2015 AKWA IBOM GUBER RACE: PDP AND THE CHOICE OF ITS FLAG BEARER. Arguably, the choice of the gubernatorial candidate of the ruling party, the PDP, has elicited interests, tension and apprehension in the state. Expectedly so because if the party fields an unpopular candidate, it stands the risk of being rejected and voted out of power at the polls and well meaning and right-thinking members, leaders and stake-holders of the party dont want anything capable of changing their status to opposition leaders in the state. The fate of Bauchi state PDP in 2007 is being used as a case study. The incumbent national chairman of the party, Alhaji Musa Muazu, was completing his second term as the governor of the state at the material time. Against wise counsel and popular demand, he used the instrumentality of his office and foisted his puppet as the gubernatorial candidate of the party. The present governor of the state, Dr Isa Yuguda, who just resigned his appointment then as minister of Aviation to vie for the partys ticket kicked against the partys choice and mobilized his teeming supporters and defected to the then ANPP where he was handed the governorship ticket of the party. What was the outcome of the contest?. The PDP was overrun and thus became the opposition party in the state until the governor later returned to its fold. It must also be mentioned here Muazu who was also aspiring to go to the senate was roundly defeated by the opposition candidate. There is also a case of Ogun PDP in the 2011 election.The former president, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, had misused his position as the BOT chairman of the party and foisted an unpopular retired army general, Olurin on the party as its governorship candidate. The then governor of the state, Gbenga Daniel, who was completing his second term in office, felt short-changed and hurriedly floated a new party, the Peoples Party of Nigeria ,on which platform his loyalists contested that years elections. Other aggrieved and disenchanted members of the PDP, defected to parties like ANPP,LP and ACN. In the final analysis, what happened?, PDP lost the state to the ACN. It is worthy of mention here that the votes garnered by the PDP members who had defected to the ANPP,LP,PPN to contest the election put together was more than the votes that the then ACN used to defeat the PDP. Prior to that time, it was arrogantly boasted that Ogun state was 100% PDP and whoever that got its ticket for any election would certainly win that election. I need not mention what happened here in 2006. Whether or not this history will repeat itself shall be told by time and events. Today in our state, the party is standing the risks of facing what it faced in Bauchi, Ogun and other places not mentioned in piece because of the shenanigans of certain elements capable of pushing some members, leaders and stakeholders of the party to the wall. We are at the fatal crossroad. Any wrong step taken by the party can be calamitous for us. What the party needs now is a governorship candidate who can bring all the contending interests in the party together. We need a man who is genuinely supported by the generality of the people of the state and not a kind of intimidated support.We need a man who is relating with everybody very well. We need a man of ideas with a fair knowledge and understanding of the different people and sections of the state with their perculiar needs and challenges and how to tackle and address them. Fortunately for the party, we have a patriot, visionary, strategic thinker, grassrooter per excellence and great mobilizer like His Excellency, Sir [Obong] Nsima Ekere,former Deputy Governor of the State, in the race for its governorship ticket. That is one young man who has taken time to win the hearts of the generality of the people of the state. He has not antagonized anybody and nobody has antagonized him.He talks to and consults everybody. His calm, meek, humble and peaceful nature makes him approachable by everybody. He has a well defined and refined vision to lead the state to the next level. To him, we have built the infrastructure and it is now time to build the people. He is concerned about what will happen to the economy of our state when oil would have dried up. He is not only talking theories but has come up with practical ideas on how to address these issues.Recently, on the occasion of his consultative visit to the Oro Think Tank, he made his plans to build and commission the Ibaka Sea Port and this will make Oro the economic nerve centre of the state, thereby, changing the face of the place socially and economically. The PDP needs Obong Nsima Ekere as its governorship candidate not only to win the governorship election but other elections in the state. His campaign of ideas has endeared him to the generality of the people of the state. Even his critics concede that he is a good man, a perfect gentleman with a very large and forgiving heart, with a burning desire to industrialize the state with a view to creating jobs for the jobless youths of the state. That is why he has been receiving endorsements from hundreds of youth and grassroots groups across the state. We must be conscious of the thinking and calculation within the opposition camp that an unpopular candidate will most likely be foisted on the PDP and as a result aggrieved and disenchanted members will most likely defect into its fold and that the Bauchi and Ogun scenarios may be re-enacted here in 2015. We must fail them by going for a unifying factor like Nsima Ekere as our governorship candidate . By Iniobong John
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 06:47:05 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015