Jonathan, Babangida and Atiku EXCEPT there is a last-minute hitch, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) National Executive Committee (NEC) will on Tuesday meet to ratify the guidelines for its presidential primaries and other elective positions. Ten NEC members last night confirmed that the session will hold.
The party’s governors and the camps of two of its most prominent presidential aspirants, ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar and ex-military president Ibrahim Babangida, see the meeting as a crucial one. Both aspirants are fighting for relevance within the party, with Atiku expecting the NEC to ratify his recent waiver to return to the party.
The order of primaries is on the front burner, with the governors reportedly uncomfortable with the schedule as it is. The Nation learnt that the governors want the governorship primaries to hold before the presidential primaries.
As at press time, there were indications that the governors would like the presidential primaries to hold last, and are busy lobbying NEC members for a change. Abubakar and Babangida are also said to favour a re-worked time-table, and their camps are reportedly engaged in political horse-trading over the NEC meeting.
According to a tentative timetable adopted by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) about three weeks ago, the presidential primaries will start on October 3, and its candidate will emerge on October 10 at its Ratification National Convention.
The order of primaries is as follows: National Assembly, Presidential, Gubernatorial, and State Assembly.
It was learnt that those who favour a review of the schedule argue that it is deliberately tilted to boost President Goodluck Jonathan’s chances in the presidential race and get the PDP governors to back his ambition. However, the governors are said to be unsure of Jonathan’s game-plan, believing that after helping him to get the party’s nomination, he could dump them during the governorship primaries.
A highly-placed source said: "While the governors are not disputing their support for Jonathan, they also want him to allow their request to hold the presidential primaries last. They want to be sure of their return tickets before mobilizing support for the President.
"Jonathan’s camp is also asking the governors to live up to their promise to back the President before looking for re-election tickets.
"So, there is anxiety over the order of primaries ahead of NEC meeting because in politics anything can happen. Most governors see the order of primaries as a booby trap."
He added: "Any gambling can cost them return tickets. They can however lobby NEC members and secure simple majority to change the order of primaries. They have faith in Jonathan but they don’t want to fall into any trap."
However, reacting to the view that the existing order of primaries is to Jonathan’s advantage, a member of the party’s NWC told The Nation: "The order of primaries is fashioned after the Electoral Act 2010, it is not meant to serve anybody’s bidding.
"So, if PDP does things according to the law of the land, is that a bad thing? Is our order of primaries not in line with the timetable rolled out by INEC? Will you say INEC is working for the President too?"
Speaking on the Atiku and Babangida, and their interest in the outcome of the NEC meeting, a source said: "Babangida and Atiku’s camps also would like governorship primaries to hold before the presidential. If they succeed in convincing NEC members, they would prove a point that they can cause upset during the presidential primaries.
"The Babangida-Atiku alliance won the first round by forcing the party to retain its zoning formula. But after re-strategizing, Jonathan’s camp is not ready to take things for granted again.
"But if Babangida and Atiku fail in reversing the order of primaries proposed by the NWC, Jonathan would have shown that he has an edge over them in the race for PDP ticket."
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