2015 Presidency: PDM’s Emergence May Threaten North’s Quest

The recent registration of the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) as a political party by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) appears to have driven a wedge in the north’s quest for the 2015 presidency.

Prior to the development, the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) was seen as the possible platform for the northern bloc to actualise its dream of regaining the presidency.

Although the APC has not chosen a particular candidate to fly its flag in the 2015 presidential election, the party has affirmed that its candidate would come from the north.

At a meeting with some journalists in Abuja yesterday, a leader of the APC who craved anonymity described the promoters of the PDM as enemies of the north who were used to register the party in order to split the votes of the region in 2015.

His misgivings about the registration of the PDM notwithstanding, two northern leaders expressed optimism that the region will not face any problem in the course of its drive to produce the next president of Nigeria.

The national coordinator of the Coalition of Northern Politicians, Academics, Professionals and Businessmen, Dr Junaid Mohammed, and former vice chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Prof. Ango Abdulahi, said the region would cross the bridge when it gets there.

The APC leader disclosed that, prior to the registration of the party, there was a subtle agreement among “aggrieved and sidelined members of the PDP” that they would fuse to form a party that will displace the PDP at the centre”.

“From our findings, there are some northern elements who are working hard to ensure that the region does not get the presidency in 2015; their own calculation is that if they can’t get the presidency, no one should get it. Theirs is not the interest of the region but their personal interest and concerns; before the APC was registered, we had some working relationship with those who are aggrieved and have been sidelined in the PDP with the intention of forming a broad-based party to unseat the PDP in 2015,” he said. “But from what we are seeing with the registration of the PDM, a different scenario is unfolding because the two parties, if they continue to politick, will definitely field their individual presidential candidates in 2015.

“The implication is that the votes of the north would be divided along the line and this is what we are trying to avoid by reaching out to the PDM in order for both parties to have a working relationship that will throw up a common presidential candidate in 2015.”

But PDM’s director of communication and strategy, Alaba Yusuf, said the party does not intend to align with any other party, stressing that PDM has what it takes to win the 2015 presidential election.