Disquiet over Automatic Ticket for Wada

Wada…facing stiff opposition

               
Some stakeholders in the Kogi State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party are opposing the alleged moves by the party’s leadership to grant an automatic ticket to Governor Idris Wada for the November governorship election in the state. Shola Oyeyipo writes

In the build up to the November governorship election in Kogi State, there is a common demand from members of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state that the leadership of the party should allow internal democracy to rein supreme in the choice of who will fly the party’s flag.

They also fear that the party may lose the governorship election to the opposition party if it imposes the incumbent Governor, Captain Idris Wada as the candidate of the party.

As the  November 21 governorship election draws closer, factors that would produce the flag bearers of the major contending parties; the ruling PDP and the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) are the reigning  topics among members of the political class in the state.

While the APC is being guided by the popular debate of power shift  from the East senatorial district, which has produced all civilian governors since the creation of the state in 1991, to either Central or West senatorial district, the issue in the PDP is whether to give automatic  ticket to the incumbent governor or throw the race open.

Joining the debate in the PDP, a member of the party from Bassa – Gboloko, East Senatorial District, Alhaji Alfa Nda-Baji, appealed to the national leadership of the party to jettisons the incumbency factor in the State and offer other competent and electable aspirants such as AlhajiJibrin Isa Echocho,an opportunity to vie for the ticket. 

According to him, zeroing the ticket only to Wada may spell doom for the party saying that  there is need to borrow a leave from the just concluded Presidential  election where former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan – even as incumbent, lost to  President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC because he was no longer a popular candidate.

“I was listening to the last Raypower Friday Political Platform where they asked 32 persons if they would vote for Wada; 29 of them said they would never vote for Wada – only two of them accepted to vote for him. That is a clear sign that the party is heading for doom if it presents an unpopular candidate in a state where the opposition APC is trying all that it can to oust the PDP.

“Truth is that the PDP has to win the November election to send a clear signal that it is not a dead party. The APC too is doing all that it can to deplete the PDP the more by winning Kogi. That is why there must be change in the PDP candidate. The incumbent governor has performed poorly and it is obvious that the people will not vote for him in the coming election.

“With most PDP members now decamped to the APC – a number of them being Echocho’s supporters, it is becoming clear that any candidate fielded by the APC will defeat Governor Wada, except the PDP finds a candidate that can collapse the APC structure. This is a fact known to Wada’s supporters except that some of his few cronies who are trying to deceive him by urging him to embark on a fruitless journey.

By that he referred to the likes of former acting governor of Kogi State, Hon. Clarence Olafemi, Air Vice Marshall SalihuAtawodi (rtd), former State PDP chairman, John Odawun, Senator Alex Kadiri, Senator Mohammed Ohiare, former governorship aspirant Dr.AdinoyiOjoOnukaba and several other notable PDP members who are now prominent members of the APC and who are waiting to disgrace their former party at the polls.

This group of aggrieved PDP members, as the G5 PDP governors approached former president Jonathan and the PDP national leadership under the umbrella of Kogi Elders’ Forum an alleged the governor of ineptitude and mismanagement of state funds before they eventually quit the party for the APC.

“The national leadership of the PDP must draw similarity between what is presently happening in Kogi State and what happened to former president Jonathan, where when it became obvious that the people would not vote for him and they still went ahead foolhardily to test the will of Nigerians and the result is there today ” he said.

Seen by many as young, dynamic and a first class material, Isa, a former director with Afribank was highly favoured to pick the PDP ticket during the 2011 elections until the immediate past governor of the state,Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, changed his mind on his support for the banker-turned politician who enjoys near fanatical support from the people because of his well-known philanthropic activities.

“Ours is just a passionate appeal to the PDP to do the needful by putting an acceptable candidate that would give them victory. I’m also appealing to Governor Wada to kindly go home and rest; to have peace of mind. He has done his best for the state and the people are saying his best is not good enough. He should support a more popular candidate in the larger interest of the party.

“That is the truth of the matter. I’m not interested in the job. We told Jonathan the same thing; if he had given Amaechi or Kwankwaso the job, the PDP would not have been defeated the way it was defeated in the last presidential election.”
Then as regards the contentious issue of power shift which is a weapon that the APC has on its hand before going into the election, Nda-Baji said: “What the state needs at the moment is not where you come from. We must de-emphasise the tribal factors. A good man is a good man and a good administrator is a good administrator.

“The people should be thinking about someone that would govern with developmental mindset. We want him to set the template for the development of the state as the current President Muhammadu Buhari is doing for Nigeria, so that whoever succeeds him will never be able to alter the equation.

“By the grace of God, Echocho’s tenure will be the last in the East as power will be negotiated and conceded to the people of either the West or Central. We will seriously canvass for it.”