By Owei Lakemfa
IF the message at a convention is fundamental, then I was surprised that as many as 805 delegates at last Thursday’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primaries voted for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. That left President Goodluck Jonathan with 2,703 votes and Mrs Sarah Jibril with one.

Each of the three aspirants was given five minutes to address delegates and their speeches reflected their personalities and cravings.
Mrs  Jibril painted the vision of a united Nigeria free of corruption and where women will not be marginalised.

President Jonathan spoke of building a country that will conquer hunger, expand and develop education and meet challenges such as those of health, infrastructure and security.

Alhaji Atiku spent his five minutes praising himself and attacking Jonathan  whom he described  as “someone who simply thinks that being president is an end in itself”. He declared that Jonathan “is not the kind of person you would entrust  the fate of this country”.

Accusing President Jonathan of destroying the PDP,  the rather caustic Atiku who told delegates to vote for  him “because it is the right thing to do” continued his personalisation  of the campaigns, saying: “He (Jonathan) does not seem to care  if this country is thrown into chaos and anarchy as long as he remains in power”.

Atiku’s speech and refusal to concede defeat, is a faithful summation of his  campaigns and political proclivities. He exhibits loads of anger, off loads tons of threats, including of disintegration and displays disrespect and  even disdain for his opponent, President Jonathan whom he portrays as an usurper. In all these, are visible signs of desperation and traces of despair. These are compounded by a sense of panic and deep loss.

The manner Atiku fought  the PDP after he berthed at the Action Congress gave the impression that he can be unforgiving. His initial parting with the PDP was like a messy divorce in which all was laid bare. His reactions and comments on his  political divorce with the party were full of vehemence, anger and  insults. It was like a person who on separation thought he would never return or need the relationship again. It was someone sawing off  a rope across a valley  and assuming he would never need to cross again.

Atiku was an angry warrior  who  after taking a speed boat, mined and bombed the jetty, thinking he would never need to berth or take shelter there again.

But he returned to the PDP and even after begging for forgiveness by way of securing a waiver to contest the primaries, his past actions and utterances continue to haunt him. The divorce wounds are still quite fresh, and here and there, they re-opened.

Then Atiku gambled with  the devil called regionalism; claiming to champion  a part of the country as its “consensus candidate”. He threatened disintegration unless President Jonathan dropped off the race. As things turned out, he was roundly rejected even in his home state of Adamawa where Jonathan spanked him by 76 votes to 31.Atiku’s victory in four states, but loss in 32 other states and the Federal Capital Territory was a sort of referendum  amongst PDP delegates on his style of politics.

I figure that if by any chance Atiku were to come to power, many elites would flee the country; they will not even risk going through the airports; they would first foot it to a neighbouring country like Niger Republic. I don’t know where Atiku is headed after his defeat but I suspect that power is his life.

Apart from paying the N10 million fee to PDP and addressing the press, I am not sure what else Mrs Jibril did in the run up to the primaries. Admittedly in comparison to her fellow contestants, she had no funds nor was her message audible. I think it would be quite charitable to describe her as the dark horse in the race; in reality, she was not even in the race; she was an innocent  bystander who was inadvertently rewarded with a single vote.

I doubt that  Mrs Jibril was representing women; there was no evidence that she echoed their voices or pushed their concerns. What is, however, not in doubt is that she has the courage and enough determination to declare her interest in the presidency   every election year. Some think she is  a professional contestant.

Songs of triumph are still being heard in the Jonathan-Sambo camp and victory feasts are still being cooked; doubtlessly seeing off the Atiku challenge with its divisive tendencies of overheating the political system and sharpening  the edges of regionalism, would be a relief. I do not think that the camp would assume that it would coast on to victory, but  the candidates it may face  are likely to observe the rules of decorum, respect the unity of the country and carry out issue-based campaigns. They are unlikely to be brawlers for whom everything is game.

Perhaps it would not be out of place to acknowledge other powerful contestants who fell on the battle field of ‘Northern consensus’. There is former Head of State, retired General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida  who must have been lured into a race he could not even compete in the heats. His past completely over shadowed his campaigns, and not a few of us Nigerians felt insulted and provoked that given his recent past, he would want to lead the country again.

There was the veteran spook, Alhaji Aliyu Gusau  a well known name in the elite circles but with no publicly identifiable face to go with it. His  entry into the race was like a stage manager  suddenly deciding to play the lead role in a play that is virtually ended. Then there was Governor Bukola Saraki who unlike many of his colleagues who seek the chambers of the Senate on their departure from Government House, decided to seek that of  the Presidential Palace. Saraki might have been lured by the zoning nectar, but hadn’t enough staying power to suck any. It is Goodluck to PDP.