THE NATION TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2015
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NEWS GOVERNORSHIP ELECTIONS LOSERS
Obanikoro...Which way forward after three failed attempts?
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HE Minister of State, Foreign Affairs II has taken shots at the Lagos State House thrice and failed three times. He got the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) run against incumbent Governor Babatunde Fashola in 2007 after protesting what he called the imposition of Mrs. Funsho Williams at the PDP shadow election. He lost the election with a wide margin but got compensated with an ambassadorial posting to Ghana. In 2011, he lost the bid to clinch the PDP ticket to Prince Ade Dosumu, who eventually lost Fashola. He again got a ministerial posting as compensation. His conduct in the Ministry of State for Defence where he held the forte before he resigned to pursue another
failed ambition remained controversial. Whistleblower Captain Sagir Koli named him as one of the dramatis personae in the plot to rig the June 21, 2014 Ekit State governorship election. Though his voice in the audio recording of the plot, Obanikoro has denied involvement and threatened court action. After losing the PDP ticket to Mr Jimi Agbaje, Obanikoro was nominated by President Goodluck Jonathan a ministerial slot to pacify him. Before he was cleared in controversial circumstances by PDP senators, Obanikoro was turned back twice from the upper chamber of the National Assembly. He was named the Minsiter of State for Foreign Affairs II when he eventually got a portfolio in the Federal Executive Council (FEC). Between March 28 and April 11, Obanikoro
Ribadu: Between ambition and principle He returned from self-exile to the warm embrace of the progressives. His belief that the anti-corruption structure he left behind in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) – where he was pioneer chairman – had collapsed under the President Goodluck Jonathan administration led him to the progressives’ camp. He was the presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2011. He lost the election to Dr. Jonathan. Before his shocking defection from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the PDP, Ribadu enjoyed respect. An overture by the PDP leadership that he would become the governor of Adamawa without stress encouraged him to jump ship, a move many viewed as unprincipled. The PDP leadership got knocks from Chief Edwin Clark, who said Ribadu was imposed as the governorship candidate in the Northeastern state. Clark
•Obanikoro
suffered three defeats. He failed to win Lagos for the President his party lost the governorship election and his son, Babajide, lost his bid to represent one of the State Constituencies in EtiOsa at the House of Assembly.
Jang: Setback for governors’ chair
•Ribadu
had warned that imposition and subversion of the people’s will, would adversely affect the electoral fortune of the ruling party. Ribadu’s PDP came a distant third in Saturday’s governorship election. The former anti-graft czar lost to the Sen Bindow Jibrilla of the APC.
He probably must have seen Saturday’s governorship election as a fait accompli, having won the March 28 presidential and National Assembly elections for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). But Plateau Governor Jonah Jang got the shocker of his life yesterday as the results of Saturday’s elections proved bookmakers wrong. Against all predictions, Simon Lalong of the All Progressives Congress (APC) scored 564, 913 votes to defeat Jang’s anointed candidate Gyang Pwajok of the PDP, who polled 520, 627. The choice of Senator Pwajok pitted Jang, who is Chairman of the Federal Governmentbacked Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), against his deputy, who felt the governor should have backed him for the PDP ticket to reward his loyalty.
Maku:Racing to nowhere Labaran Maku resigned from the Federal Executive Council (FEC) as Information Minister to contest the governorship of Nasarawa State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but lost out at the primary. Embittered by the loss, he defected to the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), which offered him the governorship ticket on a platter of gold. Maku defection from the PDP he once defended, shocked many. But he lost the election as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), yesterday declared Governor Tanko Al-Makura of the All Progressive Congress (APC) winner of the poll. The incumbent governor, who polled 309, 749 votes, won in 12 out of the 13 local government areas, beating the former minister to a distant second with 178, 983 votes. Maku, who won only in his Nasarawa Eggon local government area, re-
•Jang
Obanikoro ‘Jnr’.... twice unlucky •Maku
jected the results and described the election as a coup. He promised to take action after consulting with his supporters and critical stakeholders.
Adams:The burden of failed promises Despite failing in his promise to deliver six million Southwest votes to President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the March 28 presidential and National Assembly elections, Gani Adams, National Coordinator of a faction of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) has vowed to stay with his benefactor at all time. Adams with other PDP supporters staged a solidarity rally from the old Toll Gate at the Ojota end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway through the ever-busy Ikorodu Road to the stadium in Surulere to drum up support for PDP candidates. Adams said President Jonathan would win Lagos and parts of the Southwest zone in the general elections that ended on April 11. The President and the PDP lost in all the six states but Ekiti on March 28. Adams forgot his supremacy battle
Like father, like son, Babajide is fast taking after Obanikoro. He has lost two elections in the past four years. His ambition to chair the Ikoyi/ Obalende Local Council Development Authority (LCDA) ended at the Local Government Election Petition Tribunal about four years ago. In a desperate bid to win Saturday’s House of Assembly election, Babajide allegedly led some of his loyalists to harass and intimidate voters who were waiting to cast their votes. He was allegedly taken away from the scene by security operatives. Babajide lost the election.
•Adams
over who controls the OPC between him and founder of the group, Dr. Fredrick Faseun. The duo found a common benefactor in President Jonathan, whose government awarded multi-million naira oil pipeline protection contracts. The Chief Reuben Fasoranti-led Afenifere also teamed up with both factions of the OPC in the failed move to deliver the Southwest to the PDP.
•Babajide Obanikoro
New role f
The outcome of the general elections has reduced the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to a regional party. Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN examines its implications and its likely effects on the political future of the Southsouth and the Southeast geo-political zones.
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HE electoral defeat of President Goodluck Jonathan in the March 28 presidential election is already taking its toll on the ruling party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). The party has been in power for 16 years. Given its national spread, the party has been domineering since 1999. It was against this backdrop that a former chairman of the PDP, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor boasted that the party will rule the country for 60 unbroken years. But the results of the just concluded elections have changed the political calculus of the PDP. An ominous sign that the claim of the PDP as a dominant party was in sight came when like-minded elements in four major opposition parties formed the All Progressives Congress (APC) which was registered in 2013. The party has made history as it defeated a sitting President. In the presidential election, APC won in 21 states while the PDP triumphed in 15 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. The states where the APC got majority votes are: Kaduna, Kwara, Oyo, Kogi, Kano, Jigawa, Ogun, Osun, Ondo , Katsina, Niger, Lagos, Gombe, Adamawa, Zamfara, Kebbi, Benue, Bauchi, Yobe, Sokoto and Borno. The results shows that the APC is the dominant party in the Northwest, Northeast , Southwest and part of the Northcentral. The states won by the PDP are: Enugu, Nassarawa, Ekiti, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Imo, Plateau, Ebonyi, Bayelsa, Cross River, Edo, Taraba, Delta, Anambra, Rivers and FCT. The results indicate that the party is strong only in the Southeast and Southsouth and part of the Northcentral. The governorship election results have given a broader picture of how the parties stand. The APC had won more states than it did in the presidential election. For instance, the party won Plateau and Nasarawa from PDP. Thus, the APC is in firm control of the Northcentral. The implication of the election results is that the PDP has degenerated into a regional party. A party that has strong presence in virtually all the six
geo-political zones can now boast of the Southsouth and Southeast as its stronghold. Analysts say unless the PDP leadership go back to the drawing board to examine what went wrong with the once-upon-a-time national party, that has shrunk into a regional party, it will be difficult for it to win presidential election in future. They argued that a regional party cannot win presidential election and cited the case of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, who despite his popularity in the North, failed in 2003, 2007 and 2011 to win because he contested on the platforms of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples’ Party (ANPP) and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) which later merged with other opposition parties to form the APC.
Electoral fraud in Southsouth/Southeast However, the desperation of the Southsouth and Southeast states to keep the PDP flag flying has resorted in monumental electoral fraud being perpetrated by leaders of the party in the two zones. There were reported cases of electoral malpractices in Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Cross River, Enugu and Imo, where results posted for the APC did not reflect the political situation in those states. The figures released for the PDP are so outrageous. For instance, it was reported that during the presidential and governorship elections in Akwa Ibom and Rivers states, the election materials were hijacked by hoodlums sympathetic to the PDP and election did not hold in many polling units. Yet, results were posted for such units. The figures released in some of the states tallied with the total number of registered voters, an implication that the areas recorded 100 per cent voter turnout. Local and international observers have written in their preliminary reporters that the turnout of voters for the governorship and House of Assembly elections was lower than during the presidential and National Assembly elections on March 28. This is not the first time that states in the Southsouth and Southeast will be voting overwhelmingly for the
WINNER Al-Makura: Nasarawa’s man of destiny But for Providence, Tanko AlMakura would not have participated in Saturday’s governorship election. The incumbent governor would have been impeached by the House of Assembly last year. Emboldened by the ouster of Governor Murtala Nyako in Adamawa by their counterparts, lawmakers in Nasarawa had served AlMakura with an impeachment notice, and urged the State Chief Judge to constitute an investigative panel on the sundry allegations they raised against the governor. Declaring the results at the state headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the returning officer in the Northcentral state, Prof Abdulmuninu Ranfindadi, said the incumbent governor won the election having scored 309,746, to defeat his closet opponent, Labaran Maku of the All Progressives
•Al-Makura
Grand Alliance (APGA), who polled 178,983. He was trailed by Yusuf Agabi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 119,782 votes. Prof Ranfindadi explained that the APC candidate satisfied the requirements of the Electoral Law having won 25 percent in 12 out of the 13 local government areas of the state.