By Sola Ebiseni

THE four-yearly Nigeria’s electoral process is a drama of impossibles, the end of which this edition is gradually winding out. It is a meeting which agenda is rarely followed but the end is predictable from the beginning for the discerning. In spite of the hullabaloo, nothing happening now is unpredictable except for some hiccups, eventually a storm in the tea cup.

The PDP, predictably and following emerging tradition, has taken the plunge eventually and without an agreed zoning arrangement, if it was ever thought anyone other than the Waziri Adamawa and former Vice President, Abubakar Atiku, would have emerged, such thought might really be politically unrealistic. Besides, experience has shown that the PDP hardly depart from its candidate still willing to throw its hat in the rings in subsequent elections, ceteris paribus. 

I was chatting with one of my friends, whose naughty disposition is directly proportional to his six-feet height. He was curious on when  our National Chairman would resign; in the fidelity of his words, that he would vacate his position in the event of the emergence of a Northern presidential candidate.

I was left wondering and mentally wandering on which is the superior between mandate anchored on a national consensus and another based on the local government system. That’s another matters arising or any other business or meeting within meeting, before the final motion for adjournment.

So much have been seen and said about the on-going process which  is full of rough edges encircling the country in national nightmares. Speaking from the perspective of a veteran participant, one is not surprised that some of the absurdities are gaining preponderate ascendancy. Over N100 million for the same form. Those who could afford the atrocious fees were members of his cabinet  and other officials of government, including the man at the helms of the nation’s monetary policy as the Governor of the Central Bank.

Where are those blaming the delegates from demanding and hauling their own shares of the booty that have been stacked from inexplicable sources? Their membership is selected mostly from the wretched of the earth and their roles adhoc.

It is their festival, for they may no longer be considered for those special party assignments. The huge bazaars of this season is enough reason why they may not be that lucky next time as the seat, temporary as it seems, has become now most coveted. Don’t ask me if the high monetisation would not percolate to the polling units because you know already.

As visitations and negotiations are afoot for reconciliation on the part of the PDP, the volcano awaits the APC. The power brokers within the party, and they change by the day, are at their wits end. Much as the President would have loved to dictate the presidential candidate, just as he did the National Chairman.

However, the crisis-absorbing capacity of the party appears too weak at the weight of the volcanic implosion which political molten magma might create blocks of barriers in all political camps across the country. The third force may be the ultimate beneficiaries of the smithereens.

Some posts on social media appear not to spare and indeed do smear Ndigbo for not putting its house in order to come up with only one candidate for the primaries. They are just looking for excuses to justify the injustice against the Ndigbo. It is not peculiar to them. Awolowo’s political ambition suffered in the hands of the Yoruba; Afenifere is not wholly healed on the Bola Ige/ Olu Falae debacle. At the 2019 PDP Presidential Convention in PortHacourt, 13 Northern aspirants contested and were all implacable.

The Nigerian federation under its present Constitution is particularly skewed against the Ndigbo. A process based on the local government system arbitrarily awarded by the military cannot be the basis of any fair contest. This is where if you ask me, Nyesom Wike, the irrepressible Governor of Rivers State was the hero of the PDP Convention.

With just a total  of 123 local governments from his diverse and naturally incoherent South-South region, he braved through national barriers and netted 234 votes even when it was obvious that some of his colleagues from his region rooted for his opponent with Tambuwal’s last minute est tu Brute’s cut. I was at the Port Harcourt Convention in 2019 when Wike put all he had for Tambuwal against the Waziri, that is Wike’s opponent today.

The venue of the PDP Convention associated with MKO Abiola imbued me personally with the nostalgia of the hero of our democracy who dumped all to give hope to the hopeless and demystified the notion that the leadership of the country could only come from a particular region of the country.

Those born at Nigeria’s Independence and after were almost succumbing  to the nauseating feelings that only the North could produce the head of the Nigerian state judging from the fact that all the Military Heads of State were of Northern origin, except for Olusegun Obasanjo’s accidental discharge.  Only Wike has joined MKO Abiola as a Southerner  in such contest at the National Convention of a major political party.

In spite of the result, he stood tall defending and implementing the collective resolve of his Southern Governors colleagues and peoples of Southern Nigeria.  Who’s next? The APC Convention will tell. Nigeria, we hail thee!!!