There are indications that the 2015 general election will be keenly contested across the country and BD SUNDAY checks revealed that the gubernatorial polls are likely to cause upheaval, starting from the primaries.
The checks further revealed that some states are expected to be very hot from now till the end of the elections, especially on the choice of candidates, and these states include Abia, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Kano, Oyo, Plateau and Rivers.
According to analysts, the two leading parties in the country, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), are going to be at the forefront of the battle royale.
With the level of wheeling and dealing going on in the states, many politicians are likely going to have their egos deflated as unknown political entities will emerge, courtesy of outgoing state governors leveraging on the sweeping powers given to them (governors) by the party’s national secretariat to anoint their successors.
Our reporters gathered that feathers would also be ruffled in many states as about seven outgoing governors have received Abuja’s mandate to replace the senators from their states hoping to return to their beats.
ABIA
Never in the history of Abia State had the number of individuals seeking election for the governorship seat, many of whom technocrats and professionals, been as many as it is this time around.
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Although the zoning arrangement espoused by Theodore Orji, governor, and the state leadership of the PDP, the ruling party, was intended to narrow the search for the incumbent’s successor to the Ukwa/Ngwa bloc, many politicians, even those from other blocs, have since joined the fray.
Those on the list include Alex Otti, an astute banker, who recently resigned his position as the managing director/chief operation officer of Diamond Bank; Uche Ogah, president, Masters Energy Group, a successful businessman and renowned philanthropist; Okezie Ikpeazu, a Doctorate Degree Holder (PhD) in Biochemical Pharmacology, and a major donor of the Rotary Club International; Friday Nwosu, a renowned lawyer; Enyinnaya Abaribe, a serving senator and a former deputy governor; Emeka Wogu, immediate past former minister of Labour and Productivity, who also resigned to enable him contest for the seat; Nkechi Nwaogu, a serving senator; Marc Wabara, a former MD of defunct Hallmark Bank, and former banker, and Acho Nwakanma, a two-time deputy governor in the state. They are all contesting on the PDP platform. There are also a good number of others on the platform of other parties.
It is believed that the major problem the party will encounter will come from some disenchanted aspirants, serving senators and some House of Representatives members- those who believe that they were short-changed at the just concluded ward congress.
For instance, all the three senators representing the state and some governorship aspirants as well as some party chieftains of the PDP had alleged that the ward congress did not hold in the 184 electoral wards in the state. They dismissed it as a “charade and caricature of democracy.”
If these feelings are not assuaged before the election proper, the exercise may be marred by violence
RIVERS
Rivers is likely going to be the hottest of all places going by the battles that have been going on between Governor Rotimi Amaechi and the Presidency. The interest of President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Patience, in who succeeds Amaechi, pundits say, will make the gubernatorial poll in the state a moral equivalence of war. The supremacy war between Amaechi and Nyesom Wike, a former minister of state for Education, who recently resigned to prosecute his gubernatorial ambition, is likely to be taken to a notch higher.
The state, BD SUNDAY gathered, has already been made hot by the activities of jobless youths who are being recruited as thugs.
Apart from the inter-party squabble between the ruling APC and opposition PDP, there is an intra-party crisis in the PDP occasioned by the ambition of Wike, an Ikwere man who is bent on succeeding his kinsman, Amaechi.
Political offices in the state had always been zoned along the line of Riverine/Upland. The upland consists of the Ikwerres, Ogonis, Ekpeyes, Ogbas, Ndonis and others, while the riverine people are the Kalabaris, Andonis, Opobos, Ibanis, Abuans, Oduals, Nkoros and several others.
According to the Riverine people, the number one position in the state has always been skewed in favour of the Upland since the creation of old Rivers State in 1967 and the new Rivers in 1996. They argue that after Upland produced Peter Odili and incumbent, Amaechi, it will only be fair for the Riverine area to have a shot. While Odili is from the Ndoni extraction, Amaechi hails from Ikwerre, the same ethnic nationality and senatorial district – Rivers East – with Wike, who is believed to have the backing of the First Lady, Patience Jonathan.
These are some of the issues, which if not properly resolved before the polls, could engender strife on a larger scale.
AKWA IBOM
The endorsement by Governor Godswill Obot Akpabio of Udom Emmanuel, immediate past secretary to the state government (SSG) from Eket Senatorial District, as his successor appears to have bruised some egos in the state. And the battle line may have been drawn.
Akpabio, it was gathered, had set up a 31-man coordinating committee to see through the plan to install the former SSG as his successor at the expiration of his tenure in 2015.
He openly declared that he would prefer that the governorship ticket be zoned to Eket for justice and equity, since the state consists of three ethnic groups of Ibibio, Annang and Eket/Oron.
Akpabio’s preference for someone from Eket Senatorial District stemmed from the fact that nobody from that district has ever ruled the state since it was created, whereas, Victor Attah, an Ibibio ruled from 1999 to 2007; Akpabio himself from Annang is about completing his second term of eight years in office.
BD SUNDAY gathered that the arrangement did not go down well with some leaders and PDP elders in the state, such as Victor Attah, former governor; Don Etiebet, former Petroleum minister; Ufot Ekaete, former secretary to the Federal Government, and Rita Akpan, former minister for Women Affairs, among others.
It was gathered that the above-listed politicians are more favourable to a level playing field for all aspirants, than what appears like an imposition. But some critics wonder their change of stand, since they all advocated for zoning in 1999, 2007 and 2011.
BD SUNDAY learnt that Attah’s major grouse with Akpabio was the incumbent’s inability to allow Attah’s his son-in-law, Udoma Ekarika, succeed him (Attah) in 2007.
Attah, it was gathered, did all he could to make sure Ekarika become the PDP’s choice in the state. At the end of the day, Ekarika did not win the primaries.
Etiebet on the other hand is a founding father of PDP. He is of the stock of Annang with Akpabio.
Etiebet has expressed his annoyance that Akpabio and the party hierarchy, where he is a Board of Trustees member, have side-lined him in the affairs of the party in the state such that he could not even produce a councillor in his ward.
Etiebet had, during the build up to the 2007 gubernatorial election in the state, thrown his weight behind Governor Akpabio and even mustered enough delegates for him to become governor to the detriment of Ekarika, Attah’s candidate, who also hails from Oruk Anam, the home base of Don Etiebet.
Ufot Ekaete, a former SGF, who was said to have convinced his then boss, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, to intervene on behalf of Akpabio for an outright win, appears not happy with the out-going governor anymore.
Apart from Attah who is said to be nursing a long-standing animosity against Akpabio for blocking Ekarika in 2007, others accuse Akpabio of running a one-man show without due consultations.
Moreover, Akpabio’s senatorial ambition, which is said to be conflicting with that of the incumbent senator representing his senatorial district, is another battle the chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum will have to fight.
These animosities are likely to be carried into the election, next year.
BENUE
The political situation in Benue at the moment is dicey. The incumbent Governor Gabriel Suswam and Senator Barnabas Gemade are on each other’s jugular over who controls what, particularly, the insistence of the governor on retiring Gemade from the Senate and possibly from active politics. Both are from Benue North East Senatorial District.
The entrance of Mike Onoja, a retired federal permanent secretary, into the senatorial race may have also increased the tempo of desperation in the state. Onoja wants to unseat David Mark from Benue South.
But with the development at the PDP office in Abuja, Suswam and Mark’s tickets may have been stamped in advance.
For the gubernatorial race, ahead of the PDP primaries, about 15 aspirants have picked their expression of intent and nomination forms.
BD SUNDAY gathered that it would be a straight fight between the APC and PDP.
Leading contenders in PDP are Mike Aondoakaa, a former minister of justice and attorney-general of the federation; Samuel Ortom, immediate past minister of state Industry, Trade and Investment; Steven Lawani, deputy governor; Andy Uwouku, Hingah Beim, Tivlumun Nyitse, retired permanent secretaries in the Benue State civil service; and James Mbachiantim, an American-trained public health practitioner. On the platform of APC are Emmanuel Jime, member representing Makurdi/Guma at the National Assembly and House Committee chairman on FCT; Mike Iordye, immediate retired Benue State head of service and Akange Audu, a retired permanent secretary in the state civil service.
Meanwhile, the result of the ward congresses is being seriously contested, with some members alleging manipulation by the governor. Gemade and Ortom are at the forefront of those screaming foul.
PLATEAU
The tussle is mainly between the incumbent governor, Jonah Jang and his predecessor, Joshua Dariye. While the leadership of the party insists that the former governor is yet to properly declare his return to the party and has no right to use PDP logo to campaign until he does the needful, Dariye is going ahead with his ambition. The former governor, who left PDP for the Labour Party (LP), insists that he has returned. A group in the state has called for the cancellation of the ward congress, accusing Governor Jang of bulk purchase of delegate forms.
The group threatened to petition Adamu Mu’azu, the national chairman of PDP. They alleged that Jang was desperate to install his own men to succeed him in 2015.
But Pam Sale, state secretary of PDP, through a statement, warned those using the party logo to print campaign materials to desist forthwith as the party still regards them as impostors.
“They are those who had left the party for other parties, fought the party in the last elections and today want to contest without being officially received as returnees,” the party said.
KANO
Here, the struggle is between the new PDP members from the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and old members of PDP who have different gubernatorial aspirants they want the party to field as candidate.
The factions of Ibrahim Shekarau, ex-governor of the state and current minister of Education and that of Aminu Bashir Wali, present minister of Foreign Affairs, appear poised for a power play.
It was gathered that Salihu Sagir Takai who was Shekarau’s anointed gubernatorial candidate in the 2011 election is still his choice and that of majority of the former ANPP members now in PDP. Aminu Wali’s candidate is still unknown. It is, however, clear that he is not likely to back the purported candidate of Shekarau.
Another force coming into the scene is Muhammad Sani Abacha, son of former Nigeria’s head of state. There are also others in the race from PDP and APC who are still capable of causing trouble with their large followers if the process is compromised.
Kano State is very important to the PDP-led government; as a result, whatever that goes on there from now till the elections are over, would attract Federal Government’s attention.
OYO
Oyo State is known for violence and thuggery. The spirit of “Amala Politics” promoted by the late Lamidi Ariyibi Adedibu is yet to be totally exorcised, despite Governor Abiola Ajimobi’s efforts. The 2015 gubernatorial election promises to be tough because Ajimobi is rooting for second term. It has become established that no governor retains his seat beyond one term. But the incumbent insists he will break the jinx this time around.
Meanwhile, other aspirants from visible political parties like APC, PDP, Accord Party (AP) and Labour Party (LP) are ready to do battle.
If Ajimobi eventually emerges from his party, he will be slugging it out with Rashidi Ladoja former governor, who is of Accord Party.
Whether the violence- killings, maiming and ballot-snatching- that used to attend elections in the pace-setter state will repeat this time around, only time will tell.
Zebulon Agomuo, GODFREY OFURUM, Remi Feyisipo, Barnes Agirigi, and Owede AGBAJILEKE
