The Road to 2019: Flashpoints to Watch (XI)
Currently, there is no let-up in the battle for the soul of Rivers APC as the senator representing Rivers South East constituency, Magnus Abe, last week came out to explain why he was at loggerheads with his leader and benefactor, Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi. According to him, Amaechi humiliated him in the presence of his wife.
He also claimed Amaechi’s dictatorship might hurt the APC badly in the forthcoming elections, saying the minister was running a one-man show and stoking a personal cult. In a recent interview with a Magazine, Abe narrated how the feud between him and Amaechi spilled into his family circle, when the minister visited him at home.
Although unlike Amaechi, he was yet to respond to the attack by Abe, THISDAY however learnt that a reply is certainly coming the way of Abe this new week but from someone at his level. The Rivers’ crisis does not look like what would be over soon. Rivers is always a state to watch out for.
A pall of uncertainty is still hovering on both the PDP and APC in Ogun State as far as next elections are concerned. While the alleged ‘Plan B’ of the loyalists of Governor Ibikunle Amosun is yet to start manifesting, the defection of one of Amosun’s staunch loyalists, Hon. Mukaila Kazzim, representing Abeokuta North/Obafemi-Owode/Odeda Federal Constituency is a pointer that cannot be brushed aside. He defected to Allied People’s Movement (APM).
Although expectations are high that other loyalists of the governor might follow suit in the days ahead, the development is believed not to forebode well for the APC in the state.
In the PDP, while Senator Buruju Kashamu has successfully substituted his name as the governorship candidate of the party, fighting the attendant constitutional lacuna attached to the manner of his emergence is another challenge that awaits him and which the PDP national leadership of the party is waiting to exploit.
In both parties, therefore, it is not yet uhuru as the last is yet to be heard of the intrigues unsettling their fate.
Between Religion and Performance More crises appear to be lurking in the corner for Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State since he picked a fellow Muslim, Hadiza Balarabe as his running mate. The Southern Kaduna Political Group (SKPG) told him recently that the governorship election in the state would largely be determined by performance and not by religious sentiments.
The group however said the governor had failed if his intention of embracing a MuslimMuslim ticket for the 2019 governorship election was aimed at creating religious dissension and infusing division among the people.
The governor had tried to defend his choice of a Muslim as running mate when he said last week that the Government House was not a place of worship but a place of work. He also claimed to have consulted President Muhammadu Buhari before making his choice. But the group is now challenging him on performance. Kaduna is not only crucial in next election; it would play up a lot of intrigues and surprises.
The struggle for leadership in the PDP in Ekiti State between former Governor Ayodele Fayose and Senator Biodun Olujimi does not seem like what is primed to end soon. With the latest development, colossal damage is believed to await the party ahead of the 2019 elections as many PDP members are said to be prepared to dump the party in the state.
A faction of the party was recently said to have endorsed Olujimi as the leader, being the most senior political office holder in the state, but some others were insisting that Fayose’s leadership was incontestable and unchallenged in the state.
Inside sources had revealed that thousands of PDP members might have concluded arrangements to go with the senatorial candidate of the APC in Ekiti South district, Dayo Adeyeye, to his new party. If the deal is closed successfully, Fayose’s leadership of the PDP in the state might be threatened for real and Olujimi might actually stand a good chance.
The PDP and the APC in Borno State are at each other’s trail – bumper to bumper. This is on account of the fact that the PDP thinks it stands a good chance in the election since the incumbent is not returning, having served out his two terms of eight years. But the APC feels comfortable as the owner of its territory.
Little wonder the PDP in the state recently told the APC-led administration in the state to face its responsibilities of bringing succour to the people and stop meddling in the politics of the opposition parties.
A statement by one of its factional leaders, Alhaji Zannah Gaddama, the PDP said the APC was reckless in the statement it put out recently in reaction to a sincere call that the owed pensioners’ salaries should be paid. But by the time the APC would respond, it dismissed the PDP candidate in the state, Alhaji Muhammad Imam as a factional governorship candidate, a statement that the PDP said smacked of political immaturity. Election in Borno is also going to be very interesting being the hotbed of insurgency and coupled with the fact that the governor, Ibrahim Shettima is believed to have not done badly. It is a contradiction the PDP is trying to play on and how that would yield in favour of both parties is yet to be seen.