OPINION – PMB: It’s time to play hardball

By Uche Diala

Any avid watcher of Nigerian politics knew that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar would get the PDP ticket.

Indeed I wrote a while ago that it was Atiku’s because like I said then, he had already bought the franchise for the PDP ticket.

So there is nothing ‘democratic’ or surprising to any discerning person about the PDP’s Presidential Primaries or Alhaji Atiku getting the PDP ticket. There is nothing astonishingly democratic about a process whose end was already predetermined. Nonetheless, it is significant that it has finally and officially happened. It is good that the PDP has shown its hand.

Amongst other things, that particular outcome has made it even more imperative that President Muhammadu Buhari cannot stand aloof or neutral anymore on who gets the APC ticket; if he intended to do that before.

He must stand up and put his foot down on who succeeds him; for the sake of his legacy and for the good of Nigeria.

Leaving the APC Primaries as an all comers affair with a potpourri of 23 aspirants to a process where essentially a bazaar of money will determine who gets the ticket would be a disservice in my humble view because there would be nothing free, fair and appropriate about the highest bidder taking the cake.

There is so much more at stake even beyond winning the Presidential election in 2023. I have submitted and I maintain that any of the frontline aspirants for the APC ticket will most likely win the election for the APC based on practical factors and objective facts I have expounded earlier. However, beyond that, there is the future of Nigeria at stake.

With Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the PDP flag bearer, Nigerians need a real choice now. The notion by some people of like versus like is not totally acceptable or totally reasonable. We need a real contrast on the tickets.

The dynamics of the 2023 elections just changed in the last few weeks/days. The APC must therefore be deliberate and strategic in doing a delicate balancing act to choose its flag bearer. All the boxes have to be checked and there is no room for sentiments just like there is little room for error.

Amongst other things, the APC cannot afford not to cede its Presidential ticket to the South unlike the PDP. Therein lies its honor and integrity and therein lies the ace just as the APC cannot afford a Muslim-Muslim ticket. That, like a Christian-Christian ticket cannot fly at this time. No amount of sanctimonious gerrymandering can change that reality.

If we are indeed serious about our democracy and as a Party to give Nigerians a breathe of fresh air come 2023, then looking at what we have to choose from, the President should pick one of them who best represents the future and the positive direction that Nigeria should go after his tenure.

I have three of them among the lot who fit that bill. I might name them in my next submission but they are part of my original publicized list of 7 options.

Mr President should pick especially the one who would best represent a nice, fresh, practical and pragmatic choice. One who is less controversial and divisive; with little or no baggage to defend and easily sellable across all boundaries – social, age, religious, tribal etc.

However President Buhari does it and by whatever name it is called, that would be a sensible thing for him and the party to do and it would be in the better interest of his legacy, the party and Nigeria at large.

Mr President, it is time to play the hard ball politics. We will only have this chance to get it right for 2023. There won’t be a second chance.

My humble, dispassionate, most sincere and objective submission.

Diala, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Abuja.

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