The emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the consensus candidate for the PDP presidential primaries has definitely raised a lot of questions and created new political problems in the north. Posers that readily come to mind is themorality of the process adopted by the Ciroma Committee whose secretary pompously refereed to as the “Wisemen of the North”. Operating within the precincts of a democratic dispensation and having such an issue that is directly related to the democratic choice of the people of the northern states, it is outrightly insultive to most right-thinking northerners that the choice of Atiku was neither free nor popular. 

The news making the rounds was that Adamu Ciroma was heading a certain committee which comprises some northern “elders” to negotiate a consensus arrangement among the four PDP northern presidential aspirants, so that one of them will represent the north in the 2011 elections. Agreed and understood that Adamu Ciroma is a PDP chieftain and the subject is the PDP presidential ticket, his committee is not a PDP committee but a group of northern political stalwart arrogating to themselves the power of the northern PDP members’ right to choose their preferred aspirant. By implication, the Ciroma Committee is the creation of a northern mafia group which cannot be classified under the recognized democratic institutions but which has assumed the role and responsibility of the convention or congress of the ruling party in a democracy. This description is not just confusing but confounding to most of the talakawa’s in the north within and outside the PDP who naturally expect democratic principles to determine such an important issue of preferred presidential aspirant.

 It is very suspicious also that the committee supposedly seeking a consensus that will produce the best northern candidate decided to limit its choice to only the four PDP aspirants who have declared their interest, thereby shutting out other potentially acceptable northern aspirants in the race, as well as many other well-respected and capable northern citizens who can definitely represent the northern interest in Nigeria’s presidency just as well if not better, thereby justifying the claim that they have an axe to grind with the present dispensation.  Having arbitrarily limited the scope of the search for consensus candidate, the committee went ahead to adopt a secretive and subterranean scheme the details of which was unknown to the vast majority of the people of the north.  This further lend credence to the assertion that some members of the committee were compromised. Again we were only told that the committee members consulted a few emirs for their views but the democratic instrument of referendum was shunned perhaps to keep the masses out of sight and out of hearing on an issue that affects their lives and future.  For a true consensus to take place, it must be supported with unanimity otherwise the exercise that apparently took place can appropriately be classified as an elite class selection.  Voting has never been part of consensus anywhere in the world and this exercise cannot be an exception.

But the mystery was not limited to the process alone, even the result is mystifying.  As IBB supporters have been wondering, on what basis was Atiku considered better than IBB as a consensus northern candidate? Others are puzzled that if IBB, Aliyu Gusau Atiku and Bukola Saraki could so readily agree to accept and rally round the Ciroma Committee’s choice, why couldn’t they do it on their own? It is no wonder then that the IBB camp’s members are largely disappointed with the outcome of the consensus arrangement with  many openly rejecting Atiku. So, another question is the sincerity of IBB other discarded aspirants who have consistently campaigned on their individual merits and committed huge amounts of financial resources to the campaigns, only to casually abandon their bids? Is it true that there is a deal behind the consensus which guarantees all the dropped aspirants compensatory packages for themselves but not their embarrassed supporters?  Similarly, it has been argued in well informed quarters that IBB in particular was exploring the very many exit strategies at his disposal but chose this option as it guarantees him the freedom to openly argue that he was robbed.

A formidable problem that the adoption of Atiku has created for us in the North is the unfair and unacceptable imposition of an exclusive leadership class on the entire people of the region outside of which no one can even think of seeking the highest political office. This could only have been made possible by the denial of the majority of ordinary people who constitute the electorate a chance to make input into the considerations of the consensus seekers. The impression now created is that only northerners who have occupied and monopolized the presidency and governorship positions can aspire to such offices. This impression is inimical to the natural  process of generational shift and succession which human society is subject to apart from the deliberate disregard for the existence of promising leadership potentials that abound among other northerners who served diligently and honestly but did not acquire the wealth to make political impact or declare interest. It is also worrying to consider the fate of northern leaders in contesting for national offices for which other regions will surely present better qualified people.

In fact this issue of comparative analysis of leadership credentials is already topical because for most Nigerians, Atiku Abubakar just cannot upstage President Goodluck Jonathan both in the PDP and in the 2011 elections. The northern consensus candidate represents the old brigade of discredited politicians responsible for dashing the hopes and aspirations of Nigerians for virile democracy and good governance since 1999. But President Goodluck Jonathan is a classical example of the new generation of Nigerian leaders whose vision of the future is not tainted by vested interests in its despised past. It must also be accepted that the much anticipated better future for Nigeria cannot be launched on geo-ethnic platforms that have produced an Atiku Abubakar but rather on a nationalistic enterprise powered by zealous patriotism and passionate concern for the liberation of all Nigerians from deprivation amidst surplus, as personified by the Jonathan-Sambo ticket. The consensus that produced Atiku Abubakar has effectively zoned out the North from 2011 presidency.

Abdullahi Garba wrote from Kaduna and can be reached at

abdullahi_garba2010@yahoo.com,abdullahi_garba2010@yahoo.com,yahoo.com@yahoo.com