Though the election went peacefully on the surface, the politics behind the scene was evident, some insiders told Weekly Trust. In fact, those who followed the intrigues leading to certain decisions taken to shape the process of the election at Eagle Square knew much earlier in the day, that the election had already been decided by state governors and well-known fixers within the party.

Former President Ibrahim Babangida and General Aliyu Gusau who succumbed to a consensus arrangement to support Atiku had boycotted the primary elections even though they were delegates. Weekly Trust learnt late on Thursday that both men stayed away after obtaining advanced knowledge of a decision reached by the president’s kitchen cabinet including former chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Party Chief Tony Anenih and some state governors to prevail on the convention committee to skew the process towards ensuring greater disadvantages for Atiku.

As at press time yesterday, there was reaction from Atiku concerning the primary election. When contacted, his media aide Garba Shehu said he was yet to reach his boss after the event at the Eagle Square. But the Atiku Campaign Organisation had raised certain issues before the election on Thursday.

First, the organisation had earlier raised issues concerning the composition of the convention planning committee. It alleged that the committee consisted of at least five governors who had shown greater contempt for his ambition, alleging that at some time in the campaign process leading to the primaries, they failed to allow him access to delegates from their states. Clearly, Atiku was never comfortable with the presence of governors like Sule Lamido, Godswill Akpabio and Theodore Orji, among others, on the committee.

Second, Atiku also raised issues with the manner of voting that was finally adopted. Atiku camp had earlier stood vehemently against that arrangement, insisting that even though the voting should be done according to states, no ballot box should be labelled. Atiku wanted fewer unlabelled ballot boxes, like 20, so that every state would have 20 delegates voting in the different boxes provided. He never got his wish in the end.

But Yakubu Datti, a chief strategist at the Jonathan/ Sambo campaign organisation told Weekly Trust that he was disturbed about Atiku’s “penchant for complain.” “He complains at almost everything,” Datti said, stressing, though comically, that even if Atiku were made chairman of the convention committee, the Jonathan camp won’t complain.

Weekly Trust learnt that the mood at the villa prior to the election was serious and clouded by a certain desperation which led to decisions like the manner of voting adopted, and many others. Observers also noted the way the presidency was alleged to have worked to secure the release of the Senate Leader Teslim Folarin from jail where he was being remanded on murder charges. The charges were said to have been dropped to enable further investigations. Folarin who was said to have been flown into Abuja on board a presidential plain got a special recognition on his entry into Eagle Square on Thursday.

That is the extent to which President failed to play with potential vote that he knew would come his way. In fact sources close to the presidency disclosed that the president would scarify any faction in the party which members are at loggerheads with the state governor because he believed that the governors would deliver him the delegates. A source told Weekly Trust that when eight governorship aspirants from Plateau State went to the President to complain about Governor Jang, the president told them in clear a term that though he shared their grievance, there was nothing he could do because he needed the governor to deliver him the delegates. And they left the PDP for Labour Party.

The deal with governors

In his bid to secure PDP’s nomination, President Jonathan who was also one time governor of Bayelsa State was said to have reached the conclusion that only state governors could deliver the delegates to him. In view of his knowledge of the powers of the governors, Jonathan was said to have agreed to allow them do as they wished with the party in their various state against opponents seeking to uproot them in the next election. All PDP governors seeking re-election got the ticket of the party while those serving their last term in office succeeded in nominating their preferred choices.

Though the decision led to the exit of many big shots from the in Katsina, Plateau, Adamawa, Nasarawa, Benue, Taraba, Kwara states and many more, the president was prepared to damn such consequences so long as he would get the delegates to see him through the party’s primaries. Also, many national assembly members who thought they had courted the friendship of President Jonathan got the shocker in the last national assembly primaries where a large chunk of the membership failed to secure PDP’s ticket to re-contest. A glaring example is the brazen manner Senator Iyabo Obasanjo, the daughter of his biggest benefactor in the 2007 election was denied the PDP ticket to return to the senate. Similarly, former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives Chibudom Nwuche who is deputy campaign coordinator of the Jonathan/ Sambo campaign crashed out of the senate race.

Also, when the governors engaged in a row with National Assembly members over their decision to force themselves on the National Executive Committees [NEC] of their parties, the president sided with the governors to stop the legislators.

Another step to win the governors to his side was the decision to make governors head his presidential campaign in the six geo-political zones. In the North-West, Governor Ibrahim Shema is heading the campaign Governors Gabriel Suswam and Isa Yuguda are leading the campaign in the north central and the North-East respectively. In the south west, Governor Gbenga Daniel is heading the campaign in the south west while in the South-South, governor Liyel Imoke is leading the campaign.

Sources said the president had been deeply upset when he seemed to doubt the sincerity of many of the governors. But after making them have their way, the president’s camp insisted that the gesture must be reciprocated, which is why Weekly Trust learnt that the governors came under some threat to either deliver or have their nominations suspended in case Atiku defeats the president.

Therefore many of the governors were sighted monitoring the delegates closely. In fact a delegate from Katsina who sought anonymity said Governor Shema maintained an eagle eye to ensure that every delegate voted for Jonathan. A source said the 11 votes he got were those of delegates who were opposed to Jonathan and who damned the consequences.

Also, the accreditation of voters which took place at the governors’ lodges, state liaison offices and private residences of some governors was aimed at making sure that no ‘unwanted delegates’ find their ways into the venue by any means.

This was seen as a departure from past where delegate accreditations were held at fewer designated centres including, sometimes, the party’s secretariat. But a source said it was to ensure that the exercise finished in time and to avoid unnecessary row.

Why Kwara voters voted Jonathan

Governor Bukola Saraki was the only one among the three northern presidential aspirants who did not deliver his state to Atiku in Thursday’s presidential primaries. President Jonathan defeated Atiku by a wide margin, polling 61 votes against Atiku’s 26 votes.

Investigations by Weekly Trust during the polls on Thursday revealed that about two to three factors were responsible for Atiku’s loss in Kwara, a state that observer believed he would win the votes of delegates. First, Weekly Trust learnt that many of the delegates who voted against Atiku did so in protest against the failure of the Adamu Ciroma-led committee to choose Governor Bukola Saraki as the Northern consensus candidate.

Saraki and the duo of former military president Ibrahim Babangida and former National Security Adviser General Aliyu Gusau had lost out to Atiku in the consensus arrangement worked out by the Adamu Ciroma-led committee and pledged to work for his emergence as candidate of the PDP.

But not a few observers were surprised that Kwara State delegates went the other way to elect Jonathan in Thursday’s primaries. Both IBB and Gusau made good their pledge to deliver to Atiku their home states.

The Kwara State delegates, many of whom still nursing the wounds of Saraki’s loss during the consensus arrangement, were said to have defied the governor’s entreaties to vote for Atiku, the consensus of the North. Their grouse is said to have stemmed from the belief among some delegates that the north often turn their back at them when some chips are down.

Another factor, Weekly Trust learnt, is that some of the delegates were unhappy with the way the governor managed party congresses and governorship primary elections of the PDP, leading to the emergence of his commissioner for economic planning Abdulfatah Ahmed, a relatively unknown politician lacking the political weight of aspirants like the former minister of sports Isa Bio, as flag bearer of the party.

Still yet, some delegates who are unhappy with the circumstances leading to the exit of the governor’s father, Senator Sola Saraki and his younger sister, Senator Gbemisola, from the PDP were said to have opted to be on their own during the primaries. Though he could not deliver his state, Saraki may find consolation in the fact that Atiku himself failed to deliver his home state of Adamawa during the primaries.

How Atiku lost Adamawa

Atiku’s loss of Adamawa state in Thursday’s primary election was indeed a reflection of the protracted crisis between him and Governor Murtala Nyako, who allegedly attempted to block Atiku’s re-entry into the PDP initially. Thus in its desperation to win every governor to its sight, the Jonathan camp ensured that the deeply rooted crisis in the Adamawa PDP was decided in favour of the governor, thus edging out Senator Jibril Aminu and General Buba Marwa who was initially said to have been joined the governorship race on the prompting of the presidency.

Now that he has come out high and dry in the PDP contest, President Jonathan will be facing some candidates of note including that of the Congress for Progressive Change, General Muhammadu Buhari and Malam Nuhu Ribadu of the Action Congress of Nigeria [ACN], except the CPC and the ACN eventually make good their plan to field the former on a joint ticket. It is only after this deal is done that President Jonathan will come face to face with his expected major challenger.