Confusion in Kaduna PDP
By
Monday, January 22, 2007
Who are the authentic People's Democratic Party, PDP, candidates in Kaduna State? Last minutes moves are not helping matters
By Sam Adzegeh, Kaduna
The PDP last week continued its amazing political manipulations. The party replaced two of its three nominees for the senatorial elections in Kaduna State.
The two senatorial candidates affected were Dalhatu Tafida, Senate leader representing northern Kaduna senatorial zone, and Nura Lawal Giwa, who won the ticket to represent the party in the contest for the Kaduna central senatorial district. Caleb Zagi, the party's senatorial candidate for the southern zone, however, retained his nomination after refusing to hand over his ticket to Isaiah Balat, who abandoned his Senate seat to contest the party's governorship ticket. Despite immense pressure from the party's leadership to assume the deputy governor's ticket of the party, Zagi refused to bulge.
While Nura was allegedly replaced by Kabir Jibrin, the PDP's national legal adviser, Tafida was replaced with Mohammed Ahmed Makarfi, the state's governor. Newswatch learnt that the decision to replace the two candidates was taken by the national secretariat after much pressure. A faxed copy of the letter from the national secretariat to the state's chapter of the party confirming the replacements was sighted by Newswatch at the state's party secretariat on Monday January 9.
Makarfi was said to have taken the action following his voluntary withdrawal from the PDP presidential voice. But having not participated in the senatorial primaries, Makarfi was faced with a dilemma.
Makarfi was said to have actually toyed with the idea of going for Giwa's central senatorial zone ticket, reasoning that being a new politician, Giwa would be easier to convince to hand his ticket over. But Giwa, who had won his nomination by roundly defeating Jibrin, the PDP national legal adviser, proved to be an even more difficult nut to crack.
Newswatch learnt that as much as one-hundred million Naira was bandied as a bait to make Giwa handover his ticket to Makarfi, but the former shunned the offer. He even went into hiding to avoid being contacted by the scores of Makarfi's supporters who combed the state for him.
Having failed in his bid for Giwa's ticket, the governor then, allegedly brought intense pressure on the leadership of the party at the state level to drop Tafida in his favour. In doing this, Makarfi is said to have reasoned that it is better to gamble on an unpopular Tafida's ticket than to toy with that of the very popular Giwa. According to sources who are very close to the governor, it is his reasoning that he would garner the support of a few local governments in his immediate Makarfi local government while fighting for a few followers in the Zaria axis. He also took advantage of the electoral law that allows for substitution of candidates by the party even after the primaries. To the candidate's disadvantage, certificates of nomination had not yet been issued to them before the Makarfi move.
The PDP in the state is alleged to be favourably disposed to the changes. Efforts by Newswatch to confirm the changes at the state secretariat of the party, for instance, were met with a brickwall in the party's administrative secretary. While vehemently refusing to disclose his name, the shortish party official told Newswatch that it was not the paper's business to find out what the party does about its candidates. He also said that as leader of the party, Makarfi had the right to collect anybody's ticket. "Anybody with grievances can go to another party. Goodbye, Mr. Newswatch," the administrative secretary said, dismissing Newswatch.
Though the party refused to officially confirm the development, such speculations were confirmed Tuesday, January 16, when the governor stormed the national headquarters of the PDP to discuss the PDP senatorial circuit. The governor, who was accompanied by a large crowd of his loyalists, including the state party chairman, told the PDP leadership that his request was based on an agreement earlier reached with Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, the party's presidential candidate. He said that, though Yar'Adua had asked him not to contest any election, but wait to work closely with him when he becomes president, they were forced to reverse the decision because, according to Makarfi, the party's chances of winning the northern senatorial seat would be "endangered" if Tafida's ticket was not given to him.
Rigachikun, the state's PDP chairman also corroborated Makarfi's claims, noting that only the governor could ensure victory for the party in the senatorial election.
Ahmadu Ali, national chairman of the PDP, while responding, said that the people of the zone should not hesitate in giving the ticket to the governor. "If he says he wants the senatorial ticket, you must not hesitate to give it to him because he is your winning formula," Ali said. He however, added that Tafida's views would be sought before a final decision is taken on the issue.
At the state secretariat of INEC, Newswatch efforts to confirm the changes in senatorial candidates of the PDP were also inconclusive as no official agreed to comment on the issue. Newswatch, however, observed that a list of candidates of all the parties' candidates for all the positions were displayed at the secretariat. Curiously, the names of both Tafida and Giwa still featured as the party's candidates, an indication that INEC had not been officially notified of the changes.
Efforts by Newswatch to get the reactions of both Tafida and Giwa were fruitless as the duo could not be reached. Several phone calls to the senator remained unanswered while text messages to his cellphone were not replied.
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