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As the year 2022 eclipses, the political events that heralded the year unfolded many issues that may shape or unshape the political landscape of Nigeria since independence in 1960.
TheNewsGuru.com, (TNG) Africa’s most authoritative news platform will take a careful look at the events before and after the primaries of the two major political parties in Nigeria, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
The advent of the social media networks equally helped in shaping it either negatively or positively as the political drumbeats took a new dimension for the first time in the political history of Nigeria.
The presidential candidate of APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu before the primaries of his party while on political consultations to Ogun state had bared it all when he declared that without him President Muhamadu Buhari wouldn’t have even dreamt of going to Aso Rock.
Without mincing words in Yoruba dialect he had declared that ’emilokan’ which literally means it’s my turn to occupy Aso Rock in 2023.
This development did not go down with many Nigerians and before you say Jack Robinson, it turned out to become a mantra echoed all over Nigeria.
APC Primaries:
The primaries came and contestants coughed out N100m each for forms.
Twenty-three (23) aspirants were screened by the John Odigie-Oyegun-led screening committee.
Those screened were Bola Tinubu, former Lagos state governor; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President Ahmad Lawan; Kayode Fayemi, Ekiti state governor; Godswill Akpabio, former minister of Niger Delta Affairs; Yahaya Bello, governor of Kogi state and Oladimeji Bankole, former Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Others are; Tein Jack-Rich, President/ Founder of Belemaoil and Belema Aid Foundation; Ogbonnaya Onu, former minister of Science, Technology and Innovation; Ben Ayade, Cross River state governor; Ikeobasi Mokelu, former minister of Information; Rotimi Amaechi, former Minister of Transportation, Emeka Nwajiuba, former Minister of State for Education and Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi state.
Also screened were Ahmed Yerima, former governor of Zamfara; Ibikunle Amosun, former Governor of Ogun state; Uju Kennedy, only female aspirant; Tunde Bakare, Nicholas Felix; Ken Nnamani, former President of the Senate president, Ajayi Borroffice, deputy senate leader and Mohammed Abubakar-Badaru governor of Jigawa State.
True to his words, when the primaries took place this year Tinubu dusted all the aspirants including a serving vice president to clinch the coveted position of a presidential flag-bearer.
It was indeed ’emilokan’ that carried the day. The only close contestant was the former Governor of Rivers State and immediate past Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.
‘Emilokan’ will only truly manifest paraventure Tinubu emerges Nigeria’s president in 2023.
THE PDP PRIMARIES:
The PDP presidential primaries which took place in May was another political event of 2022 that properly helped to unshape the party’s political history as five governors of immense political wherewithal decided to go on a dancing jamboree to register their bottled up anger.
Leading the pack is vociferous Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike who after losing the presidential primaries aligned with his allies to address alleged marginalisation of the southern part of Nigeria.
To this end, Wike and his integrity group asked for the resignation of the party’s chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu to address the imbalance in the party as the presidential candidate can’t be from the same north.
The party saw it as an empty threat and went ahead to appoint Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal as the PCC Director General to further confirm that the G-5 governors are on their own.
This development also helped to shape the party as a northern party which the integrity group has vehemently rejected.
It’s still a raging issue within the party as the group has continued to shuttle the globe looking for ways and means to address the injustice birthed by the presidential primaries that produced Atiku Abubakar as flag bearer.
THE PETER OBI FACTOR:
Former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi had to abandon the PDP political turf after purchasing form for the presidential primaries when he discovered that it was virtually impossible to achieve anything meaningful.
He left the oldest surviving party in Nigeria to lace his boots with the relatively unknown Labour Party LP.
His emergence as the presidential candidate of the party has galvanized the party into the media space to the extent that most polls carried out in the last four months point to his direction as the most likely president of Nigeria in 2023.
The party does not have structures on ground like established APC and PDP that over the years had acquired structures that could give them a major vintage position in 2023.
THE LONDON DIALOGUES TO SHAPE NIGERIA’s POLITICAL SPACE:
In the last four months several dialogues to properly galvanise the parties for smooth transition next year has not yielded any positive results rather the outcomes are filled with rhetorics.
The PDP is heading towards a point of no return while the birth of Labour Party and NNPP in the Nigerian political space is giving the old gladiators, PDP and APC sleepless nights.
The Nigerian political space that has birthed strong men and not strong political institutions as the year 2022 draws to an end may produce a presidential election that might finally shape the Nigerian political space or properly unshape it for the future.