Blaming those who really are victims is always unfair. Well, almost always. But in the case of the recently concluded PDP Special Convention to vote for the party’s Presidential Flag Bearer my initial reaction was to blame Atiku Abubakar. He was rigged-out mercilessly, but really what else did he expect? A free and fair election within the PDP? A level playing field between him and the incumbent? Come on, we are talking about PDP, not the Boy Scouts, for crying out loud! Its battle cry is still “PDP- Power!”, in case we have forgotten.

Atiku’s calculations, which he told the whole Nation (see for example Dennis Naku’s report in Daily Champion of 6th January 2011 titled “PDP Primaries – Atiku Sure of North’s Block Vote”), was this; the North 61 percent of the total delegates at the Convention. The entire South has 39 percent, so how could he lose? He said if he were a tribal politician he would not undergo the drudgery of going round the country soliciting for votes. True he still did go round to meet the emirs, chiefs, godfathers and even his in-laws. Most promised to deliver. In the end they didn’t. Or, to be more accurate, in the end “he was rigged out”. How? Not very clear really, because he saw part of it coming. He warned the Nation that President Goodluck Jonathan was “sponsoring a bill with the intent of narrowing the democratic space by disenfranchising many bona-fide members of the party” like PDP chairmen in local areas, as well state and local council chairmen among many others, so as to reduce the number of delegates “to enable him pay each of them N2million” to vote for him.

This is what I find strange. Atiku spelled out his strength as well as tactics, very publicly. He had a good idea what the Jonathan group were up to. Yet he played their game. Jonathan had Obasanjo and Anenih working for him. He had the Party machinery and instruments and organs of the state, including the state controlled media. He had an army of prophets, prayer contractors and pliable pastors openly making his election a crusade. Those should have been warnings enough. But the Atiku group went into battle without a clear and legally binding list of delegates (which should have been deposited with INEC) and no real influence on the Convention’s Electoral Committee.

In the end, the really evil gurus, Obasanjo, Anenih and co, ended up teaching these latter day crusaders the low and dirty tricks. Nobody had a bone-fide list, the list kept on changing even during the convention and there was no evidence that most of those who voted were the actual ones that were elected as delegates. Worse still, there was no apparent logic to how many delegates should represent a state. Atiku knew the usual (unsavoury tricks).

The party leadership allocated delegates to those states they we sure would vote Jonathan. Thus Katsina State, with 5.8 million people as per 2006 Census had 158 delegates at the Convention, Kano, with 9.4 million had 119 delegates. Lagos, with 9 million had only 55 delegates. On the other hand, Delta with 4 million people had 121 delegates, Rivers with 5.2 million had 130 delegates and Akwa Ibom with 3.9 million had 141 delegates. The Party leadership simply overturned Atiku’s expectations, and under a stylized TV production, purported to show a transparent election, simply made fools of every one.

Now they are trying to portray this massively rigged event as a “model”. Haba Jama’a!

Much as I am inclined to blame Atiku and his people I am obliged to admit they are victims; victims of their northern bias (northern leader prefer young men and women who would only agree with them and sing their praise), victims of state oligopoly of the media, victims of a long and viciously promoted anti-Hausa/Fulani media campaign and what not. He should actually collect all the evidence and go to court. There was no real convention.

The two dangers I see however are; one, the very principle that people should abide by the agreements they entered is being ignored, and indeed is being portrayed as a sign of Northern greed and constant attempt to keep power at all cost (as if there was any government in this country that was manned and exploited by northerners alone!) and, two, the north itself is being cornered into accepting that Atiku’s or Buhari’s candidature is a northern or Muslim agenda. They are not and should not be portrayed as such. If we succumb to the temptation we shall lose.

But then, perhaps it is time for chauvinism. “Everyone for himself, and God for us all” they say. So, we all should use our numbers and our political savvy to survive. In which case it is important to point out that no matter what political arithmetic you do, the current trend can only be temporary. If you pursue the “marginalize the north” option you have the problem that it is too big, and can ally with any other to constitute a majority. If it is the anti-Muslim approach, then you must realize that there is significant population of Muslims in Yoruba land, beside the Hausa, Fulani, Kanuri, Nupe, Igbira, Igala, and others.

In any case, the most insulting nonsense is that Atiku got not a single vote in the entire south-south. A reflection of the possibility that if we don’t take time we are going back to the tragicomedy that no voting will take place there.

The real lesson however is; make sure we know how many register and depend the result of their free expressions of political choice. Otherwise they will rig the General election as well. The good omen is this; even if the contraption called PDP survives, it would never again be the dominant and overbearing behemoth it now is. For that we should be grateful.

Did you see the Champagne-popping, indecent party the NTA was subjecting us to? Frankly, I couldn’t see what the s**t they had to celebrate, except the assumption that they have been given a license to continue raping the nation.

http://dailytrust.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10204:atikus-mistake&catid=6:daily-columns&Itemid=6

hmmmmn!good write up that sums it all up.

The whole write up is purely a figment of the writer's imagination. It is ridiculous for any one to say the north is marginalised in the political calculation of this country. Atiku himseif knew before hand that the power of incubency that made him to serve 8yrs in the office could be employed against him. Yet he fought, not gallantly but lost gallantly.

Story Story story.

did not pick vice president before the election.

So Daily_disTrust is just realizing this? Shame on it. This is sheer complain after defeat. Bad belle write-up.