Guber Primaries: How Ex-ministers’ Loses will Affect 2015 Polls

Uzo Chikere

Elective office seekers on various political platforms, especially as governors have lost and won tickets this recent past. More are still to lose and win as the days gravitate towards the 2015 general elections in Nigeria.

The most hit are those who by commission or omission allotted to themselves elephantine sizes in the polity considering their presumed prominence in the public domain. Not just that they lost the tickets, they lost in most cases, to unknown quantities in the political terrain. They are especially those who had had their eyes fixed on their states’ gubernatorial race at next year’s polls

Among them are some Cabinet Ministers who had carried on in a manner symptomatic of heirs to their fathers’ thrones in their various states with divine guarantee of not just picking the tickets, but becoming the chief executives when the race would have been won (by them) and lost (by the outsiders).

The way these ministers had instantly resigned on October 15, 2014 from the cabinet to pursue their political career in spite of the seeming certainty of their posts would also appear that they have a solid stamp of victory in their next move. The same spirit in a way would have fired up some actors, musicians and comedians who had produced and pasted their posters on every space they could find announcing their bid to chase some parties’ tickets for various levels of elective political positions.

The amount of confidence and enthusiasm exuded by both these professional and new-fangled politicians at the time under review had probably beclouded their reasoning to the extent that they were carried away by the euphoria of their popularity that was either driven by continuous and repeated appearances on different media platforms while performing assigned roles or clear lack of the ability to draw the line between reality and make-belief.

Caught in this web of confusion were such Cabinet Ministers as Labaran Maku (Information), Emeka Wogu (Labour), Samuel Otorm (Aviationii), Onyebuchi Chukwu (Health), Musiliu Obanikoro (Defense ii) who all served under President Goodluck Jonathan. Nyesom Wike is the only erstwhile minister among them who scaled the governorship huddle to snatch from his rivals the ticket for Rivers State.

Keen observers of Nigerian politics watched as they all capitulated under the superior performance of rivals some of whom had never before held counsellorship position at all. Could it be that these former ministers and even their counterparts from the entertainment industry who suddenly became adjunct politicians underrated the people who have recently started reading in between the lines? Or was it that they had immersed themselves so deeply in self-delusion and not knowing that to talk the walk is not the same as to walk the talk?

Former Health Minister, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu lost his bid in Ebonyi State‎ to Engr. Dave Umahi while Maku, the ex-Information Minister was beaten to it in Nasarawa State by a businessman Yusuf Agabi, who scored 214 against 160 votes garnered by Maku.

In Abia State, the former Labour Minister, Wogu’s dream was killed by a landslide victory posted by Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, the candidate of outgoing Governor Theodore Orji.

Coming second, was Uche Ogah with 103 votes, just as the former labour minister struggled to rake up 33 votes to come a very distant third.

In Lagos, the former Minister of Defence (State), Musiliu Obanikoro lost to Jimi Agbaje who recently joined the PDP. Obanikoro claimed the election was rigged and has vowed to lodge an appeal with the party’s appeal committee.

Erstwhile Minister of state for aviation, Samuel Ortom came third in the governorship primary held in Benue state which was won by Terhemen Tarzoor, the former speaker of the State House of Assembly with 517 votes. Deputy Governor, Steven Lawani, came second with 311 votes, while Ortom got 111 votes, followed by former Minister of State for Niger Delta, Sam Odeh with 48 votes.

Given this scenario, will the mighty fall in the 2015 polls? Some respondents are of the view that it can only point to the fact that performance, human relation and accountability will come in to play in the determination of who gets elected by the electorate in the future. They further hold that if at the party level these personages could not fly in the primaries it calls to question what level of internal relation they maintained within their party and the members from whom the delegates were constituted.

Another school of thought believes that elections in Nigeria will be won based on positive impact of governance on the ordinary people rather than verbal engagement of the people which has been an age old tool used by politicians during their campaign runs across the states and the country. In the current scheme of things, political gerrymandering is obviously giving way to practical, pragmatic and verifiable projects that will be of immense and rip able benefit to all concerned.

As swift and smooth the primaries might have appeared, there are still some elements of doubt among those who had lost out in the contest irrespective of its fairness or otherwise. Most especially, a handful of aspirants whose mien and style towards the build up to the fray gave themselves away as the anointed ones with divine guarantee to emerge victorious at the various primaries.

Although, the former Minister of State for Niger Delta, Mr Darius Ishaku, also won the Taraba State governorship primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the second of the seven that resigned from the Jonathan administration that survived the governorship primaries in the states alongside Nyesom Wike, former minister of state for education, who snatched the ticket in Rivers State, there are palpable fears that the loses might affect the anticipated gains that the ruling party expects to record in the 2015 polls as some of the ministers have even defected to other parties to achieve theis political ambitions.

Ortom, who ended third in the PDP primary in his state, having been floored by Tehemen Tarzoor, who emerged the party’s candidate, has already obtained the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship nomination form, barely 24 hours later, returning his PDP membership card to Felix Agbaka, the ward chairman of Nzorov in Guma local government area of the state .

In a statement signed by Tahav Agerzua, his Media Adviser, Ortom stated that his defection was in response to his supporters’ advice to seek an alternative platform for the realisation of his aspiration.

It noted Ortom’s determination to win the election and appealed to delegates to vote for his candidature to foster unity and development in the state and country.

Speculations are rife that former Minister of State for Health, Muhammad Ali Pate, who contested the governorship primary election under the PDP in Bauchi State and lost, may defect to the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM).

From every indication, there seems to be a rising wave of disaffection within the ranks of the ruling party with regard to the harvest of its former ministers’ defeat at the last governorship primaries and how that will affect the coming elections can only be for time to tell.