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NIGERIA-POLITICS-parties
Nigeria’s main parties to select their presidential candidates
ABUJA, Oct 6, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Nigeria’s two main political parties met
Saturday to pick their nominees for presidential polls scheduled for February
2019, as political heavyweights jostle for position to challenge President
Muhammadu Buhari who is seeking a second term.
Next year’s presidential race appears to have tightened in recent months
with Buhari’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party hit by a wave of
defections over the leadership style of the 75-year-old former military
ruler.
Buhari, seen as an anti-corruption crusader in graft-tainted Nigeria, is
due to be endorsed at a meeting of his party, which swept to power in 2015
with the first opposition victory at the ballot box in Nigeria’s history.
But all eyes are on the dozen candidates who are vying to be nominated to
challenge him from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the former
ruling party.
Officials said at least 4,000 delegates from the 36 states and the capital
Abuja were expected to vote at the PDP primaries in the oil hub of Port
Harcourt, in the heartland of the Niger delta, in an event due to extend to
Sunday.
Barring any surprise, the candidate will come from the Muslim-majority
north, following an unwritten rule in Nigeria that the presidency should
alternate every two terms between a candidate from the north and south.
– ‘A very good convention’ –
The frontliners include former vice president Atiku Abubakar, who has has
made four previous attempts at the top job, Senate president Bukola Saraki,
governor of northern Sokoto state Aminu Tambuwal and Rabiu Kwankwaso, a
former governor in northern Kano state.
Chairman of convention planning committee Ifeanyi Okowa, who is governor
of southern Delta state, said all 12 contenders were still in the running.
“We are expecting a very good convention, we are working very hard to
deliver a process that is credible, free, fair and acceptable,” he said.
Port Harcourt streets were festooned with conference banners, while police
said thousands of officers were being deployed to the event.
“Our warning to political thugs and other hoodlums is that they should
stay away from the venue and even the entire state,” state police spokesman
Nnamdi Omoni told AFP.
Buhari indicated in April that he planned to run for a second term.
The retired general, who headed a military regime in the 1980s, has faced
growing pressure to step down because of failing health after spending
several months in London last year treating an undisclosed ailment.
Dubbed “Baba Go Slow” because he took six months to appoint cabinet
ministers, he has also faced attacks for his handling of the economy, which
plunged into recession in 2016.
He has also come under criticism on security issues, including the Boko
Haram insurgency in the northeast, long-running farmer-herder clashes in the
centre and militancy and kidnapping in the south.
But he is standing unopposed to run again at his party’s convention in
Abuja on Saturday.
“The fact that nobody came forward to challenge the President is an
indication that the party members are satisfied with his performance and they
want to see more of him in office,” presidential spokesman Garba Shehu told
AFP.
Nigeria’s law allows for a president to serve a maximum of two four-year
terms.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1906 hrs