At the last count, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has about ten individuals angling to be picked as presidential candidate of the party for the February 16, 2019 election.
The fear is that the increasing number of aspirants on the platform may set off another crisis after the primaries.
Since the 2015 presidential election, the PDP has been assailed by internal crisis that nearly consumed the party, but for the intervention of the Supreme Court last year.
Observers foresee a situation where the choice of a candidate for the party may breed rancour and put the umbrella association in a difficult situation, and worsen its rating and sympathy from the electorate.
Since the election of Uche Secondus as the national chairman of the party after the crisis, PDP, in an effort to win the sympathy of Nigerians, has thrown its doors open; calling on anybody and everybody to come on board.
Secondus began with conciliatory moves, tendering unreserved apology to Nigerians and seeking forgiveness for any wrong done by the party in its 16 years of occupying power stool.
Whereas the party leadership was accused of being high-handed, impunity and lacking internal democracy which were the reasons for the disintegration in 2014, the new leadership of the party, upon inauguration, pledged to correct all ills.
It therefore, urged those who have left the party for other platforms to return home.
Secondus and other leaders of the party also embarked on consultation moves. This took them to Abeokuta, Ogun State, to see former president Olusegun Obasanjo, who has since left the party, on the platform of which he presided over the affairs of the country for eight years (1999-2007).
They leveraged Obasanjo’s open show of dissatisfaction over the current state of affairs in the country under the Muhammadu Buhari administration and APC government.
Recently, before the gale of defections that took place in the APC, the Secondus-led PDP national working committee (NWC) had also entered into a dialogue with some of those who left the party in 2014. A few weeks to Bukola Saraki’s defection, he had met with the leadership of the PDP in Ilorin, Kwara State. The PDP leaders also met with the BubaGaladima-ledReformed All Progressives Congress (R-APC).
Now, the party is bursting with a retinue of presidential aspirants. Every one of the aspirants appears to be seeking to lead Nigeria using the platform.
Related News Among those who have signified interest or said to be nursing the ambition to contest the presidency on the PDP platform are Ibrahim Shekarau, former Kano State governor; Hassan Dankwambo, Gombe State governor; Aminu Tambuwal, Sokoto State governor; Attahiru Bafarawa, former governor of Sokoto; Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president; Kabiru Tanimu, a former minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Relations; Sule Lamido, a former governor of Jigawa State.
Others are Ahmed Makarfi, a former governor of Kaduna State; Rabiu Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State and Bukola Saraki, president of the Senate.
Of all the names listed above, only a few are loyal PDP members, who have never left the party at any time. They have remained in the party even at the thick of its crises; fought for its soul and reclaimed it from undertakers who wanted it dead.
With the assurances of the party that those who return to it now can aspire to any post in the country using the platform, and would also enjoy the treatment those who have remained steadfast would enjoy; a stage may have been set for rancour and fresh crisis depending on the outcome of the primary.
The bloated number of aspirants may have begun to give the PDP a serious concern on how to handle the primary. It may create a bottleneck and confusion over selection process.
Kola Ologbodiyan, national publicity secretary of the party, in a statement, last weekend, said that Nigerians would determine presidential their candidate.
But choosing a party’s presidential candidate is purely through its delegates.
While in Lokoja, Kogi State last weekend, Makarfi pointed out that a new wave of crisis may be brewing in the party with the way returned presidential aspirants are being given assurance of an open cheque; and all the privileges of “sonship”. He urged the leadership of the party to apply caution in the selection of the candidate.
Makarfi, a former governor of Kaduna State, who wrest the leadership of the PDP from Ali Modu Sheriff, said: “We would never forget the mistake we made when Modu Sheriff was brought. Sheriff came from another party with well-starched and long cap, they say he has millions, he has three jets, he will revive the party, but what did he do?
“He was taking the party down, he was selling the party, I that was considered to be a bush boy without money, I was told to rescue the party and I rescued it. Why because people trusted me and they believed in my capacity.”
“History may repeat itself if we are not careful, you will start seeing new players with all kinds of narratives, either money, either this or that, if we gamble with that, it will be the end of PDP I am serious.
“The same narratives that were used at that time, God so kind we had time and we were able to overcome but in this case, we don’t have that time. If we make that mistake that is the end of it,” he said.
