Unease in APC, PDP over Atiku

LAST week’s defection of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is already bearing fruits across party lines. While the All Progressives Congress (APC), which he left after barely four years of joining the party from the PDP, is still divided over how best to approach his sudden exit, the PDP, which he moved into last week, is faced with fresh anxieties over looming struggle for its presidential ticket.

Pundits say it will not be out of place to say both parties are currently on edge following Atiku’s defection. Not a few are also of the opinion that the decision of the former Vice President to dump the ruling party and pitch his tent with the opposition party at a time like this will definitely heat up the political landscape and his coming will further strengthen the troubled PDP, especially in the north and the southeast, where he is known to enjoy appreciable followership.

While the rumour mill has been agog for a while before now about the possibility of Atiku and his political family dumping the APC and moving back to the PDP, not many people thought the Adamawa-born politician will make the move so quickly. Thus, his defection last week caught many of the chieftains of both APC and PDP unawares.

General Secretary of the Voters’ Right Agenda (VRA), Dr. Paul Labi-Osborne, while speaking on the defection and its implication, said the move is definitely one of the factors that will determine how the 2019 presidential election will play out. According to him, Atiku’s decision to dump the ruling APC will go a long way in influencing how the struggle for the party’s presidential ticket will play out.

“It will be fool-hardy for anybody to say Atiku’s defection will have no effect on the APC. To say the least, his leaving the party will affect the race for the presidential ticket of the party. For the contender or contenders, that is one serious headache less. If he had stayed in the party, he would have sought the ticket and he is no push-over.

“So, I don’t need anybody to tell me that somebody or some people are very happy that he left as this will make their quest for the ticket easier. Don’t forget that Atiku had not left anybody in doubt of his readiness to contest the presidency. His ambition and the brazen manner in which some of his supporters within the party have been going about it has been unsettling some people and structures within the ruling party.

“We were all here when a serving minister publicly said she will work for the former Vice President against her current principal, President Muhammadu Buhari, should the two seek the presidency in 2019. And she is not the only serving federal government functionary who feels that way. Of course, this is something Buhari’s men are aware of. Such situations have been responsible for the tension that has enveloped the ruling party for a while now,” Labi-Osborne said.

Speaking further, the pro-democracy activist also warned the opposition PDP to be ready to curtail the effects of Atiku’s coming into the party. According to him, while the PDP will no doubt benefit immensely from Atiku’s defection as the former Vice President, a known political mobiliser with political machineries spread across the country, and will help reenergise the party in some parts of the country, his presidential ambition will rock the boat and challenge many permutations.

“Atiku is, as I said, no political upstart. So, coming into the PDP with his presidential ambition already a public matter, the party must be ready to bend over backward to accommodate his political moves and manoeuvres. Failure to do this will see him rocking the boat and challenging current permutations. Given his capacity to win friends and loyalists easily, just and he makes enemies, the PDP will feel his presence immensely.

“And should there be a pre-conceived arrangement on how the presidential ticket of the PDP would be allotted in 2019, Atiku’s coming, except he is the beneficiary of such arrangement, will make nonsense of such arrangement. It is on the basis of all these that I say Atiku’s defection will go a long way in determining how 2019 will play out,” he added.

APC in counter moves

Perhaps aware of pundits’ takes on Atiku’s defection and implications for the party, The Nation learnt that barely a week after the former Vice President ported from the APC to rival PDP, the leadership of the party and other structures within the APC are already making moves to douse the effect of the sudden defection and also prevent possible sympathy defection of more of its members.

According to very reliable party sources, the Odigie Oyegun-led leadership of the APC was rattled by Atiku’s defection and wasted no time in reaching out to party big wigs on what steps should be taken at a time like this. Not less than four emergency meetings have been held at the topmost echelon of the APC since the defection took place.

“While one or two of the parleys were to discuss Atiku’s defection and the public letter he wrote, the others focussed more on the implications of his defection and how best to manage the situation within and outside the party. The national chairman reached out to a wide spectrum of party chieftains more than he had ever done, as he addressed the issue.

“I can say the defection is helping to unite the party more as all hands are now on deck to ward off any negative effect as the party looks forward to the 2019 general election. Fence-mending are on now on regular basis. Party chieftains in the northeast and other parts of the country are being called upon to help handle the matter. Aggrieved chieftains and members who are not willing to leave the party are coming forward to say their minds.

“Just yesterday, a delegation of party leaders from Adamawa State came visiting the national secretariat. They were listened to and their grievances addressed. They pledged their loyalty to the party. These are people who wouldn’t have been able to come straight here before now as they would have to first see Atiku. So, the party is working hard to curtail possible effects,” our source said.

Organising Secretary of the APC in Adamawa State, Ahmed Lawal, said the party is working very hard to ensure that it is not affected negatively by Atiku’s exit. He added that with the current repositioning going on in the APC, the party would not miss the former vice president.

“If the former Vice President feels that his interest is better served elsewhere, we can always wish him good luck. For us, the task of building a political party is not a day’s job; it’s marathon and it takes many years and we will continue to improve on our system until we are able to get the kind of party that we want to really, really build. It takes many years to build a strong political party.”

The Nation also learnt that the leadership of the party, following anxiety that some governors and members of the national assembly are waiting in the wing to defect from the APC into the PDP, the leadership of the party has been reaching out to its member governors and legislators to discuss the rumour and get assurances that such will not happen.

“Through the Progressives Governors Forum, Oyegun reached out to the named governors and got to discuss the defection and rumours trailing it with them extensively. Most of them assured him they will not leave the party. That is the same forum (APC Governors’ Forum) that the national chairman had not related well with until recently.

“Similarly, meetings have been held with the APC caucuses in the national assembly. Although many of our members there are aggrieved and displeased with the party and the government, efforts are currently on to foster reconciliation and prevent further loss of our chieftains to the opposition PDP. I am aware that a larger meeting would have been held this week if not for Mr. President’s trips.

“Specifically, President Buhari has ordered that his earlier proposals that the party should dole out more patronages to party chieftains be implemented immediately.

Before now, he has directed that the party should use federal appointments and similar patronages to address some of the grievances in some sectors of the party. He has again urged the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the party chairman to immediately work out ways of doing this as soon as possible.

“As we speak, it is now more assured that it is the party, and not the presidency, that will handle the formation of the next cabinet when Buhari eventually make good his promise to rejig the federal executive council. The party and the government are now working hand in hand with prominent chieftains of the party to see how best the APC can be repositioned ahead of the 2019 general election,” another source added.

Rumpus in PDP

Meanwhile, the PDP is already feeling the full weight of Atiku’s entrance into its fold barely a week after the ex-APC chieftain berthed officially. Although the former Vice President in his resignation letter did not mention the PDP as his next port of call, his aides and loyalists within the two leading political parties left nobody in doubt of where he was headed.

And, although the leadership of the PDP is assuring Nigerians that the coming of Atiku’s political family into the party will not create any crisis, party sources told The Nation that signs of possible clashes between the defectors and other presidential aspirants within the party are already emanating. According to party sources, this development has become a source of concern to many chieftains.

Before Atiku’s coming, a good number of PDP chieftains were already in the forefront of the struggle for the party’s presidential ticket. And the contest is already seen as a fiery one even though the election is still nearly two years away. To add to the anxiety, the issue of zoning has generated an unending controversy, especially with the declaration by Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State that he will be seeking the party’s presidential ticket.

Aside Fayose who is the only southerner yet to indicate interest in the PDP presidential ticket, a number of northern presidential aspirants are already bestriding the party’s landscape and telling all those who care to listen that they are ready to go all the way in the contest for the party’s presidential ticket ahead of the 2019 general elections.

Former Governors Sule Lamido and Ibrahim Shekarau of Jigawa and Kano states are interested in the PDP presidential ticket. Ex-Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State, as well as incumbent Governor of Gombe State, Ibrahim Dankwambo, are also seeking to be allowed to fly the banner of the opposition party in the 2019 presidential elections.

There are other chieftains whose names are being bandied as possible presidential aspirants though they are yet to declare their interest in the race publicly. Among such persons are the current chairman of the party’s caretaker committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, Professor Jerry Gana, a former minister and a chairman of the party’s reorganisation committee.

Shortly before Atiku announced his defection plan, a chieftain of the party openly accused Makarfi of manipulating the process leading to the December convention of the PDP to favour his rumoured presidential aspiration. Some of the chairman’s loyalists are already accusing Atiku’s camp of being behind the allegations. And the chairman, while responding to the allegation, hinted that some people working for people who were yet to join the party are behind the confusion.

“Let me assume that is my case. There are also allegations that some of them are being used to support the presidential ambitions of someone within the party and those of some people who are intending to join the party. Let us assume that is my case, what about allegations against them that they are sponsoring people who have yet to join the party?” Makarfi alleged, giving hint of a possible clash between him and Atiku.

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