By George Onmonya Daniel
Atiku Abubakar and Bukola Saraki were a major part of the gang up that led to the fall of the PDP. They are still going to be the Achilles heel of the party. Both men have one final ambition, to become president, not to work as a team to support any candidate to become president. Their personal ambitions and ego matters to them more than the collective success of the PDP.
When Umar Musa Yar’adua died 2010, both Atiku and Saraki were at the forefront of the bitter campaign for a Northern candidate to replace Jonathan in 2011. They fought so hard, teaming up with several northern groups to pile up pressure on Goodluck Jonathan to step down for them. Goodluxk eventually won the 2011 election. Before 2015 both Saraki and Atiku joined the APC. Atiku joined the APC to get the ticket and when he didn’t get it withdrew into his shell. He would later come back to join the PDP before the 2019 election just to get the presidential ticket. Saraki on the other hand made enemies with owners of the APC when he stole the Senate President from their preferred candidate. He saw no peace until he left the APC back to the PDP.
When Saraki’s ambition is not a do or die affairs because Saraki actually knows that it will be quite difficult for a Yoruba man, Gambari for that matter, from Kwara to become president, Atiku has all the advantages. He is a Fulani man from Adamawa State. But the problem right now is that the outgoing president, Major General Buhari (rtd) is a Fulani man and the South have made it clear that it is their turn.
Atiku’s only mission is to be president. He doesn’t care about this southern clamour, doesn’t believe in zoning anymore, and he has his eyes on one thing and nothing else, to get the PDP presidential ticket. He either gets his way or the highway. I don’t see Atiku losing the ticket and supporting the party or any candidate that picks the ticket.
That is where the major problem lies for the PDP.
Another major problem of the PDP is the problem of resources. Does that party have the finances to match the APC? The government in power have enough resources in terms of finance to bankroll the APC and make the party win, the PDP do not seem to have that now.
In 2015 when the APC floored the PDP, the people who bankrolled the election were the same People Democratic Party members who had defected to the new All Progressive Congress. Most of the actors were in power as governors and they had state money working for them.
Twenty four hours is a long time in politics so I cannot conclude on anything. The APC is battling with it’s own crisis, how the parry handles it with be another determinant in who wins 2023.
