Political analysts are having a hard time trying to decipher what is about to unfold next year regarding the presidential poll in Nigeria. There is every tendency that all calculations about the outcome would end up as big miscalculations. None of the two major political parties, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could boast that it is standing on solid ground anywhere.
By-elections have been held and the incumbent President has also visited some states. But until the flag bearers of the other parties emerge, those parameters do not stand out as reliable considerations to mirror how the election will turn out. Both the APC and PDP are still struggling for air.
Regardless of how the party’s leadership perceives the recent worrisome defections from its base, the APC is facing the internal contradictions that defined its formative steps. It is hard to conclude that the party has been purged of all vestiges of PDP within its fold. Even at that, it does not seem that those remaining in the party would not be tempted to move on. Part of the challenges facing APC is how to handle the vexing issue of direct primaries as a method of selecting its candidates.
Meanwhile, the former PDP Caretaker Committee Chairman and presidential aspirant, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, has said that all the party’s aspirants for presidential primaries are working together to ensure the defeat of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019. He also said the criticism about him against former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar was false.
A statement by his spokesman, Malam Mukthar Sirajo, said “for the avoidance of doubt, Senator Makarfi wishes to make it clear that he holds the former Vice-President in very high esteem and that the relationship between them is very cordial and mutually respectful.”
