Muhammadu Buhari defeats Atiku Abubakar and wins the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential ticket. It was a quite predictable result, but 24 hours in politics can change everything.
On Wednesday a lot of fears in Buhari’s camp disappeared when 12 governors met and endorsed Buhari for the ticket. However the opponent of Buhari Atiku Abubakar had his own strategy. Probably he hoped that his nationwide tour and rounded experience in party primaries would help him to win. But only 14 APC governors supported Atiku and his strategy did not work out. Atiku has even lost the second place to the governor of Kano state, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
How have Buhari and his supporters won this race? TheCable shows some causes…
1. 10 meetings held by Bola Tinubu
Tinubu played the main role in collecting support for Buhari. Bola Tinubu and Muhammadu Buhari are battle-tested and they know each other very well starting from the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) led by Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. And as we all know PDM were real masters of delegate votes.
To defeat Atiku, Tinubu got all the governors who started arriving Lagos on Tuesday in his camp to team up with the governors in Buhari’s camp. On Wednesday at his office on Adeola Odeku, Victoria Island, Lagos Tinubu had meetings with key delegates during four hours. Overall, he held 10 meetings within these hours to finalise the voting in favour of Buhari.
2.The Obasanjo factor
Olusegun Obasanjo and Buhari have been political opponents since 1999 but Obasanjo prefers Buhari to Atiku. In his book Obasanjo hadn’t say something terribly bad about Buhari but he savaged Atiku ruthlessly. At first Obasanjo chose Tambuwal for the APC ticket. But northern leaders persuaded Tambuwal to go for Sokoto governorship and then Obasanjo supported his ally the governor of Kano state, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. And again it was a wrong choice. When it became clear to former head of state that he had to live with either Buhari or Atiku.
Obasanjo is also at war with the ruling party’s hierarchy and has been openly criticising President Goodluck Jonathan
3.Money
Atiku is one of the richest Nigerian politician. That is why the biggest fear of Buhari was that Atiku could get the ticket by his generosity.
However, Buhari’s supporters did not miss this fact. According to the words of a delegate, he got $2000 from one camp and $3000 from another, and even though he did not reveal who gave the money but he gave a hint: “Pro-Buhari governors were encouraged to take care of their delegates better than Atiku. Our governor took good care of us. To be fair to Buhari, he knew nothing about the welfare distribution.”
4.Popularity
Buhari is a very popular politician in northern Nigeria. Only his name alone has consistently fetched 12 million votes in the north. And you can imagine that with the south-west behind General, and with some votes from the south-east and south-south, Buhari can win the presidential election in 2015.
On Wednesday a lot of fears in Buhari’s camp disappeared when 12 governors met and endorsed Buhari for the ticket. However the opponent of Buhari Atiku Abubakar had his own strategy. Probably he hoped that his nationwide tour and rounded experience in party primaries would help him to win. But only 14 APC governors supported Atiku and his strategy did not work out. Atiku has even lost the second place to the governor of Kano state, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
How have Buhari and his supporters won this race? TheCable shows some causes…
1. 10 meetings held by Bola Tinubu
Tinubu played the main role in collecting support for Buhari. Bola Tinubu and Muhammadu Buhari are battle-tested and they know each other very well starting from the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) led by Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. And as we all know PDM were real masters of delegate votes.
To defeat Atiku, Tinubu got all the governors who started arriving Lagos on Tuesday in his camp to team up with the governors in Buhari’s camp. On Wednesday at his office on Adeola Odeku, Victoria Island, Lagos Tinubu had meetings with key delegates during four hours. Overall, he held 10 meetings within these hours to finalise the voting in favour of Buhari.
2.The Obasanjo factor
Olusegun Obasanjo and Buhari have been political opponents since 1999 but Obasanjo prefers Buhari to Atiku. In his book Obasanjo hadn’t say something terribly bad about Buhari but he savaged Atiku ruthlessly. At first Obasanjo chose Tambuwal for the APC ticket. But northern leaders persuaded Tambuwal to go for Sokoto governorship and then Obasanjo supported his ally the governor of Kano state, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. And again it was a wrong choice. When it became clear to former head of state that he had to live with either Buhari or Atiku.
Obasanjo is also at war with the ruling party’s hierarchy and has been openly criticising President Goodluck Jonathan
3.Money
Atiku is one of the richest Nigerian politician. That is why the biggest fear of Buhari was that Atiku could get the ticket by his generosity.
However, Buhari’s supporters did not miss this fact. According to the words of a delegate, he got $2000 from one camp and $3000 from another, and even though he did not reveal who gave the money but he gave a hint: “Pro-Buhari governors were encouraged to take care of their delegates better than Atiku. Our governor took good care of us. To be fair to Buhari, he knew nothing about the welfare distribution.”
4.Popularity
Buhari is a very popular politician in northern Nigeria. Only his name alone has consistently fetched 12 million votes in the north. And you can imagine that with the south-west behind General, and with some votes from the south-east and south-south, Buhari can win the presidential election in 2015.
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