2023: North restrategises, shortlists Jonathan, Atiku, Olawepo-Hashim

Determined to retain power in 2023, power brokers from the North are closing rank to present a united and formidable front for the general election in the country.

It was gathered that influential northerner leaders across party lines and the business class have teamed to strategise towards presenting a formidable force for the presidential contest.

They are considering various permutations in the bid to evolve what close associates of the leaders described as a winning formula.

It was learnt that the leaders explained that they needed to go back to the drawing board, due to certain pervasive undercurrents in some sections and political circles in the country.

According to the sources, the northern power brokers and other critical stakeholders are not comfortable what they perceive as the negative perceptions against the North due to the crisis created by the activities of herdsmen.

The problem necessitated a number of states enacting laws against open grazing with the hope of restoring sanity and upholding modern standards in rearing cattle.

To guarantee compliance with the legislation, some states further set up regional security outfits which have succeeded in making some arrests and prosecuting alleged violators of the law.

However, a source said the members of the powerful northern caucus were apprehensive that the North could be in the throes in the event power shift to the South since all the coercive instruments of the state will be at the beckon and call of the new president.

Another sentiment the northern leaders are propagating is the issue of the Value Added Tax (VAT), which became a subject of litigation between the Federal government and done states, mostly from the southern part of the country.

The Federal Government had challenged the judgment of a high court that the collection of VAT was within the jurisdiction of states.

The matter is currently pending the Court of Appeal with the main issue as the quest by some southern states to make collection of VAT the preserve of the states.

The position of the northern leaders behind the ongoing effort to ensure power remains in their axis, the sources said, is that a paradigm shift in VAT arrangement could aggravate the critical financial positions of most states in the North.

Accordingly, the leaders have come up with two permutations, one of which is that the North retains power next year.

“To underscore that option, the two parties will be lobbied to throw the presidential race open and therefore say ‘ no to zoning,”a source stated.

Another source hinted that the Mani opposition Peoples Democratic Party PDP was already gravitating towards that direction.

He stressed: “The Ortom committee on zoning is believed to have recommended open contest. The party’s national executive committee is expected to endorse the recommendation.

“On its part, the ruling All Progressives Congress APC had said before its recent convention that positions being held by the North and South be swapped ahead 2023 and thereafter.

“It was in the light of this that it zoned the chairmanship to North Central and Senator Abdullahi Adamu was elected national chairman.

The popular belief is that with Adamu from North Central as chairman, the President will come from the South, hence the preponderance of aspirants from the Southern states in the race for the party’s ticket.”

However, among those involved in the ongoing plot are said to be individuals close to President Muhammadu Buhari.

They are said to be putting pressure on the APC to revisit the zoning formula adopted for the presidential ticket to allow every zone to contest.

“This is indeed the second option. The plan is for the North to ensure that aspirants who are trustworthy, reliable, cosmopolitan, vibrant and with less moral baggage, emerge in both parties. In the PDP, they are zeroing in on former Vice president Atiku Abubakar, AminuTambuwal and Bala Mohammed, while in the APC, they are said to be searching for someone among the governors elected on the platform of APC.

Although Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has thrown his hat into the ring, they are not considering due to controversial nature. A new aspirant, if they succeed in lobbying some of the other APC northern governors, may join the race in May,” the source said.

It was gathered that the power brokers, are also considering a young businessman Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, who now claims to hail from Kebb State. Their calculation, the sources added, is that the South West may not mind Olawepo Hashim whose mother is from Ogbomosho, Oyo State, but grew up in Kwara, where he played his politics until 2021, when he shifted base to the FCT, Abuja.

Their belief is that he will appeal to the youths because he is also young active, vibrant and articulate.

But the northern strategists are also looking in the direction of former President Goodluck Jonathan if power will have to shift to be the South.

Recall that on Friday, a group of persons, apparently working for some politicians, besieged his office in Abuja to ask him to run for the presidency next year.

The development came after months of speculations about an underground move by some forces to drag him into the race for APC ticket.

Jonathan told the agitators last Friday that he would prefer not to say much now because of an ongoing process, a view that is being interpreted in most perceptive circles that discussions were being held on his possible participation in the 2003 race.

“The former president, if he makes up his mind, may run in APC, a party he has been fraternities with in the last few years,” a top-level party source told Sunday Tribune. (Sunday Tribune)