They are two distinct individuals, born and bred in opposite sides of our country with different careers. One is a medical doctor, the other an economist/banker. They belong to parties with seemingly divergent ideologies on paper at least. One belongs to a party that is said to be progressive and the other is in a party that is seen to be conservative. In reality the difference between their political parties is like six and half a dozen. Whereas one is of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, the other is in the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. One is named Ifeanyi Okowa from Delta state in the South-south zone of Nigeria and the other is Kashim Shetitma from Borno state, North-east zone.
They both once served as commissioners in their respective states. One is a former governor, the other an incumbent governor, just as they were both elected into the upper legislative chamber as distinguished senators — one formerly and the other currently. However, their latest political foray is taking on similar course in that it is having ripple effects on not just their respective parties but the nation at large. Their emergence as their parties’ vice-presidential candidates is tearing their parties apart and pitching Nigerians against one another along primordial fault lines of religion and ethnicity. In fact, there are clamours for their replacement in some quarters.
No sooner was Governor Okowa unveiled as running mate to the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, than some party chieftains cried foul. They averred that the position should go to Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state. According to them, the committee set up by the party to choose a vice presidential candidate voted overwhelmingly for Wike while two others –Governor Okowa himself and Aka Ibom state’s Governor Emmanuel Udom – came a distant second and third, respectively.
Apparently, Atiku Abubakar a former vice president of the federal republic of Nigeria thought that a visit to Wike the next day after Okowa’s unveiling as his running mate for a tete a tete talk would pacify the governor and have everyone back on same page as him as happened during the presidential primary when a courtesy call on and handshake with all his co-contestants saw everybody smiling again. However, Wike was said to have left Abuja to his Port Harcourt base the night before the public announcement having apparently gotten wind that he was not the chosen one against all expectations. Atiku Abubakar was said to have phoned the governor as well as sent emissaries to him.
The Rivers governor and his loyalists remained aggrieved. They probably consider such moves condescending given Wike’s towering status in the party. Whereupon PDP’s Board of Trustees (BOT) chairman, Alhaji Walid Jibril, now took matters into his hands by constituting a high-powered committee made up of party stalwarts to be led its presidential candidate and himself to go meet and ‘beg’ the governor. The meeting is slated to hold when Atiku returns from Dubai where he had gone for vacation and the Sallah festival.
In the meantime, the misgivings over Okowa’s selection for the prime post continues to amplify. The governor through his action/inaction continues to give hints that he would not take his snubbing lightly. Some governors, party chieftains and ordinary members are literally lining up behind Wike. Those aligned to this camp are growing by the day. The agitation within the PDP has dovetailed into the bottled-up misgivings that a northerner in person of Atiku emerged as its flagbearer rather than it being zoned to the South. There is also the growing disaffection that the party’s three powerful positions, viz, the presidential candidate, national chairman and the BOT chairman are all from the North.
Thus, the PDP is, apparently, divided into two camps, majorly along ethnic lines. It appears that simmering discontents within the party was burst open with Okowa’s nomination as vice presidential candidate. The camp of ‘malcontents’ are demanding replacement of Okowa with the Rivers state governor as well as replacement of the national chairman with a southerner to be assuaged. They say they are fighting against injustice. The bottom line is that the PDP may not be prosecuting its 2023 presidential project with a unity of purpose. Fences can still be mended though for miracles do still happen.
The APC is facing a schism of a different kind, triggered also by nomination of its de jure vice presidential candidate in the person of Kashim Shettima. It is rooted in religion. Confirmation that APC is now fielding a Muslim/Muslim ticket for the 2023 presidential polls set tongues wagging. Both Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Senator Shettima his running mate profess the Muslim faith. It has led to resignations by some party faithful.
Whereas the wrangling in PDP is chiefly among its members, politicians, the dust stirred by APC’s same faith ticket has seen other members of the wider society, non-politicians and even institutions actively weighing in. It has seemingly polarised the country along Christian/Muslim divide. And it appears to me that those that are more angry about it are northern APC stalwarts that profess to be Christians who were hoping to be their party’s vice presidential running mate. Argument against same faith ticket at the national level is that as a heterogenous country, all interests should be brought onboard. Some rather extreme views have been expressed in railing against this combination with some stating that it is a prelude to a hidden islamisation agenda.
What we are experiencing currently is part of a fermentation process that would lead to a future, new world order of bliss in which Nigeria is divinely destined to play a leading role. Everything we shall go through now and in the nearest future would eventually lead to the goal. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has indicated that it would direct ‘’Christians’’ through the churches not to vote any party with same faith ticket at the presidential election.
All should be reminded that every human being is given free will by the Almighty Creator. It is an inherent part of the human spirit. It means we have the free will to make a decision. But having exercised our free will, we are irrevocably, bound to consequences of that decision. CAN and the other clerics should not order Christians to vote this way or that way, rather, they should urge them to vote according to their heart’s bidding in exercise of their free will. This applies to all electorate nationwide.
Ikeano writes via [email protected] 08033077519
