How northern APC govs boosted Tinubu’s chances, victory at primaries

Encomiums have continued to pour in from different quarters on the “dignified” roles played by governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the northern states in the just concluded presidential primary of the party, Daily Trust reports. 

The roles, which included their well publicised position that power must return to the southern part of the country after the eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari, have been seen as not only boosting the chances of the eventual winner, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, but also saving the party from disintegration. 

• INEC rejects Akpabio, recognises contender as APC senatorial candidate
• We must keep religion out of 2023 race – APC chieftain  

Daily Trust recalls that the words and body language of political actors within the party and outside, especially those from the southern part of the country from the onset of the election season, had pointed to the potentiality of not only a disintegration of the ruling party if it retains power in the North but also to the chance of the decision further stoking the embers of unrest, ethno-religious distrust and the general insecurity in the country. 

The tension reached a boiling point after the leading opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on May 28, elected a northerner, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, as its flag bearer for the 2023 presidential election. This led to stakeholders expressing fear that should the ruling party follow suit, it risked alienating the southern part of the country from having a shot at the presidency after the eight years of a northerner holding sway. 

But sensing the disaffection their silence has been stoking in the polity, governors from the northern part of the country that belong to the ruling APC met at the weekend and came up with a stand; that it was only fair for another region to take charge after President Buhari’s eight years in power, invariably throwing their weight behind a southern presidency, at least for the party. 

El-Rufai’s final push 

Ten serving governors and a former governor signed the document, which many considered a communique following the meeting orchestrated by Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai. 

Other governors at the meeting and signatories to the position included, Bello Masari (Katsina), Sani Bello (Niger), Abdullahi Sule (Nasarawa), Babagana Zulum (Borno), Muhammad Inuwa (Gombe), Bello Matawalle (Zamfara), Simon Lalong (Plateau), Abdullahi Umar Ganduje (Kano) and Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi), as well as Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, former governor of Sokoto State. 

They said, among others, that “The APC has a duty to ensure that the 2023 elections offer a nation-building moment, reaffirming that a democratic pathway to power exists for all who value cooperation and build national platforms. This moment calls for the most sober and inclusive approach to selecting our party’s candidate, and we call on all APC leaders to fulfill their responsibility in this regard.” 

They said allowing the southern part of the country to produce the flag bearer of the party was “A question of honour for the APC, an obligation that is not in anyway affected by the decisions taken by another political party. We affirm that upholding this principle is in the interest of building a stronger, more united and more progressive country.”       

Before this historic position by the governors, observers had noted that the ruling party delayed its presidential primaries to see which zone will produce the presidential candidate of its main contender, the PDP; and following the emergence of Atiku, suggestions started filtering in that the party may have to look towards the North again, at least to checkmate the reach of Atiku in the North “and secure victory” for the APC. 

Ahmad Lawan, the Senate president, who hails from the same North East political zone like Atiku, was being promoted by several interests within the party structure and the presidency as the best option for the APC.  Daily Trust had exclusively reported how these interests had successfully secured the buy-in of President Muhammadu Buhari. 

But the position of the governors, which was believed to have been leaked to the media to pre-empt the “Lawan-option”, was believed to have saved the day as President Buhari, who was expected to name his preferred candidate during a meeting with the aspirants later that night, shelved the plan and instead announced that he did not have a horse in the race. 

The meeting was expected to be the final nail in the coffin to edge out Tinubu after his outburst in Ogun State but the northern governors’ position saved the day, analysts have observed.  They added that the outcome of the meeting with Buhari was the reason  the governors were bold enough to challenge the party chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, when he later announced Lawan as the “consensus” candidate. 

It was gathered that the position of the governors and the perceived “indifference” of the president gave other governors who were not at the meeting the impetus to actively campaign for Tinubu, which led to his wide winning margin. 

The governor’s role was specifically acknowledged by Tinubu in his acceptance speech, when he said “I thank the governors for their invaluable contribution to internal democracy and unity.” 

‘Strategic investment of Tinubu in the North helped him’ 

Sources familiar with the development told Daily Trust that the governors gave their all to the former Lagos State governor’s ambition as a “payback for his years of strategic investment” in their political journey and not for the opportunities to be considered for the vice president slot as was suggested by groups and interests in the zone that challenged their position. 

One of the sources said Tinubu’s relationship with the governors in the North stretched back to before 2015 and that he has consistently “invested his money, goodwill and energy in their political journey and never requested anything from them directly or through others. As such they felt it was time to pay him back”. 

He was identified as playing critical roles in the re-election bids of governors Ganduje (Kano) and Masari (Katsina), among others. Thus, both governors were among the first set of governors to publicly identify with Tinubu’s presidential ambition and refusing to endorse any other aspirants that sought their blessing, including Vice President Osinbajo. 

This development especially via-a-vis the voting strength of the North, political analysts observed, have put the APC in a strategic position going into the election against Atiku and 16 other candidates, with many believing should the party get the choice of its VP right, it remains the party to beat in 2023. 

Their intervention saved the North and South alliance – Don 

Commenting, a renowned political scientist, Professor Kamilu Sani Fage, said the northern governors’ contribution “is something positive” regardless of whether or not they have their own personal interests of doing so but politically, it was a positive development. 

This, he said, was because the party (APC) “was one that came about as a result of political efforts to build a bridge between the North and the South, which was tried out in the 1960s but didn’t work out well. So, this is the first time we have parties from across the divides form an alliance. So, if not that the governors came up with that position, perhaps that would have been the end of that alliance.” 

The professor of Political Science at Bayero University Kano (BUK) said if the governors had refused to step in at the time they did, “Giving the mutual distrust between the North and the South, it would have taken a very long time before such type of alliance could come to life again in the country.”