BY IKECHUKWU AGADA (9NEWS NIGERIA)
It is no longer news that Aso Rock Cabal who control the levers of power does not want Tinubu to man the presidency in 2023 or any time soon but what is actually news is the technicalities they used in driving home their agenda.
9news Nigeria gathered from extensive Investigations that Aso Rock Cabal in cahoots with some Southern Leaders perfected plans from the beginning to give Tinubu the Ambode treatment so he can feel how it pains considering his political influence across the country.
Further Investigations by 9news Nigeria shows that the Fulanis have by this arrangement taught Tinubu and some southern leaders politics 101.
It was gathered that the refusal of the President to sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill into law was to prevent statutory delegates who command enormous voting strength from voting during the Presidential Primaries and to pave way for consensus option.
It was gathered that this consensus option is to frustrate any direct or indirect primaries that will confer any advantage on the Lagos godfather considering his network and influence thereby paving the way for the emergence of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Section 12. 1 of the All Progressives Congress says that members of the national convention shall include members of the board of trustees, national chairman and all members of the national executive committee, serving and past presidents, vice presidents, serving and past governors who are members of the party, serving and former members of the National Assembly, members of the state working committees, all local government chairmen along with three elected delegates from each of the 774 local government areas.
With the President’s refusal to assent the bill, the number of delegates has dropped from 7,800 to about 2,340. The 2,340 consist of three delegates from each of the 774 local governments in the country and six area councils in Abuja.
It is observed that Lagos which has one of the largest number of statutory delegates due to its large number of APC public officials, will now be left with 60 delegates because it has just 20 local government areas.
Ideally, Lagos should have 304 delegates and ranks amongst top five only behind Kano, Katsina, Borno and Osun. However, with only 60 delegates, Lagos is now in position 19.
Also, states that have a low APC membership or that are governed by the Peoples Democratic Party but have a large number of local governments will now have an advantage over Lagos.
For instance, Akwa Ibom which has 31 LGAs, Oyo which has 33 LGAs and Rivers and Sokoto which both have 23 LGAs each, will now have more delegates at the presidential primary than Lagos.
However, it is observed that Kano, Katsina and Osun parades the highest number of delegates by virtue of the large number of local government areas that they possess. Kano, which has 44 LGAs will have 132 delegates while Katsina with 34 LGAs will have 102 elected delegates. This also applies to Osun State which has 30 LGAs and will thus have 90 delegates.
From empirical analysis, it is very clear that 15 states combined have the total strength to determine the outcome of the presidential election. They are Kano(132), Kastina(102), Akwa Ibom (93), Oyo(99), Osun(90), Jigawa(81), Imo(81), Borno(81), Delta(75), Rivers(69), Sokoto(69), Benue(66), Anambra(63), Adamawa(63), and Kebbi(62) with a combined 1,224 delegates.
There is no doubt that there is a lot of gang up against Tinubu from actualising his age long dream of becoming the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
It is even more painful with the new electoral law, that forbids an aspirant from contesting under any other political party when he or she loses at the presidential primaries.
With the number of ad-hoc delegates from the 6 Geo-political Zones that will vote in the APC Presidential Primaries capped as follows; Southeast (285), Southsouth(375), Southwest(408), Northeast(336), Northcentral(354), Northwest (561), the cabal still hold the ace.
9news Nigeria
