Presidential candidates: Kwankwaso, Obi, Atiku and Tinubu.

TheNEWS cover design on the 2023 presidential candidates

 The former Lagos State Governor, Senator Tinubu, is a household name in Nigerian politics. He showed the quality of his politics in the manoeuvres that characterised his emergence in the June 6-8 Primary election of his party which was held at the Eagle Square Abuja. He resisted sustained efforts to edge him out of the race through a failed consensus arrangement.

 After days of indecision, he submitted the name of Ibrahim Masari a Muslim party chieftain from Katsina State as a Vice Presidential placeholder to beat the INEC deadline. The nominee eventually resigned to pave way for Kashim Shettima, another Muslim and former Governor of insurgency-infected Borno State. CAN accused the candidate of marginalising its members by his choice.

Tinubu and Shettima, his running mate

Obi initially submitted the name of Dr Doyin Okupe, his campaign Director General as his Running Mate. Okupe later resigned and he picked Senator Datti Ahmed, an impressionable academic and fellow PDP decamped, from Kaduna State as a replacement.

Obi and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed

 But Obi thinks differently. He replies to the bookmakers: “Whenever I hear of NO STRUCTURE, my answer to it is simple; the 100 million Nigerians that live in poverty will be the structure. The 35 million Nigerians who don’t know where their next meal will come from will be the structure.

 Kwakwanso, who holds a PhD in Water Engineering has become a familiar face in Aso Villa politics. In 2014, after the formation of the APC, he came second in the party primary that produced Buhari as a candidate. He later returned to the PDP, where again, he aspired for the Presidential flag in 2018. He came a distant fourth to Atiku, who won the primary. His third and current mission began with his formation of The National Movement in February of this year.

 The party needs to nib the complaint in the bud so that it does not get out of hand.

Kwankwaso, right, and his running mate, Bishop Isaac Idahosa2

 The Adamawa-born former Customs officer made his debut entrance in 1992, during the aborted Third Republic. He bided for the ticket of the then Social Democratic Party, SDP, which he lost to Bashorun Moshood Kasimawo Olawale Abiola, of blessed memory. He has since maintained a strong presence in presidential politics, like Polaris, the constant northern star. He was once a candidate for the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN. He was also a candidate for PDP in 2019.

 The Rivers Governor, therefore, became the rallying point of a dissident group. The aggrieved group which included Governors Samuel Ortom of Benue, Seyi Makinde of Oyo and former Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti threatened to spoil things for the party if they are not assuaged. Other parties started wooing the group to facilitate the crash of the PDP house.

 Some stakeholders in and outside the party in the south harbour bitterness against Atiku’s candidature. They argue that his emergence was against the run-of-play and zoning arrangement enshrined in the party constitution.

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State

Physically remote but fully involved in the processes leading up to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s victory at the APC primaries and also in the power play that led to the emergence of Senator Kashim Shettima as the vice presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, it was with quixotic astonishment and predictable derision that the mere suggestion of a controversy over a same-faith presidential ticket provoked my angst and anger.

The conduct of the political elite reinforces the appearance of politics as usual. For instance, in the past week, as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Bola Tinubu and his People’s Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart Atiku Abubakar traded accusations, it was as if one was watching an amicable quarrel between two longstanding political allies who suddenly found themselves on different sides of the political divide (which is true, in a sense), rather than an earnest showdown between gladiators who fundamentally disagree on policy and economic ideology.

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