PEOPLES’ DEMOCRATIC PARTY MAGIC: How PDP’s transparent Presidential contest  paid off for Jonathan
By JIDE AJANI, Editor (Northern Operations)

This is an exclusive report on how the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, leadership ensured that the presidential primaries of the party remained very transparent.  What, however, was not factored into the scenario by some state governors and delegates was how transparent the scenario was going to be.

Short of calling delegates to queue behind their candidates, what would have been the open ballot system, the electoral panel tagged the ballot boxes on a state by state basis, thereby, making it possible to monitor which state’s delegates voted for whom and by what margin.

President Goodluck Jonathan addresses the audience at the PDP Convention in Abuja

It was a strategy that brought daylight into the scheme and plot of some state governors and their delegates.  This was the clincher which fell the hands of some state governors who went to the convention with their own strategy of deception.  This is the story.

It was never going to be over until it was over! But the anti-climax did not come until after a few states’ votes were counted. For a contest that had almost turned Nigeria on its head, it was a surprise that the landslide victory of President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan (2736 votes) over former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, came the way it did: Via a very, very transparent process.  The third aspirant Mrs Sarah Jibril, scored only one vote from Kwara State. Perhaps, her’s.

So, how come the margin was so wide; not after the brouhaha?

The Electoral Panel
Well, the PDP Presidential Primary Electoral Panel, headed by Professor Tunde Adeniran, was instrumental in the PDP magic of last Thursday.

Since the buzz word in the polity had been about one man one vote, the panel was interested in giving vent to that intention.
However, because President Jonathan had to win the presidential primary, and deservedly so according to a source, in a free and fair manner, the electoral panel devised a very simple strategy.

First, since the endorsement of President Jonathan by 22 PDP governors, the talk in PDP circles had been whether or not the governors would keep their end of the bargain.

They had to. Why? Because President Jonathan had conceded to the state governors the power to go into the field and do as they pleased if only to assist him get the party’s ticket.

They did. But the cooperation and ingenuity of the electoral panel was needed to ensure a hitch-free primary. What to do? Simple! Device a means of ensuring that the governors honour their words.

How? Simple, too!

Monitoring the votes
Check: Since February 1999 when PDP started its presidential primary in Jos, the now turbulent Plateau State capital, the mode of voting at the presidential primary had been such that all delegates from any particular state would vote into all the boxes.

That way, the secrecy of the ballot was ensured. But for the first time last Thursday, the electoral panel decided to bunch the votes of each state’s delegates into one basket.

The reason for this was to ensure that on a state by state basis- which is also empirical and may not be easily faulted -it would be easy to determine how many states were carried by the each contending aspirant. Also, it would be manifest which state governor and his delegates delivered and in which percentage. That was the reason why the ballot boxes were tagged.

Result
Therefore, when the Director-General of the Atiku Campaign Organisation, debonair Senator Ben Obi, raised an objection to the tagging of boxes on a state by state basis, he knew what he was attempting to forestall.

Well, Sunday Vanguard can authoritatively reveal that it was that singular act that made it possible for the overwhelming majority of votes to be recorded for President  Jonathan.

Sunday Vanguard was made to understand by a source that “when Chief Anthony Anenih made it clear to delegates from the South-South geo-political zone during a stakeholders’ meeting held last month that there has already been devised a means of monitoring the votes as cast by the delegates, the chief knew what he was talking about.  It was something that could only have come from an experienced mind.

In fact, it was the committee set up to resolve the contradictions in the relationship between the state governors and the National Executive Committee, NEC of PDP, headed by Anenih, which brokered the deal which saw the 22 state governors pledging to deliver for President Jonathan last months. That was the first sign of victory for the President.

“When some of the state governors discovered that the ballot boxes were to be tagged, the mood changed”. It was discovered that the sudden change was not because the governors were never going to be bound by their promise, Sunday Vanguard learnt that “there were states where the governors just left their delegates to go on the rampage and they were a bit indifferent.  But once the governors discovered that the boxes would be tagged, they went to work afresh with their delegates”.

In fact, Sunday Vanguard was made to understand that the governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Magatakadar Wamako, for whom President Jonathan pulled so many stops, including the special relief funds released after the flooding of some parts of Sokoto State, may be under some pressure to explain how Atiku clinched the state from Jonathan. But that was not the only state. Niger, Kano as well as Kebbi and Zamfara also went to Atiku.

It is yet clear what the implications would be for those state governors.

The catch in the arrangement was that as the delegates were voting, the votes were piled together on a state by state basis, thereby, making it possible to know exactly how many delegates in any given state gave his or her vote to Jonathan or Atiku.

Then there was the role of Governor Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State, Jonathan’s South West geo-political zone campaign co-ordinator.
Sunday Vanguard was told that the campaign organization benefitted a lot from the experience of the Ogun State governor in terms of streamlining how to approach and plead with the delegates.

This was why it was only the South West zone which had a block reception for President Jonathan on the eve of the convention at the Ogun State Governor’s Lodge.

President Jonathan’s friends and traders
But what the presidential contest in PDP played out last Thursday was the role of some of those who had glued themselves to President Jonathan played in almost pouring cold water on the collective efforts of the campaigners.

Sunday Vanguard was told that “some of the people who felt they had a stake in the Goodluck Jonathan Presidency simply took over the job of the real campaign managers.

“Some of these people were not politicians but because they had had a relationship with President Jonathan, they just began arrogating some powers to themselves and Mr. President, being a meek and humble man did not stop some of them or in some instances where he attempted to stop them, they did not bother.

“It has become very manifest now that some of these people who meant well did not have the capacity to deliver on the goods.  What people must realise is that a presidential campaign is not the same as organising a friend’s birthday party; there are differences.  This is politics and friendship sometimes makes a mess of good intentions.  There is no way people who do not have the capacity to deliver can deliver.

But for a few experienced hands, like one or two state governors who came in at the right time, the campaign was almost being run down.  There is need for a change of strategy because our party is now going into the general election and experience would count at this stage”.

To be fair, President Jonathan, Sunday Vanguard has been made to understand, has come to the “realization that he needs to do something about some people in the campaign organisation.  This is because some of the operatives or directors in the campaign organisation have succeeded in only piling bile for President Jonathan with their attitude and conduct.  This is not a family meeting; it is a presidential campaign and the place of friendship should be totally discountenanced”.

To that end, there are strong indications that President Jonathan  is set to re-jig his campaign orgnaisation for the challenges ahead.
“The President knows what he went through last Thursday and he is also aware of the roles played by specific individuals.  He would not want to go through that again and the first step would be to re-invigourate his campaign team.  He needs to”, a source in Aso Rock Presidential Villa told Sunday Vanguard.

The role of money
Meanwhile, money became the order of the day late into the night on Wednesday as delegates also created an artificial sense of self-worth.

Earlier that day, text messages started flying about that one of the front-runners, specifically the camp of Atiku, was offering between N2million and N5million per delegate.

This, it was gathered, initially created panic in the camp of President Jonathan.
A strategy meeting was hurriedly held at the residence of the Senate President, David Mark, a strong supporter of President Jonathan.

However, when Sunday Vanguard contacted Malam Garba Shehu, he debunked the claims.
According to him, “these are just spurious claims”.

But what Sunday Vanguard gathered was that whereas the two camps were actually involved in what a source described as ‘financial mobilisation’ for the delegates, some of the delegates were discovered to actually be the ones spearheading the rumour.
Upon investigation, it was discovered that money was being shared and given to delegates.

A source in one of the camps asked Sunday Vanguard: “who does not know that we are both spending money for the delegates.  Even hotel accommodation is part of the deal on the table for delegates”.

Yet, what some of the delegates were doing was to play the candidates against one another by making up fabulous stories of how attempts were made to induce them but which were rebuffed.
That way, the delegates would hope to either get a higher value of financial mobilisation, or be seen to be very loyal.

‘Atiku committed to democratic process, rule of law’

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has assured that he remains irrevocably committed to democratic Nigeria based on democratic process.

A statement by Atiku Campaign Organisation in Abuja on Friday said that the former vice-president is committed to entrenching democratic governance, rule of law and democratic process.

It stated that the former Vice-President has commenced consultations with his supporters and other stakeholders and will be making a pronouncement on the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primaries.

The Atiku Campaign Organisation said that part of his consultations will include briefing by his agents who declined to sign the final results on account of lapses observed during the Thursday primaries.

According to the statement, the outcome of these consultations will determine the next line of action of the former Vice-President.
Atiku, however, thanked PDP for the platform it has provided for the contest, delegates, supporters, campaign staff and well wishers for their support so far.

The Atiku Campaign Organisation assured all of them that the former Vice President still has a lot to offer and that this is not the time to write him off.