Reasons have emerged on why Bauchi state Governor Abdulkadir Bala Mohammed did not step down for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar during the recently concluded presidential primaries of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Atiku emerged the party’s candidate for the 2023 general elections scoring 371 votes ahead of his closest challenger, Rivers state Governor Nyesom Wike who polled 237 votes and former Senate President Bukola Saraki got 70 votes.
Akwa Ibom state Governor Emmanuel Udom scored 38 votes, Governor Bala had 20 votes while another former Senate President and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) garnered 14 votes.
The media has been awash with stories of how Governor Bala and Saraki allegedly defied top northern leaders who tried prevailing on them to dump their ambition and support Atiku.
The duo were however said to have refused and chose to press on with their ambition, while Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal heeded the call and declared his support for the former vice president at the last minute.
Although the former vice president had visited Wike after the contest, the Rivers has expressed his angst over his loss.
For instance, he was reported to have said during a reception welcoming him back home after the primaries, that “If I wanted to scuttle the convention, I would have done that and I told them. There are people you think are human beings but they are not human beings,” he said.
“I have never seen how people can violate procedures and guidelines. Somebody had spoken, it is only at that point he was speaking that he can say I have withdrawn. You don’t call him back.”
Bala’s action explained
But three days after the exercise, an insight has been provided into reasons Governor Bala chose to carry on with his ambition as against the call by some northern leaders.
Tracing the development to the consensus trip which took the quartet of Bala, Saraki, Tambuwal and Mohammed Hayatu-Deen-all presidential aspirants- round the country, the source said: “In line with the agreement by those who participated in the search for a consensus candidate: Hayatu-Deen, Tambuwal, Bala Mohammed and Bukola Saraki, each aspirant had his own agenda driving him.
“Stepping down would presuppose that the various agenda would have been discussed and aligned before such a decision. That was not done. To simply step down peremptorily would mean accepting wholesale, the agenda of the beneficiary of such a decision.
“Apart from representing a vision, no aspirant comes to an election alone. It would amount to disrespecting members of one’s team and indeed betraying them, to mount the podium, as Tambuwal did, to announce stepping down, without any discussion with key stakeholders of one’s team. Bala Mohammed is a team player who genuinely carries members of his team along. If anyone expected him to act like Tambuwal who has a history of betraying political opponents, such a person would be very wrong.”
While also faulting the timing, the top party source said: “With pressure on the aspirants from a certain section of the country, in the full glare of the public, to step down for Atiku, Bala saw it as offending everything he has stood for, as a nationalist and constitutionalist. Though no section of the Constitution was breached, to him, such a public show would further polarize the country as it has indeed done.
“ A review of Bala Mohammed’s celebrated nationalist role in the ascension of President Goodluck Jonathan to the presidency will explain why, under the circumstance of Wike’s push, it would have been very difficult for him to step down in a manner that could be interpreted as checkmating an aspirant because of his origin.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Bala Mohammed had moved against opposition to Jonathan’s ascension to the presidency by moving the historic Doctrine of Necessity Motion that gave Jonathan the legitimacy to step into the office of President, first in acting capacity and subsequently, in substantive capacity.”
Damage to party unity
“One only needs to see the protests of Wike, to appreciate the damage done to party unity and the unity of the country by such a brazen display of parochial political strategy.
“Bala also loathed the possibility of going into the election fractionalized, a development that will give the ruling APC a roller coaster to retain the presidency.
“Obviously, Atiku understands the implications and has quickly swung into action to douse the tension and restore a semblance of unity, going forward,” it was further gathered.