[b]The ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the hastily formed opposition ‘coalition,’ the All Progressives Congress (APC) both concluded their presidential primary elections recently, preparatory to the forthcoming general elections scheduled for February 2015. The PDP chose incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan to fly its flag, in what can hardly be called a primary election—because the President had no single opponent—the first time that would happen since the party started ruling the country after the return to democracy in 1999.

The APC had to endure a gruelling primary election that pitted former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari against former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and three other candidates—a newspaper mogul, Isaiah Ndah, a rather lively character who currently is governor of the South Eastern Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, and former Defence Minister, Rabiu Kwankwaso. Efforts by party elders to reach a consensus did not work out, as did their plans, after this failed, to prune the number of candidates down before the electoral showdown.

The party faithful(slightly over 5’000 accredited delegates) had been worried that going into a bruised electoral contest may not work well for the party, given the stature of at least three of those candidates—Buhari, Atiku and Kwankwaso. Nonetheless, the contenders were destined to go through a tough polling process, which, after the results finally came out, gave overwhelming backing to Buhari (with over 3’000 votes) to become the party’s flag bearer. Atiku, initially considered as someone, given his antecedents, who could spring a surprise, was beaten to a distant third position (with slightly over 900 votes) by Kwankwaso (who also scored in the same region). Ndah fared terribly and will need to ask questions of his entire campaign team (some of whom may not even have voted for him considering that he had scored only 10 votes in such a national contest)!

While the PDP relished its national convention which threw up the candidacy of President Jonathan, it had to contend with significant bickering within the party which had seen such heavyweights as Olusegun Obasanjo, former President and former Chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, stay aloof from proceedings. Some political watchers fear too that even some of the Governors supposedly working for the President in this unfolding electoral contest may not be entirely loyal. Going for the incumbent though is the fact that the party still controls most of the States of the Federation, has the insurgency in the north east seemingly under control for now and has better financial muscle to fight federal elections that are very expensive to say the least.

The APC also has its own fair share of internal bickering. Most of the disagreement within the party has to do with the process through which candidates for positions other than the Presidency were picked. The topmost echelon of the party seems united, despite the tough and divisive elections they had to pick the presidential flagbearer, but down the ladder, some party members accused local stalwarts of imposing candidates on them. The party however seems more focussed on consolidating the presidential ticket, which can only happen with the selection of the best Vice-Presidential material that can help cement Buhari’s stature ahead of the polls.
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