Nigeria Content Online

Reports of the recent presidential primaries of
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have largely been based on
television footage of the exercise. Any deep political observers do
know, however, that the outcome of the presidential primaries or any
primaries at all is determined by events that are never captured by
television cameras. The PDP convention is no exception.

Atiku Abubakar had delivered a fiery speech
targeted at selling himself and unsell the candidacy of Goodluck
Jonathan. In his own speech, Jonathan spoke more about what he would do
if elected, with occasional jibes at his main rival. Serah Jibril’s
speech did not receive much attention because she was never considered
a major contestant in the election.

In the morning of the convention, there was
controversy around the format to be adopted for the exercise. The
election panel led by Professor Tunde Adeniran had adopted the
identification of states on the ballot boxes. The Atiku Campaign
opposed this, arguing that the format will intimidate the delegates
from freely expressing their choice among the candidates. Their
argument was that state governors who are standing election for a
second term will not allow the defeat of President Jonathan in their
states otherwise; he might use his position as President to work
against their election in April.

Another argument of the Atiku Campaign is that in
an environment where agencies like the EFCC is used by the incumbent
government to fight political battles, every governor will work for the
victory of Jonathan in their states. Finally, it was argued that since
Chief Tony Anenih, a Jonathan promoter, had threatened that any
delegate who voted for Atiku in the South-South would be fished out,
tagging the ballot boxes with the names of the states will frighten
delegates from freely expressing their choice. The Jonathan camp was
reportedly averse to these arguments. In spite of hours of debate, the
election panel went ahead to tag the ballot boxes with the names of
states.

Another bone of contention in the weeks ahead of
the election was the list of delegates. The Atiku Campaign and the
National Secretariat of the PDP were engaged in a battle of wits over
this. Three weeks to the election, the Atiku Campaign addressed the
media in which it alerted that the ground rules for the election had
not been released. It also requested that the list of delegates should
be made available to all campaign organizations.

There were crises over the accreditation of
delegates. The tags for delegates were handed over to state governors.
The governors, in turn chose which delegates to accredit for the
election. In most of the states, delegates identified as being
sympathetic to Atiku were denied accreditation. The states in this
category included Adamawa where most members of the State House of
Assembly who were sympathetic to Atiku were denied accreditation. The
others include Ogun State where members of G15, members of the state
legislature estranged from Governor Gbenga Daniel and who had openly
supported Atiku were denied accreditation by the governor. The same was
reported by delegates in Akwa Ibom, Cross River,Jigawa, Gombe, Kwara,
Oyo, Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa and Plateau states. In those states, the
delegate’s tags meant for these delegates were reportedly given to
other persons who claimed to be the delegates.

Perhaps, the most popular television footage of
the primaries was that of the Minister of Youths, Senator Olasunkanmi
Akinlabi, who stood at the polling booth directing delegates from Osun
State on who they should vote for. As the delegates walked into the
booth, he checked as they wrote on the ballot, sometimes pointedly
instructing them on what to write. This went on for several minutes
before he was confronted by officials of the Atiku Campaign
Organization. The same experience was replicated in Ondo, Ekiti, Oyo,
Kwara, Gombe, Adamawa, Anambra, Cross-Rivers and Benue State among
others where identified officials supervised delegates to vote for
President Jonathan.

The Election Panel was flooded with complaints but
its ability to contain many of these practices had been put in question
for several days by the Atiku Campaign Organization. The committee was
populated by supporters of President Jonathan. Its chairman, Prof.
Tunde Adeniran, the Chairman of Universal Basic Education (UBEC), is a
member of the South-West Coordination Committee for the Jonathan /Sambo
Campaign Organization.

These aspects of the convention were compounded by
the now open story of the offer of $7,000 to each of the 3,500
delegates by President Jonathan’s men to “defray” their transport cost
to Abuja.

The conduct of the PDP primaries may just be a rehearsal for how Jonathan will conduct the April presidential elections.

Mr. Ofodile wrote in from Abuja.