THE MAN IN NIGERIA'S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION MIDDLE
Ugorji Okechukwu Ugorji
Chief Chekwas Okorie of the United Progressive Party (UPP) is the authentic progressive alternative for President in Nigeria's scheduled elections next month. His belief in the rights of Nigeria's ethnic nationalities to self-determination, even if the exercise of that right leads to separation from Africa's largest democracy, sets him apart from the conservative presidential candidate of the conservative Peoples Democratic Party, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, and the ultra-conservative presidential candidate of the purportedly progressive All Progressives Congress, General Muhammadu Buhari. There are other presidential candidates in the scheduled February 14, 2015 presidential election in Nigeria, but the real choice is between three candidates, with Okorie as the storied man in the middle for reasons that range from geopolitical positioning to discernable ideological leanings.
While the presidential contest and elections into the national assembly (Senate and House of Representatives) are scheduled for February 14th, the gubernatorial contests and elections into the 36 State Assemblies will hold a week later, on February 21st. Professor Attahiru Jega, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says the electoral umpire is ready. And money, in all currencies, has poured in to signal that everyone is serious about the elections.
JONATHAN AND THE PDP
President Jonathan emerged as the candidate of the PDP, efforts to intimidate him out of the effort notwithstanding. Jonathan is seeking his second full term in office, a prospect of ten years as president that riles many people, including some members of his ruling PDP. Stepping up from the position of Vice President, he has served as the President following the death of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua in 2010 and was elected in his own rights in 2011. He is a Christian by religious identity, an Ijaw by ethnicity, and he is an "Easterner" by a regional designation he prefers because it gives him a much larger apparent base that includes the Igbo. His political fate in 2015 will essentially be tied to the prospects and history of the PDP and whatever his ideology, the PDP is a conservative gathering of economic and political operatives in Nigeria. The PDP's national spread is not in doubt, with more governors and more national legislators than all opposition parties combined. The party has also held sway at the center since the return of Nigeria to democracy in 1999, controlling the presidency and the national assembly for 16 years.
BUHARI AND THE APC
General Buhari was elected as the presidential candidate of the APC in what will be his fourth and last run for the office. He defeated four other aspirants, including Atiku Abubakar, the former Vice President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007. However, any claims by the APC to ideological divergence from the PDP were betrayed both by the ready admission of many PDP alumni operatives and the choice of the even more conservative Buhari as presidential flag bearer. He is a Moslem by religious identity who has stated a preference for Sharia law, a Fulani by ethnicity, and a Northerner by his preferred regional identification. It may be that what Nigeria needs now is an ultra-conservative president, but there can be no debate about the fact that Buhari is no progressive, his current platform notwithstanding. Everything about him, his history and his career suggest that he is to the Right of President Jonathan ideologically.
OKORIE AND THE UPP
The real surprise among the three most significant candidates I have identified here is the emergence of Chief Okorie as presidential candidate of the UPP. The UPP set itself apart by announcing from the onset that it will zone its presidential slot to the South East of Nigeria. The region is the ancestral home of the over 40 million Igbo. At its convention held in the Eastern commercial city of Aba, the UPP decided to draft its bold and courageous founder to an improbable presidential run. Clearly a long shot, Okorie is nonetheless formidable by strategy, geopolitics, and ideology. Devoid of what Okorie refers to as the corrupt elements in the PDP and APC, the UPP seeks to demonstrate in 2015 that it is the third most significant political party in the country, without which no serious government of national unity can be formed after the election. He is a Christian by religious identity, an Igbo by ethnicity, and an Easterner by regional origins. His belief in the rights of ethnic nationalities to self-determination sets Okorie's ideology and history to the Left of Jonathan. Thus, between the incumbent conservative President Jonathan and Buhari who is a formidable conservative icon, Okorie is indeed the real progressive man in the middle.
The writer, Dr. Ugorji Okechukwu Ugorji, is the Executive Director of the New Jersey based African Writers Endowment, Inc. He can be reached at Africanwriters@gmail.com.
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