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(COVER) South East: APC PLOT PDP’S FALL

…Uses 2023 presidency as bait

Akani Alaka writes on the intrigues behind the defection of Governor Dave Umahi from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to the All Progressives Congress, APC on Tuesday amidst the clamour for Igbo presidency.

 

After weeks of speculation, Governor Dave Umahi finally took the big plunge with his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

Speaking at a press conference in Abakaliki, capital of Ebonyi, on Tuesday afternoon, Umahi confirmed that he has joined the ruling party, anchoring his decision to jump the PDP ship on alleged injustice to the South-east by the party, which the people of the region have been supporting since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999.

He also tried to dismiss speculations that his defection to the APC was in actualisation of his bid to contest the 2023 presidency on the platform of the party. Nevertheless, he did not hold back on his anger that despite the region’s over 20 years’ wholesale support and vote for the PDP, especially in presidential elections, the party is not ready to zone its ticket for the 2023 presidency to the zone.

“Why am I moving to APC? Some people said I was promised this and that but I tell you, there is no such discussion. APC never promised me any position, they never promised South-east any position, there was no such discussion. However, I offered this movement as a protest to the injustice being done to South-east by the PDP since 1998 till date,”  said Umahi who added that he never sought for the PDP presidential ticket.

“Whoever that said that I moved to APC because they refused to zone the ticket to me is being very mischievous. Because even if PDP promises me, an individual a presidential ticket, how does it work? It is expected that well over 8000 delegates would elect the person and such promise cannot happen without more than 10 or 20 people. People are being very mischievous but I tell you, there are a lot of prominent people from South-east that can take the slot of PDP,” the governor added.

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Buhari’s Man In PDP

But it is doubtful if the strident denial will suffice to obfuscate speculations about Umahi’s desire to become Nigeria’s next president. For one, the governor is the closest among the state chief executives in the South-east region to President Muhammadu Buhari and it was believed that this was because of his presidential ambition.

Umahi demonstrated his love for the president when he got some traditional rulers in the South-east to bestow two titles – Enyioma 1 (Good Friend) of Ebonyi  and Ochioha Ndigbo of South East- on Buhari during Buhari’s visit to his state in 2017.

It was gathered that during that visit, the first by the president to the South after his election in 2015, billionaire businessman, Prince Arthur Eze had urged the President to support Umahi to succeed him as part of the plans to return the presidency to the South in 2023. There were speculations the Ebonyi State governor would defect to the APC before the 2019 election.

But Umahi considered abandoning the PDP for the APC too risky for his second term ambition. He stayed back in the party and was reelected. But speculations about Umahi’s plan to abandon the PDP for APC because of his presidential ambition again began to trend soon after he assumed office for his second term.

The speculations gained further currency with reports that the governor met with his aides and intimated them of his intention to abandon PDP for APC some weeks ago.

 

Quest For Igbo Presidency And PDP

While he denied that his decision to abandon PDP has to do with his political ambition when he eventually took the plunge, he was emphatic that it was about the desires of the Igbo people to produce Nigeria’s next president. Umahi said he was ready to be a martyr in the bid to achieve the much-sought Igbo presidency and would not regret his action, whatever the outcome.

“I have to lead the protest against the marginalisation of the Igbos by the PDP and I don’t have to consult anybody to lead such a protest. I don’t want the PDP to collapse in the South-east but it can collapse itself in the zone if it does not heed to the peoples’ advice to entrench justice, fairness and equity,” said the governor.

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“The PDP should be bold to declare its stand on zoning of the presidency to the South-east and if it cannot, should tell us why we are not capable of holding such a position but will come for our votes during elections,” he said.

True, chieftains of PDP had consistently either evaded the question of the geopolitical zone that the party’s 2023 presidential ticket will be zoned to or indicated that the southern part of the country is not in their calculations.

Uche Secondus, the national chairman of the party had many times in the past indicated that the party will zone its presidential ticket to the zone and an individual that can help it to win the presidency in 2023.

And when he was asked where the party would zone its presidential ticket to on Monday, Kola Ologbodiyan, the spokesperson of said at the appropriate time, all organs of the party would decide on the issue:  “PDP is a structured party. We have our various organs and it’s not a party belonging to one man from the North and one from the South. Our decision processes have a course and whatever decisions that must be taken, all the organs must be involved. We don’t act on impulse. We have not reached the stage of zoning of offices. Some of the things we are reading are mere speculations.”

Many, however, believe that such assertions are mere prevarications to disguise the fact that the party has made up its mind that it would be in its interest to give its presidential ticket to a northerner in the next general election.

Indeed, Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State at whose pleasure many believe Secondus is presiding over the PDP has never hidden his preference for Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State as the party’s next presidential candidate.

Wike had similarly pushed for Tambuwal’s emergence as the PDP’s candidate in the 2019 general election. But he was outwitted as former Vice President Atiku Abubakar emerged the candidate of the party, majorly with the support of the South-east governors.

The former vice president as well as former governor of Kano State, Musa Kwankwaso, who also contested for the party’s 2019 presidential ticket, is getting set for a fresh bid to govern Nigeria on the platform of the PDP in the 2023 elections.

 

We Know Why You Left

In his first reaction to the defection of the Ebonyi governor, Wike said that committed members of the PDP were not surprised because, according to him, Umahi had been fraternising with the APC. The Rivers State governor, however, said he was perturbed by Umahi’s attempt to justify his decision with alleged injustice meted on the South-east by the PDP.

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Wike accused Umahi of being unfair to the PDP, the party which gave him governorship ticket in 2015 against all odds, and repeated same feat in 2019: “My friend, Umahi wants to be president. There is no problem about that. You have a right to be president. Nobody can stop you. You are educated. You have been a governor for two terms, so you are qualified to say I want to be president of Nigeria. But, that does not mean, that you have to blackmail your party, and tell lies to the people you are leaving the party because of the injustice meted against the South-east. That is not correct.”

While demanding that Umahi should retract his statement that the PDP has not been fair to the South-east, Wike argued that under the PDP, the South-east had produced Senate presidents; national vice chairman of the PDP and secretary to the Federal Government. But the governor stopped short of making any commitment on his party’s 2023 presidential ticket.

Taking Over South-East via Igbo Presidency As Bogey 

So, the PDP’s gate appears closed to the Igbo people of the South-east Nigeria who had anchored their demand to produce Nigeria’s next president on justice and equity  – as the only one of Nigeria’s three major ethnic groups whose member has not occupied the Aso Rock presidential villa, especially since the country’s return to democracy in 1999.

The ruling APC gave its presidential ticket to the President Buhari, from Katsina State, North-west Nigeria in 2015 and 2019. The argument among some members of the party is that Buhari should be succeeded by a Southerner and it is believed that this is the bait that was used to woo Umahi to APC.

APC had celebrated the defection of Umahi to its camp on Tuesday evening with a feeling of triumph on its official Twitter handle, @OfficialAPCNg on Tuesday evening: “Welcome home, Governor David Nweze Umahi. Ebonyi State is APC!”  Governor Hope Uzodimma, the only APC governor in the South-east before his Ebonyi State’s counterpart joined him had on Monday said the defection of Umahi would be a precursor to other governors in the geopolitical zone to join the ruling party.

“We are still talking to more governors to join and APC is the ruling party and in the interest of national integration, Imo and the South-east indeed need to become part of the ruling party to make the Nigerian project a complete project,” the governor said while speaking to journalists at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja.

This was followed by a closed-door meeting of chieftains of the APC from the South-east zone in Imo Governor’s Lodge on Monday evening where, as was gathered, the issue of impending defection of the Ebonyi State governor was the major topic.

Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, the Minister of Science and Technology who was part of the meeting was also unequivocal about the focus of his party in the region. “We are working so that by 2023 we will be able to have five governors who are of APC in the South-east. We are also preparing for the by-elections, one in Enugu, and there is a Senate seat in Imo. We are working very hard to make sure that we win in these elections,” said the minister who added that the meeting was convened to review the situation of the party in the South-east.

The 2023 Bait

Based on the directive of the Chairman of its Caretaker/Extra-Ordinary National Convention Planning Committee Governor, Mai Mala Buni, it was gathered that APC leaders in the South-east would in the next few weeks embark on a recruitment offensive with the aim of convincing the Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu; his Enugu State counterpart, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi; and Willy Obiano of Anambra State to follow the path of Umahi, using as bait, the 2023 presidential ticket.

“The defection of Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State is just the beginning; more high-profiled Nigerians from across the board have indicated interest in joining our great party. Nigerians have now seen that the APC is a moving train and the PDP is a sinking ship. Don’t forget that the governor is a governor, who is on the ground and is not coming in alone; he is coming with people,” Yekini Nabena, the deputy spokesperson for the party said in an interview on Monday.

With defection of Umahi to APC, PDP now has only two governors in the South-East down from four it had after the 2019 elections. This, however, did not indicate the acceptance of the party in the region in which, perhaps, it is most hated.

APC’s first governor in the South-east post 2019 was courtesy of a Supreme Court’s befuddling judgment in which the victory of Emeke Ihedioha of PDP was nullified after several months in office in favour of Uzodimma who came fourth in the Imo gubernatorial election. Many people in Imo still believe that their mandate was stolen and dashed to the APC candidate by the apex court; hence, Uzodimma has been dubbed the ‘Supreme Court Governor.’

With such unpopularity among their people, it is doubtful if other governors will succumb to the APC’s offer.

But an analyst told this newspaper that since the governors are in their final tenure of office, they may damn the consequences, especially if they choose to embrace the 2023 Igbo presidency carrot being dangled before them by the APC.  Yet, analysts insist that the Igbo presidency may not be anything more than a bait to destroy the PDP in the South-east as part of the ultimate plan to reduce the strength of the party nationally.

Many APC members from other geopolitical zones of the country will certainly not see the reason for zoning of the presidential ticket to the zone where their party has struggled for acceptance without much success since its formation in 2014. It is also doubtful if the ambition of the South-east on the platform of APC can stand while other party chieftains from the South such as Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Rotimi Amaechi, Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State are also eyeing the presidential ticket.

But then, there are still members of APC who believe that the party should not zone its 2023 presidential ticket and instead should allow merit to guide its decision. Some other members of the party have also argued that APC presidential ticket should remain in the North if the party wants to match PDP strength for strength in the 2023 polls.

At the end of the day, Umahi and others may just discover that they have been sold a pig in a poke because, even Buhari, as we have seen over the years will not even intervene to help anybody get the presidential ticket, a source within the APC told The Nigerian Xpress.

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