Less than one week to the presidential primaries of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), many aspirants have been gripped with anxiety over the outcome of the exercise as against the camp of the Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello which has been upbeat ahead of the exercise. The development followed the outcome of President Muhammadu Buhari’s meeting with the APC governors on Tuesday.
And as the party concluded its screening of the 23 presidential aspirants on Tuesday, indications emerged that President Muhammadu Buhari, the APC governors and leadership of the party may have already resolved to field a Northern candidate in the 2023 presidential election.
A source at a meeting of the party’s governors on Tuesday at Asokoro, Abuja, said the emergence of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the standard bearer of the PDP has thrown spanners in the works for earlier consideration of a Southern candidate.
And the President was reported to have told the governors that he would want to pick his successor and that he would equally need their support to achieve that. He was said to have anchored his request on the fact that the governors determined who would succeed them all the time and that what is sauce for the goose should also be sauce for the gander.
The new development, close observers believe, has put a question mark on the screening of the aspirants which the party started on Tuesday in preparation for the primaries between June 6 and 8, as the President’s request from the governor was a subtle way of informing them that the party would eventually settle for a consensus candidate.
Many argue that the President’s stance represents the party’s last minute effort to counterbalance the perceived threat from last week’s emergence of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of the PDP. Atiku’s emergence was widely reported to have unsettled the ruling party, forcing its power brokers to reach a conclusion that only a northern candidate from the APC could counterbalance the threat from Atiku.
In the estimation of some critical observers, with the latest development, the chances of the Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, who is one of the party’s frontline presidential aspirants, are becoming brighter for some reasons.
The odds in favour of Bello are that he remains the youngest among all the aspirants; a factor analysts agree is strong enough for Mr. President to consider before arriving at his final decision on who becomes the party’s consensus candidate. His supporters believe the mood of the country points to the fact that there could be a possible social revolution in voting patterns by the youths in 2023 to elect one of their own. Gov Bello represents the youths who have been clamouring for a transfer of political power from the old politicians to the younger ones.
Proponents of this narrative are of the view that the youths are squaring up to ensure that the ‘Not Too Young To Run’ law, is actually given a practical meaning by participating massively to elect a young, energetic Nigerian who would take over from Buhari in May 2023.
To them, the 2023 presidential contest is not for old political horses but for the young, vibrant, energetic and intelligent young Nigerians who understand the socio-economic, political and communication dynamics of the 21st century. And among all the APC presidential aspirants, Gov Bello appears to be the only person who fits perfectly into the equation.
Secondly, Bello’s geopolitical zone is an added advantage for him. There are those who believe that the governor’s geopolitical location should be a plus in President Buhari’s consideration of his successor. Gov Bello is from the North Central geopolitical zone; a region that has been unceremoniously neglected during all the democratic dispensations in Nigeria, yet contributes so much to the progress of democracy in the country.
Thirdly, Bello is not a conventional or mainstream politician, and as such, does not subscribe to the general belief by conventional politicians that the office of the President is for the display of grandeur and not that of responsibility. This is one of the things that Gov Bello has even promised to change if he becomes president. He has made it clear that his quest for Presidency is not about him trying to grab power for aggrandisement, but about the Nigerian youth being at the helm of affairs of national politics and governance. So, President Buhari ought to put all those into consideration as he picks the party’s consensus candidate.
However, Governor Bello’s scorecard in Kogi State is also speaking well for him. He is believed to have done well in inclusive governance model, women empowerment and visionary leadership as well as securing the lives and property of Kogi people. Insecurity, which has stalled social and economic activities in most of the states across the country, is non-existent in Kogi. That is attributed to Bello’s youthfulness coupled with his sagacity in leadership made possible by his total grasp of the 21st century security dynamics.
Shortly after Buhari’s meeting with the Progressives Governors, they also met to consider Mr. President’s proposal. It was reported that they could not agree on how to implement the president’s request because while some suggested that two persons among them, one from the North and the other from the South, should be presented to the President to pick, others argued that no Southern governor could defeat Atiku.
Although there were those who insisted that the nominees must not have to be state governors, citing Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as aspirants outside the group who could defeat Atiku, it is an established fact that the powers of the governors cannot be underrated in this circumstance. That is to say that at the end of the day, their insistence on one of them being the chosen one would prevail.
Observers are of the view that if the governors’ nominees are from among them, as it will likely be, Gov Bello stands a better chance as a northerner to defeat Atiku.
Recall that the Kogi Governor was the first person to declare his intention to run for the office of the President on the APC platform, raising questions then as to where he got the courage to do that when the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Tinubu was rumoured to have the same ambition.
But, the young, ebullient Bello had kept maintaining, without mincing words, right from the outset of his declaration that he would defeat any APC presidential aspirant if there was a level playing field at the primaries. Many believed then that he may have embarked on a political journey largely predicated on what the former president of the United States of America, Barack Obama, referred to as the audacity of hope.
However, right from the day of his presidential declaration up to this moment, he has left no one in doubt that his intention was not just about being audacious but a move to give voice to young Nigerians and rescue the country from the grips of old politicians who have lost touch with the socio-economic and political dynamics of the 21st century.
As the country awaits President Buhari’s decision on who becomes the party’s consensus candidate, he should remember to read the mood of the youths of this nation, and respond appropriately to satisfy their yearning. Gov Bello represents the yearning of the youths.
(Sun)
