“PDP is dead and we are about to bury it” – Governor Murtala Nyako on BBC…. July 2013
PDP is officially a divided house. Few months ago, the Kano Governor Rabiu Kwakwanso declared they were about to form another political party. There is reason behind this declaration. These Northern Governors are fighting for political survival in PDP. The 9 Governors have met Obasanjo in Abeokuta. They also met with IBB and Abdulsalami in Minna. They recently sent emissaries to meet with Danjuma and other stakeholders in the North of their intent to destroy PDP. You have to be a political kindergartener to think these Governors did not get the go ahead with their plan without the backing of these Northern Leaders and Elders. The fight is about North against Jonathan and PDP. No more no less. The North has never been united as ever in this fight for political survival. At the appropriate time, all the Northerners who are currently loyal to GEJ administration will be leaving him at the last minutes. You do not want to have a political battle with the North when the Northerners are united against common enemy.
The writing was on the wall when the President decided to interfere in the NGF election. These Governors realized that if the President should get his way by imposing his own man on them to serve as NGF Chairman, there will be no way for any of the Northern Governors to contest against him. For those who claim the President had nothing to do with what happened on the night of the NGF election, you were all wrong then and you are still wrong now. Governor Goodswill Akpabio was charged to prevent Amaechi from emerging as NGF Governor. How could any of you think 15 other Governors who support Jang are doing this without the backing of the President? The backroom manipulation of these Northern Governors is a reminder of political sophistication of Northerners when it comes to politics. They know when they have the absolute power to achieve their goals without alliance. They also know when to form alliance with other parties or tribes when they feel they have less power to achieve their objectives. That is exactly what they did when Jang was defeated as NGF Chairman. Ask Jonathan what does he prefer, he would tell you he rather have the 9 Governors with him going into the 2015 election.
What these Governors are trying to do is to create a proxy political party to draw out disenchanted PDP members (mostly from the North) and possible from the South (Amaechi factor) then bring them into the new party’s fold. This party is going to be mainly Northern party. This party will be used to gain leverage with APC. The 9 Governors would have made a big mistake by decamping to APC. It would have been suicidal for them to do. The next move after registering the party is to negotiate and go into alliance with APC. Their objective is to spike Jonathan and get a consensus and most acceptable candidate from the South to be the Presidential flag bearer of the new alliance party. My mind tells me they will settle for Fashola with a Northerner as Vice President or a Northerner as President with Fashola as Vice President. This is where Fashola and Tambuwal scenario come in. There is something to the political romance between Tambuwal and bigwigs in the last two years.
If you do not see a political movement with the homage being paid to the Governor of Lagos State at the moment, then you are not yet politically savvy. There is reason behind the pilgrimage going on in Lagos with movers and shakers from the North coming in droves to pay homage to Governor Fashola.
When it is all said and done, there will be three causalities namely; Buhari, Jonathan, and PDP. Grab you popcorn as 2014 is going to be an interesting years in Nigeria’s political history.
This post was culled from Nairaland. Amazingly it was written over two weeks ago by a member, Payless.
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