By Clifford Ndujihe
DESPITE the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC’s move to push the 2011 elections to April next year instead of January announced two weeks ago, leading presidential aspirants are upping their campaigns.

They are fighting on all fronts, using all tactics available to get the much-sought advantage and leverage.  They are waging the war in the media, deploying age and ethnic-cum regional sentiments, embarking on mudslinging as well as intense consultations and horse-trading.

Obviously, the presidential contest is panning out as President Goodluck Jonathan versus Northern aspirants affair.
The political atmosphere will be further electrified next week with a fresh flurry of activities, Saturday Vanguard gathered.

Aspirants woo Ndigbo
For a start, some of the aspirants, it was learnt will send emissaries on Monday to Owerri, the Imo State Capital. Their mission: To convince the Igbo to back their aspiration.

It will be recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan, Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar sent their representatives to the United States recently to woo the Igbo during the World Igbo Congress, WIC.

Sources said a similar move is on the cards when Igbo leaders converge in Owerri on Monday for the Igbo Political Stakeholders Conference being organised by the Igbo Political Forum, IPF “to set a new agenda for Ndigbo.”

To be chaired by Second Republic Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme with the five South-East governors as chief hosts and Ohanaeze President-General, Amb Ralph Uwaechue as Special Guest, those expected at the gathering include former Senate Presidents and governors, Ohanaeze leaders, serving and former ministers, serving and former federal lawmakers, National and state chairmen of political parties, serving and former ambassadors, serving and former presidential advisers and eminent Igbo patriots among others.

The parley, being mid-wived by Chief S.N. Okeke, Sen. Jim Nwobodo, Dr. Sam Egwu, Dr. Kalu I. Kalu, Chief Achike Udenwa and Chief Chyna Iwuanyanwu is expected to come out with a categorical statement on the issues of 2011 presidential polls, zoning and other burning issues in the polity.

“A presidential aspirant worth his onions will not want to miss an opportunity like this to market his ambition,” a source said.

The South-East has not taken a common stand on the 2011 polls. There are two schools of thought: Those in support of zoning and power going back to the North in 2011 in the hope of the South-East producing the president in 2015 and those who want Jonathan to continue.

Currently, there is no presidential aspirant from the South-East, a factor that has made the zone a beautiful bride of sorts. Some Northern aspirants are reportedly dangling the vice presidency offer to the Igbo. Those on the cards of the PDP may be pushed to name their running mates before the primaries.

Among the zones, the South-East has the least number of delegates but it is been taken seriously because it could be the joker.

Former Abia State Governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, on Tuesday tasked all the candidates jostling for the Presidency in 2011 to forget about Igbo support unless they unfold a master plan to fast-track the emergence of a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction.

Kalu, said no person from Igboland had enjoyed the opportunity of living in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, either as President or Vice President since the seat of government officially moved to  the city about two decades ago.

Babangida and Atiku, in their declarations, promised to do a term and handover to the South-East in 2015. A source said Babangida’s camp would go for a South-East or South-South running mate, with the pendulum oscillating between Dr. Peter Odili of Rivers and former Senate President Ken Nnamani of Enugu State. The duo attended IBB’s declaration, which in fact was chaired by Nnamani.

Expected PDP Delegates by zones
North-West    860
North-Central    640
North-East    520
South-South    610
South-East    490
South-West    670
Total        3790

Scramble for delegates toughens
Despite indefinite postponement of the PDP primaries and congresses, the presidential aspirants are leaving no stone unturned in their quest to get the backing of the would-be-delegates, especially the known 3500 delegates. Going by the PDP guidelines, about 3800 delegates will pick the presidential flagbearer.

Foot soldiers of the leading presidential aspirants on the banner of the PDP have fanned out across the states wooing would-be delegates, their godfathers and other stakeholders.

In the race for the PDP ticket are Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Mrs. Sarah Jibril, Dr. Bukola Saraki, Gen. Aliyu Gusau, Mrs Sarah Jubril and President Goodluck Jonathan.

Atiku wrote all the statutory delegates including Jonathan last week seeking their support while President Jonathan’s camp has started mobilising youths for a door-to-door campaign.

The quartet of Babangida, Atiku, Saraki and Gusau are working on the option of closing ranks and picking a consensus aspirant to slug it out with Jonathan at the PDP primaries as exclusively reported by Saturday Vanguard on September 4. They raised a 17-man team to work on the matter.

It is to be seen if they would abide by the decision of the 17 wise men with Saraki saying yesterday that he would not step down for anybody because he was in the race to stabilise the polity.

Fewer aspirants, interesting campaigns
Arguably, the polity is witnessing  the lowest number of presidential aspirants since 1990 but gradually, the campaigns are picking up.

At the beginning of the Babangida’s botched Third Republic transition programme, there were over 200 presidential aspirants partaking in the Option A4 model where presidential aspirants had to emerge from the wards through the local councils, states and the national level.

There were many aspirants under the Late Gen. Sani Abacha before a host of them were ‘intimidated’ out of the race leaving the likes of Dr. Tunji Braithwaite and Alhaji M.D Yusufu.

There were also many aspirants in the race in 1999 when only three parties – PDP, Alliance for Democracy, AD, and All Peoples Party, APP were on hand. In 2003, 20 candidates contested the 2003 presidential polls with 32 political parties and there were 25 candidates in 2007 with 50 political parties.

So far, only 14 aspirants are on the prowl with a crowd of 63 registered political parties.

The aspirants include Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC; Rev. Chris Okotie of the Fresh Democratic Party; Dele Momodu and Donald Duke of Labour Party, LP; Ibrahim Shekarau and Bashir Othman Tofa of the All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP; Nuhu Ribadu of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN; John Dara of the National Transformation Party, NTP; and Prof. Pat Utomi of the Social Democratic Mega Party, SDMP.

Proxy, media wars rage
However, some of the 14 aspirants are electrifying the polity. Since September 15 that most of the last batch joined the race, there has been an intense media battle.

There seems to be a rat-race to out do one another on the pages of newspapers among the trio of Jonathan, Saraki and Babangida.

Since September 15, Jonathan’s campaign team or his supporters had taken 40 pages of advert in Thisday, Guardian, Vanguard and Punch, to drum support for his aspiration. Saraki follows with 30 pages of advert in the four newspapers while Babangida had placed 15 pages.

Some groups backing Jonathan and IBB used some of the adverts to exchange brick-bats, others had served to portray the aspirants in glowing lights.

PDP targets N5b from nomination forms sale
If funds were to be the sole determinant of the next president, then the PDP can as well be crowned in advance.

The party, it was learnt, is mobilising a hefty war-chest for the polls. From the sale of nomination and expression of interest forms as well as nomination fees for three delegates per ward and one national delegate per local council, PDP is expected to rake in N5 billion.

According to the schedule of fees, a presidential aspirant is expected to pay N11 million; governorship aspirant (N5.5 million); Senatorial aspirant (N2.2 million); House of Representatives aspirant (N1.1 million) and state House of Assembly aspirant (N600,000).

From the presidential aspirants, the party is expected to make N56 million from five male aspirants and one female aspirant, who would only pay the one million naira expression of interest fee.

There are 109 senatorial zones, 360 federal constituencies, over 1100 state constituencies and 36 states in which elections may hold in 32 of them. The party has also fixed N100 for each of the three delegates expected from the over 8800 wards and one delegate from each of the 774 Local councils of the country.

In Adamawa State alone, about 700 aspirants including seven governorship hopefuls had reportedly picked nomination forms as of last weekend.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Olorogun Williams Makinde, last week published accounts of seven banks where aspirants can pay the fees.