Everyone is writing about Atiku Abubakar since his ascension as the PDP flag bearer for the 2023 presidential contest in Nigeria. But if you look at things critically, the man who redesigned every aspect of the playbook was the governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal. Understand that Rivers State’s Governor Wike supported his campaign for president in 2019. Largely, they were “pals” at least politically.
Tambuwal was the worst candidate PDP could have presented. He was so weak that even UNICEF would campaign against him! Why? He cannot even get Sokoto kids to register for WAEC. I mean, a man who is so incompetent to register kids for WAEC should not even be in any leadership conversation.
But in Nigeria, anyone flies before delegates. Had Tambuwal remained, Wike would have won. (Atiku, Wike, Saraki received respectively 371, 237 and 70 votes). But when he pulled out, the Atiku moment came. In short, at the end of the process, Wike did not even wait to congratulate Atiku. He felt there was a political coup because he did not model that Tambuwal would yield to Atiku to score during the extra time!
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
Understand that Atiku had a natural advantage: PDP has 774 delegates with more than 400 from the North. But Atiku’s stars aligned when Norther Elders – former president, former military heads of state, former generals, former governors, chieftains of the PDP from the north and a former intelligence chief – asked Tambuwal to drop out. And he did. (We will see if Tinubu and Osinbajo will recreate a similar scene in days during APC convention.)
It is politics. In 2019, Wike funded Tambuwal against Atiku. In 2022, Tambuwal yielded to Atiku for Wike to lose. That is the spirit of how regional politics thrives in Nigeria.
The Adamawa born politician defeated 12 other candidates in a keenly contested presidential primary held at the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja.
Of the 764 accredited ballots at the election, Mr Abubakar polled 371 votes while his closest challenger, Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, came second with 237 votes.
Nigeria’s former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, scored 70 votes to come a distant third while the Governor of Akwa Ibom, Udom Emmanuel, came fourth with 38 votes.
The only female in the race, Oliver Diana, and another contestant, Sam Ohuabunwa, scored one vote each.
A former President of the Senate, Pius Anyim, scored 14 votes while Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, scored 20 votes.
The other contestants – ex-Governor Ayodele Fayose and Magazine Publisher Dele Momodu – got zero votes.
Twelve invalid votes were recorded.
Atiku Gets PDP Flag for Presidency – And The Battle Ahead with Obi, Tinubu
---
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Feb 10 - May 3, 2025), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here.
In other words, the only mumu in all of these gimmicks is Wike? No need to water it down, his bad judgment is legendary. Every election round, he goes about wasting money, his last 23 years have been spent in politics, I do not know of any other successful career or companies he founded and ran, but somewhat he has plenty money to dole out. The easiest thing to do is to spend other people’s money, Wike is excellent in that department.
Since the core north know how to band together, what stops the south from doing same? For me, the only battle ground states are in the north central, for anyone who can read the political map correctly. Keep your region together, let the core north and southern part descend in north central states for real politicking, it will save so much cost and make north central super relevant in our political calculations. So it’s incumbent on the southern region to do its homework well, but if they keep accusing and distrusting each other, their case will remain hopeless.
The APC will soon play their own game, who knows, Buhari may connive with Jonathan to send Tinubu packing, and we will return here and hail it as politics.
I am more interested in the fallout from both parties, let the destruction begin…