After weeks of moving around the country, the consensus arrangement, brokered by the former Military Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida and announced by Ango Abdullahi, selected the two aspirants but was rejected by both Mr Tambuwal and Mr Hayatu-Deen.
According
to latest news, the emergence of Former Senate President Bukola Saraki and
Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State as the preferred aspirants for the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential ticket has failed to achieve the
desired outcome of presenting a united front against the ruling APC.
Messrs
Saraki and Mohammed, alongside Governor Aminu Tambuwal and Hayatu-Deen had
resolved to go into the consensus arrangement to reduce the number of aspirants
going into the battle for the ticket.
Mr
Tambuwal, who had earlier expressed optimism in the arrangement, was the first
to back out after the duo of Saraki and Mohammed emerged from the process. He
had said, “So far, I am the frontline aspirant, our thinking, our prayer and
hope is that the consensus will go my way.”
The Sokoto
State Governor had in a statement by his spokesperson, Nicholas Msheliza, said
the consensus talks collapsed, hence, all the parties involved had unanimously
agreed that the talk was not progressing and the statement should have been to
announce the collapse, not the emergence of any candidate.
The same
position was maintained by Hayatudeen, whose campaign office issued a
statement, accusing the brokers of working towards a preconceived outcome.
Noting that it “was designed to achieve a preconceived outcome.”
Recently,
Hayatudeen, while appearing on Arise TV, said Mr Saraki reneged on the
agreement reached by the four aspirants that the consensus arrangement is not
working.
The
business tycoon said the other aspirants were shocked by the announcement by
the NEF
Aside from
the division in the party, the consensus arrangement is also affecting the
Northern Elders Forum, as Mr Ango had to clarify that the consensus was not by
NEF, but rather, a personal task, done on behalf of Mr Babangida.
Similarly,
the NEF Director (Publicity and Advocacy), Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, had in a
statement on Sunday distanced the group from the endorsement of both Saraki and
Mohammed.
Mr
Baba-Ahmed said the “former President (Babangida) requested Prof Ango in his
capacity to design and manage a process that could improve a consensus
agreement among the four aspirants.” Adding that the “entire process did not
involve the NEF as a group and is not a product of the group.”
Northern
aspirants using consensus to cover clamour for power rotation.
The
decision to embark on a consensus arrangement was conceived amid the clamour by
southern leaders for power to be zoned to the south after 8 years of President
Muhammadu Buhari, who is from Katsina State. Messrs Tambuwal, Saraki and Mohamed,
had on different occasions argued against rotation to the south.
For Mr
Tambuwal, his argument has been that the party should win the election first,
before considering rotation, while Mr Mohammed argued on the basis that since
Mr Buhari is a member of the APC, hence, the PDP is not obliged to zone its
ticket to the south.
Despite
moving across the country, the consensus arrangement appears to be a regional
arrangement, except from Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who abstained
from the arrangement, all the participants are from the North.
The
consensus arrangement by the northern aspirants bear similarities with the 2010
consensus arrangement done by the Adamu Ciroma led 17-wisemen from the Northern
Political Leaders Forum which produced Mr Atiku as the consensus aspirant.
The former
Vice President was picked ahead of Mr Saraki, Mr Babangida and former National
Security Adviser, Aliyu Gusau.
Mr Atiku
subsequently lost to Goodluck Jonathan at the PDP primary.
The 2010
arrangement was as a result of the clamour by Northern Politicians, who felt
that the death of Umar Yar’adua disrupted the rotation arrangement and called
for a northern candidate to complete Yar’adua’s tenure. It was a regional
calculation.
Governor
Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has been very vocal against the need for consensus
arrangement, he even mocked them in several speeches while he was touring the
country.
What seems
to be clear, however, is that the Northern Consensus arrangement has failed to
produce a candidate and has further divided the party and the north.
No comments:
Post a Comment