Open Memo To President Muhammadu Buhari On The Impending 2023 APC Presidential Primary

Your Excellency, 

It isn't my intention to bother you with details of the drama of the absurd that attended the emergence of another Fulani - not even the majority Hausa ethnic nationality in the North - as the candidate of the major opposition party, the PDP. It happened because of two factors:  

First was the betrayal by prodigal Southern governors. They were the same ones disturbing our peace with threats of an Armageddon that would engulf the nation if the presidency doesn't rotate to the South in 2023. But each of them bought the pie in the sky of being made the running-mate. After all, in their world view, it is better to be servants in Paradise than rulers in Hell. 

Second, it was a bitter lesson for under-age school-boy politicians in the South to be tutored in the art of deception and betrayal by Fulani masters of the game. 

Just imagine that Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, as part of his strategic vision and planning, doled out as much as N500million 'dash moni' to the man he was dying to serve as spare-wheel running-mate in 2019, for the fire that burnt the Sokoto market. He gave another N200 million of the state money to Katsina State as disaster relief, and doled out multiples of millions of naira to Benue State and its chief helmsman.  

As a matter of fact, the 'accord concordiale' (apologies to the wordsmith Dr. KO Mbadiwe) between Wike and his newfound 'paddy man' was so 'lovey-lovey' that Wike chose the state to officially declare his interest in contesting the 2023 PDP presidential primary.  

The alarm bells ought to have started peeling for Wike that treachery was afoot the very moment the same Ortom, who was appointed chairman of the party's zoning committee and who is a leading light in the Southern & Middle Belt Leadership Forum demanding that the presidency rotates to the South after your tenure, suddenly began speaking like 'Klint d' Drunk' from both sides of the mouth.  

Tragically, Wike either didn't properly interpret the handwriting on the wall or, perhaps, allowed himself to wrongly believe that Ortom was only "balancing" his utterances to elude discovery of the "agreement" the latter has with him. 

Let's now fast-forward to the end of the voting process. The very same Tambuwal stepped down post-facto (well outside the allotted time) for Atiku and returned all of Sokoto's 194 delegate-votes to his Fulani kith & kin who never doled out N1 from the stupendous war chest he was already amassing to contest the primary, when fire gutted the Sokoto market. What a very good way to repay his erstwhile friend who has stood by him through thick and thin since 2018! 

The South insisted on a Northerner being the national chairman as a way of precluding a Northerner from being the PDP presidential candidate. And pronto! Ayu emerged like a rabbit from a magician's hat to placate the South. It never occurred to the mumu politicians in the South that the core North would NEVER allow a scenario where it would lose out on two most powerful political posts.  

Ayu from a satellite minority part of the North was foisted on the PDP by the owners of the game for only ONE purpose: to scuttle the burgeoning demand that the presidency be zoned to the South by force and by fire, if necessary. And he delivered on his mandate.

It was the same Ayu, who, along with Ortom and David Mark, impressed it upon Tambuwal at the 11th hour to "protect the interest of the North in the PDP" by making a volte-face. The trio then marched post-convention, with Atiku in tow, to Tambuwal, where Ayu officially proclaimed him the "hero" of the PDP presidential primary.  

To be candid, I've never liked the rather garrulous Wike. I must confess that I hitherto only saw him as a noisy pretender rather than a serious contender. But I can't help being enormously grateful to him for the performance he put up at the PDP nominating convention.  

Wike has nothing to be ashamed of at all. As a matter of fact, it is because of him that Northern politicians were running from pillar to post as defeat stared Atiku in the face. Despite the betrayal by envious and spineless Southern governors, Wike proved that the South can't just be taken for granted by those with a vexatious entitlement mentality. 

But the political heavyweights in Benue State that eagerly lent themselves to the political heist easily forget that the Southern struggle is also in their best interests. They foolishly chose to ignore the stark reality that Northern minorities would suffer more suppression. Besides, I'll now wait to see the day a governor of Benue State would emerge from Mark's Idoma minority. What goes around certainly comes around. 

Mr. President, I'm quite aware that as a result of the outcome of the PDP primary, enormous pressure is being piled on you to equally "protect the interest of the North in the APC." This explains why so many of us are apprehensive about your speech to a conclave of APC governors in which you reportedly demanded that they give you the benefit of singlehandedly picking your successor. 

Those egging you on contend that with another northerner emerging as the APC presidential flag bearer, then heads or tail, the North remains the winner. Of course we know only too well that like PDP, like APC. Just as a Sen. Ayu was chosen from a minority area to be his master's voice, so has a Sen. Adamu from the backwater Nasarawa State been equally chosen to play the role of a spoiler and baptizer of the khalifa-in-waiting.  

Sir, although a recent rumour gaining traction on the streets suggests that you might've reversed yourself, I still plead you not to be angry with me if you think my 'fertile' imagination has gotten the better of me; just that an English proverb poignantly avers that "Once bitten, twice shy!" 

Mr. President, it's highly regrettable that we've reached a sorry pass in our history where equity and justice no longer count and might is now right. Suffice to say that outsmarting or 'defeating' a set of people shouldn't be misinterpreted as subduing them because a time of reckoning - with deleterious and unpalatable far-reaching consequences - would ultimately come. 

My appeal to you, sir, is to completely forget the idea of a consensus candidate. As a matter of fact, but for lack of time, I'd have highly recommended that the APC resorts to the Direct Nomination Method for electing its presidential candidate in line with transferring power to the people and not to a cabalistic minority of ruinous political godfathers. 

Sir, I perfectly understand what you're trying to achieve by opting for a consensus method. You want to prevent unpleasant bickering and a likely slew of post-primary lawsuits that would weaken the party.  

Your Excellency, didn't you receive security reports flaying the odious widespread buying of delegates' votes with - to add insult to injury - Ghana-Must-Go bagfuls of US dollars - an illegal tender in this nation - by those belabouring themselves to govern us? It has shame and embarrassing to law-abiding citizens, and many Nigerians have started sarcastically defining our own brand of democracy as "Money of the People Stolen from the People to Buy the People"! (Credit: Daily Trust cartoon). 

Sir, the road to hell is certainly paved with good intentions. You don't succeed in preventing a child from playing with fire by tying the hands behind the back. Most times, it is better to let the stubborn child put the hand in a raging flame to gain an experience no amount of cautionary preachment would ever achieve. 

Just think about this, sir: In the 2014 APC nominating convention, didn't four other aspirants contest against you? With just about 12 months of strange-bedfellow parties - led by politicians with massive egos - coalescing to form the APC, wasn't that the most appropriate time to elect the presidential flag bearer by a consensus in order to avoid any probable implosion of the fledgling party? Why now?  

Sir, please let the contest be thrown open to only aspirants from the South in conformity with the equity and justice principles embedded in the North/South zoning of the Presidency, without any interference on your part. Let the chips fall where they may. If the APC cannot manage a party primary, then it cannot manage the affairs of the nation and isn't fit to govern. 

Sir, I make this plea with the best interests of our beloved fatherland at the back of my mind. As you carefully and objectively reconsider the greater ramifications of your final decision, please be assured of my highest esteems and respect. 

Your fellow Nigerian,

Ichie Tiko Okoye