Atiku/Wike Debacle: How Can Kauran Bauchi Score the Winning Goal for PDP?
By Sani Danaudi Mohammed
AREWA AGENDA – The Peoples Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in Nigeria along with its main rival, the ruling All Progressives Congress.
Its policies are the centered right of the political spectrum. The party won every presidential election between 1999 and 2011 but lost the 2015 elections to the immediate past President of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari GCFR of the All Progressive Congress.
The party has a neo-liberal stance in its economic policies and maintains a conservative stance on certain social issues, such as same-sex relations. The PDP favors free market policies which support economic liberalism and limited government regulation. In 2003, President Olusegun Obasanjo and then Finance Minister and now Managing Director of the World Trade Organization Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala embarked on an economic reform program that reduced government spending through conservative fiscal policies.
This saw the deregulation and privatization of numerous industries in the Nigerian services sector notably the Nigerian Telecommunications (NITEL) industry. Despite the criticisms and short comings of the party, it must be applauded for laying the foundations for the return of democratic structures in 1999. The democracy we currently enjoy today as Nigerians was a result of the outstanding Sacrifices of the People Democratic Party.
The major reason that culminated in its defeat in 2015 was due to internal Conflicts between the Northern and southern PDP heavy bigwigs regarding which zone should have produced the President. It is not different in the just concluded Presidential elections that featured the former Vice President of Nigeria Atiku Abubakar as the Party’s Presidential Candidate. He went to elections in disarrayed with 5 of the PDP Governors protesting and it cleared that both worked against their own party. Although, the Presidential Appeal Tribunal is ongoing their loss was predicted owing to the fact that, it contested against the ruling APC that enjoys the incumbency,22 Governors, Leaders of the National Assembly and 42 Ministers all working for the victory of their political party and its Presidential Candidate.
The PDP knew that it was up to a difficult task, contesting against the Jagaban and now President of Nigeria Bola Ahmed Tinubu been one of the finest breed of Nigerian Politicians alive. The party needed more of its members like the immediate past Past Governor of Rivers State Nyeson Wike who led the G-5 Governors against Atiku Abubakar. Until Wike’s late decision to support Tinubu’s Presidential ambition, the PDP conflicts were given ethnic connotations. It is now sounding more louder that, the party is in serious traumatic condition and it is in the last breath for survival.
The G-5 is enjoying a closed Political romance with both the President and the leadership of the National Assembly including the current and former Governors of the ruling All Progressive Congress. Bearing a last-minute change, their political gang leader is rumoured to be among list of the next Cabinet of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and he has taken the leadership of both the Senate and the House of Representatives minority Caucus of the 10th National Assembly.
The choice of Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed CON (Kauran Bauchi) as the PDP Governors Forum Chair viewed across boards as the best and last option of the party at this challenging time. There is this confidence that people have in his natural instincts to change things around in the most difficult Political Circumstances. His experience and understanding of the dynamism of the Nigerian politics as a Former Senator, Minister of the FCT and now second term Governor of Bauchi State will be an added advantage in reuniting the party before the next elections.
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The fact that he is the most qualified among his contemporary PDP Governors cannot be overemphasized and all eyes are up against him to further strengthen the victory party. The President in his Political wisdom has coopted some of the main opposition members into his pocket with his idea to replicate the late Umaru Musa Yar’adua appointment of Ministers from the leading oppositions. Should he succeeds in doing that, then his government will be without opposition and the entire democracy of Nigeria will be sleeping towards a one-party System.
It is expected that Kauran Bauchi as a team player that has traveled, connected and reached out across the length and breath of Nigeria will recover the lost glory of the party. As someone who contested for the PDP Presidential ticket in the just concluded elections, He will certainly do his best in bringing the party and waring teams together. He has proved to be a party man by delivering Bauchi State at the Presidential, winning two out of the three Senatorial Seats,7 out of 12 House of Representatives, Majority of the Members of the Bauchi State House of Assembly and won convincingly his second term as an Executive Governor of Bauchi State despite the gang up from the rank and files of Bauchi Politicians.
The predictions that the PDP will varnish as a result of an increasing internal crisis that is engulfing the party since it lost power at the Center in the last 8 years is glaring and evident why the party need each other to survive its current realities. The emergence of the Bauchi State Governor as Chairman of PDP is building Confidence as someone who understands the game and is prepared always at overcoming obstacles in a time of the need. He won a Senatorial Seat in 2007 against the former Governor Mu’azu. He later became Minister of FCT after choosing to defend the Unity and diversity of Nigeria through a doctrine of necessity.
As a pan Nigerian, Kauran Bauchi is neither a religious bigot nor an ethnic irredentist who shared the multiple Competencies of Sardauna of Sokoto, Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa and Azikiwe who died Serving the nation honestly and diligently. Kauran Bauchi leading the most powerful team of its Governors who are now the life wire of the party needs to reach out to all that matters within the PDP to ensure that everything is resolved amicably. It is only the reconciliation and healing process that will guarantee the sustainability of the party and return to it to winning ways in the 2027 national elections. He believes so much in constructively engaging issues, and apply mediation in resolving them than seeking alternative methods. He catches attention easily due to his nature of applying alternative methods of resolving conflicts.
The Party is stronger together and moving as a train in Bauchi State despite predictions before the Governorship elections. He has carried everyone alone in both decisions while the reward for hard work, credibility and loyalty is second to known. His massive infrastructural revolution in Roads Networks, Health Care, Education, Water Schemes, Empowerment Programs, agriculture and Housing are a few out of the Many of his documented achievements.
In just four years and now gearing towards the second term of his administration, He has turned the State to be a reference point for good governance in Nigeria.
His unanimous acceptance by the PDP Governors which had in attendance all the party’s State Governors and the 2023 Presidential Candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar GCON testified further strengthen within the PDP to turn things around from the North to the South, East to the West of the country. He is a bridge builder, a peace maker and one who believes passionately in the unity of Nigeria.
He is been described by many Bauchians and Nigerians as a Lion King that is leading an Army of Sheep.
He will no doubt be a mediator and reconciliator that the PDP needs to bounce back and restore the broken relationships between Atiku’s and Wike’s Camp that continue to hurt the PDP that made all of them known to many of us from our hard to reach villages. Recall in 2015, Atiku Abubakar led a camp of PDP Governors to APC and in 2023, Wike led another Camp to fight internally which is sum up as a major Political turmoil that caused the PDP its defeats.
This is actually a good sign of what Kauran Bauchi Chairmanship will portend for the Party in the next coming days and years ahead. The hopes of reconciliation and healing within the PDP family are finally restored as the leader who understands the game has emerged.
Danaudi, National President of Arewa Youths Advocate for Peace and Unity Initiative Writes from Bauchi via [email protected].
