Elempe Dele
Writer
The scheme to remove President Tinubu from office is as thick as as the skin of the sperm whale. The Coalition, the group involved in this scheme, has adopted the once passive party, Africa Democratic Party, ADC, as the official party to oust the president. The leading figures championing this course are Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Senator David Mark, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, Mr. Peter Obi, Rauf Arigbesola, El Rufai and several other very experienced politicians who have joined ADC via the Coalition for divers reasons.
However, there are reasonable foreseen aches the party may face in choosing who will be the flagbearer of the party. The party is going to have to deliberate where their presidential candidate will come from, a problem the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was faced with during the 2023 presidential primary electioneering.
After the eight years reign of President Buhari, it was generally agreed that power must, as a matter of morals, return to the South. Atiku will not hear any of that. He would go on to run during the primary, and as a political behemoth, he easily won, which eventually tore the party into unfixable shreads it is today. Of course, as usual, he has left the much destroyed party with his large followers to join ADC without officially announcing his exit, as he used to do.
Officially, Atiku the aging politician, has not declared openly his intention to contest the election, not even under ADC.
Mr. Obi, one of the forces that contested the 2023 presidential election, had already declared his intention to contest the election under the Labour Party before the convocation of the Coalition that morphed into ADC. Having seen the granduer of this new platform, he has also declared he will run under it. In one of his speeches, he said ADC would offer Nigerians “a competent, capable, and compassionate” leadership.
“Our commitment is to sacrifice and work together towards the 2027 general elections, ensuring that Nigeria gets a competent, capable, and compassionate leadership that will prioritise the nation’s future by putting the welfare of Nigerians first.” His political rhethoric went ahead to add that if an agreement is reached, he is willing to serve a single four-year term.
In a recent interview on Channels TV, Amaechi also displayed his ambition to run under ADC. He accentuated his believe in power-sharing between the South and the North claiming he ia ready to run for only four years. “I led the fight against the PDP government,” he said. “Why? Because there was an agreement that the government as that time would spend four years. But after four years, the government reneged on it, and I said no, that would be unfair. That will be instability at its peak because the North will react.”
The point Amaechi made is a very clear signal to any discerning mind that he will not support a northern candidate if such emerges from ADC. “I wont do more than four years,” he affirmed. “The South must be allowed to complete its tenure. If the South is not allowed to complete its tenure, then I have made a mistake in supporting it.”
The hope of Obi and Amaechi that the ADC will zone the presidential ticket to the South could be a pipe dream of headaches with Atiku being around. If Atiku is not running, there wont be need for him to be in the Coalition in the first place. And if he wishes to run, with his structure spread like the arms of the octopus, he will smoke Obi and Amaechi away like clay pots during the primary election. Some political commentators are already proferring a level playing ground for all contestants in ADC as a matter of principle. They are recommending that the party should throw up the ticket for the best candidate to grab. Of course, we know the best candidate will need the best Dollars, not shi shi. In line with this thinking, some are suggesting that keeping the ticket in the South should be jettisoned, that the party’s objective should be on producing a viable candidate who can defeat Tinubu.
Zoning the ticket to the South will ultimately affect Atiku, and the possibility of him leaving the party will be created. On the other hand, Obi and Amaechi might also leave the party if the ticket is thrown open because there would no way either of them can defeat Atiku in the primary.
The political migraine is symptomatic, and this is the first ache the Coalition must threat.
