Peter Obi as Atiku’s Running Mate?

It’s no longer news that Alhaji Abubakar Atiku will be going toe-to-toe with President Muhammadu Buhari at the polls in 2019. If recent happenings are anything to go by, with the support of ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo – a colossus in the Nigerian political space whose influence any sane Nigerian politician will not trivialize, the open support (or so it appears) of Bishop David Oyedepo – a leader of more than seven million faithfuls with influence over many millions more in the Nigerian religious space, Bishop Hassan Matthew Kukah – a well-respected voice in the Nigerian political atmosphere, Sheik Gumi – a very influential Islamic cleric, it appears 2019 will indeed be beyond dramatic, it will be difficult to predict.

However, more recent is the new that Atiku will be going to the polls with Peter Obi as the Vice Presidential candidate.

There have been much talks, permutations and politicking as to who the cap of the vice presidency fits. First, though, we must decide which region of the country should have had the honour. Two regions are outstanding: the Southeast and the Southwest. The VP candidate comes from the former. The southeast looks to have been denied access to Aso rock since the civil war. The closest they have had is the Vice presidency (Alex Ekwueme) whom the current president, then a military dictator made sure to imprison in 1983, since then they have had the senate presidency and currently, deputy senate president.

But, the southeast made a move for, and grabbed the chairmanship position of PDP on which they hope to achieve their dream, possibly against the arrangement of the party at the time. With the vice presidency slot firmly in their hands now as well, that kind of validates the current hypotheses – that the Southeast controls the machinery of the PDP.  Not a bad thing in itself, but it comes with a challenge or challenges. The choice of who becomes the VP is beyond great CVs now, it is more about the political value that not just the candidate but the region brings to the table, and if you put the southeast and the southwest side by side, the choice looks obvious. Second, now that the VP slot is in the east, the job of convincing the southwest that they really have anything to gain in the presidency of Atiku is a bigger task for the PDP than it has ever been.

The southwest currently holds the current vice presidency position of the APC and that may not change in 2019, but that’s not all it holds, it also holds the position of the bride of the polls in 2019 as it was in 2015. PDP would have been more politically correct if a VP candidate was chosen from the southwest region. Who should it have been?

The first man whose name comes to mind is Akinwumi Adeshina – a former minister of Agriculture under ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, a pacesetter with enviable performance,  records show. Adeshina has since gained international acclaim – he has won the World Food Prize laureate (or what is that award called?), he is the current president of the African Development Bank, and is possibly a good candidate for the World bank job sometime in the near future.

Another person whose name comes to mind is a man gunning for the same job as Atiku himself – I mean no other person than Fela Durotoye. Young, witty, intelligent with matchless oratorical ability. He is seen as a departure from the political realities that Nigerians are currently stuck with, he is already adopted as the coalition candidate for PACT (Presidential Aspirants Coming Together), most young Nigerians will accept him as a new breed with new initiative that can be used as part of the blueprint for Nigeria’s future. Whether he has the political clout and weight that the party might need is not something to beat the chest and answer in the affirmative, but it seemed like Prof. Osinbajo -  the current vice president didn’t quite have that clout much in 2015. When, and if the game begins, his popularity will soar riding on the wings of the political structure.

Akinwunmi Ambode would have made a good candidate if he had taken  advantage of his crisis with his godfather and didn’t go to the primary polls against Tinubu’s mandate structure. His loss has significantly driven his political value south, and he may not really be worth much to PDP now even if he agrees to join them.

Now that the choice of Peter Obi has been made, I do hope that Atiku and PDP have a strategy to convince the southwest that they are in the picture, because if they don’t, early, the political party that currently looks to court the southwest well will make good of that opportunity.