ACN jittery over presidential election •As Tinubu/Ribadu face-off deepens •Akande walks out of meeting •Northern groups back Buhari
Monday, 14 February 2011
LEADERS of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) are in a fix, over the candidate to be picked to replace the stand-in running mate to its presidential candidate, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Dr Sunny Ugochukwu.
Already, leaders of the party had expressed jitters at its fate in the presidential election, as a result of the protracted face-off on the running mate issue between Ribadu and former governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu.
At a meeting of the party held in Abuja, on Thursday, leaders of the party expressed the fear of defeat in the hands of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the face of the unresolved battle between Ribadu and Tinubu over who to pick as running mate.
It was learnt that Ribadu had to pick Dr Ugochukwu in a hurry as a stand-in running mate, following divisions on the choice of the running mate for the presidential ticket.
A source said Ugo-chukwu had been told clearly that he would be replaced at the right time.
But Ribadu's attempt to pick Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as his running mate was opposed by Tinubu, who suspected that Okonjo-Iweala and Ribadu would be too strong for him to control.
It was gathered that the party then resolved to meet on Thursday, to resolve the crisis between Ribadu and Tinubu.
Those who attended the meeting, according to sources, included the national chairman, Chief Bisi Akande; national secretary, Senator Lawal Shuaibu; Dr Usman Bugaje; Honourable Uche Onyegoacha, Alhaji Lukman Salihu and Mr Chido Onuma.
The meeting expressed the fear that ACN appeared to have signed up for defeat in the April election, once it could not resolve its crisis on the running mate up till now.
One of the participants at the meeting, a top official of the party, was said to have threatened to return to the PDP if the so-called progressives could not organise their home.
It was gathered that the meeting agreed to pacify Ribadu to drop Okonjo-Iweala and that Tinubu should also be begged to accept another candidate from the South-East.
The division among the ACN leaders, according to sources, had to do principally with the division between Tinubu and Ribadu.
While Tinubu believed that a running mate for the ACN ticket should be his nominee from the South-West, Ribadu wanted Okonjo-Iweala, who hails from the South-East.
It was gathered that Tinubu had said if the candidate must come from the South-East, he or she must be a politician, not a technocrat, but Ribadu had refused to budge on that.
The Thursday meeting was said to have ended abruptly, as Akande and Shuaibu were said to have walked out of the meeting.
Their decision to walk out was said to have angered Onyegoacha and Bugaje.
A source close to the meeting said "the ACN is already expressing the fear of losing the next election.
"How can we pose any threat to the PDP when Jonathan is already campaigning and we are sleeping on who will be our running mate. It is clear we have programmed for defeat."
Meanwhile, the pro-zoning leaders of the North have now resolved to back General Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress For Progressive Change (CPC) in the next presidential election.
Sources at a meeting held by a number of northern political groups told the Nigerian Tribune that the groups had now resolved to support Buhari as presidential hopeful.
A source at the February 5 meeting in Abuja said Buhari should now proceed to enter into alliances that would ensure he won the election.
A source said the groupa agreed to prevail on Buhari to negotiate power with other political groups.
The groups also resolved that if Buhari failed to win the presidency, some other measures should be put in place to tackle President Goodluck Jonathan.
Sources told the Nigerian Tribune that the meeting attended by eight participants representing different groups resolved to back Buhari's ambition.
A source at the meeting said the option of stopping the conduct of the election could be problematic and might not be feasible, because it was not only the presidential election that would be conducted that day, adding that all candidates should not just be sacrificed as a result of the plan to stop Jonathan.
Dr Sule Hamman, a member of the Buhari organisation, said the group needed to hold further meetings with the organisation on the way forward.
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