds and generating unnecessary tension in the party in the
state. This has resulted in the poaching of one of the bright hopes of the party, Jimi Agbaje by
the PDP.
There has been deep hemorrhaging of very important party men from APC to PDP. For
example, Nuhu Ribadu, the most rabid of the critics of the ruling party has left for the PDP.
Last week, the Senator representing Oyo South Senatorial district on the platform of the APC,
Olufemi Lanlehin, defected to Accord Party, A.P, barely one month after another Senator,
Ademola Adeseun, respresneting the Central Senatorial district, also on the party’s platform,
moved to PDP. The same has applied to Abubakar Momoh, the member representing Isoko
North in Edo federal constituency. He defected to PDP from APC last week.
Last week, Tom Ikimi, late dictator, Sani Abacha’s flambouyant Foreign Minister started yet
another political journey having terminated his sojourn with the opposition All Progressives
Congress (APC) via resignation from the party.
At the dawn of participatory democracy in 1999, Ikimi was partisan on the side of the then
All People’s Party APP (which later became All Nigerian People’s Party, (ANPP). People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) and Alliance for Democracy (AD)were the three parties on which
fulcrum Nigeria’s nascent democracy at that time rested. But following the victory of the PDP
in the 1999 elections, APP leaders at that time – the likes of Emmanuel Iwuanyanu, Arthur
Nzeribe, late Abubakar Olusola Saraki, Ikimi himself among others – later pitched their
political tent with the PDP .
The most visible and memorable assignment Ikimi would be remembered for during his days
in the PDP was the theatric way he handled the counting of ballots at the PDP presidential
primaries in January 2003. Ikimi who had superintended the exercise as Returning Officer
did not hide what many considered his pro-Obasanjo leaning and PDP leadership’s alleged
conspiracy against the president ‘s main challenger for the 2003 PDP presidential ticket, Dr.
Alex Ekwueme.
This could be gleaned from the rising tenor of his voice when counting ballots meant for
Obasanjo and the falling tenor when it came to Ekwume’s . It was therefore with a tinge of
excitement that Ikimi reeled out a plethora of Obasanjo ballots in the famous Obasanjo!,
Obasanjo and Obasanjo oo!” mantra.
Many had expected the Benin High Chief to be rewarded for a job well done but what Ikimi
rather got in return was an unsettling sidelining in the PDP after Obasanjo’s victory in the
polls.
Disenchanted with the PDP, Ikimi was to find political comfort in the defunct Action
Congress, AC which later became Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, largely promoted by
former Lagos state Governor, Bola Tinubu. The former Foreign Affairs Minister would
become a strong voice in the party, rising to become its National Vice Chairman (South).
As in the PDP, in the wake of the merger process between the defunct ANPP, ACN and
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Ikimi was assigned the very critical role of welding
the three parties together to form one simple, formidable opposition party, APC.
He did a good job of it, meticulously ensuring a hitch-free marriage between the three
parties as well as their funeral; thus birthing the APC in July last year.
But signs that Ikimi would again receive the PDP treatment in the APC, a party which
formation bears his huge imprimature, came in May this year when he wrote Bisi Akande,
then APC’s Interim National Chairman, outling his fears for the future of the party and
requesting that the party’s leadership meet to discuss dangers facing it. Ikimi would later
lament: “My letter was dispatched to him by Email and copied to about 25 key leaders across
the country. There was delay in convening the Interim Executive Council (IEC) meeting that I
requested and during the period of delay, my letter got leaked to the press by someone from
Ogun state.’
In the run up to the APC National Convention in June, Ikimi was one of the strong contenders
for the National Chairmanship of the party and actually came within grasp of the job but
high voltage schemings was to ensure that he was shoved aside and fellow Edo man, former
governor John Odigie- Oyegun was anointed and crowned at the convention venue by
interests led by Tinubu. Aware that he had been schemed out of the position even before the
convention, Ikimi neither returned his nomination form nor attended the event.
In an advertorial explaining his side of the story, Ikimi traced his woes to Tinubu. He alleged
the former Lagos state Governor had not forgiven him for standing against his AC Vice
presidential ambition under Atiku Abubakar in 2007. Ikimi: “I opposed his (Tinubu) desire to
run as vice Presidential candidate to Atiku Abubakar under the Action Congress banner in
2007… I know he nurses a grudge against me for that position I took which was strongly
supported by leaders from five zones apart from the South west… I have no regret
whatsoever for my courage to stand up against oppression or dictatorship.”
APC sources told the magazine that one of the principal reasons Tinubu’s camp worked
against Ikimi and torpedoed his desire to lead the party as its National Chairman was the
camp’s perception of him a so die-hard Atiku sympathiser. It has been gathered that Tinubu
is favourably disposed to Buhari flying the APC presidential ticket next year rather than
Atiku who is also angling for it.
The stage for Ikimi severing his relationship with APC was set last week following his
inclusion in the party’s Board of Trustees (BOT). He had swiftly rejected the offer and two
days later, formally announced his exit from the party.
Though Ikimi said he is currently pondering his political future and next move, sources close
to him and the PDP revealed that the seasoned Architect and former National Chairman of
the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) is indeed on his way back to the PDP.