Atiku Abubakar has come under attack from some quarters for picking Delta governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, as his running mate. Atiku is the standard bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 presidential election. He has been a critical part of Nigerian politics and came to limelight in 1999 when he became the vice president to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

A Fulani from Adamawa state, Atiku is famed for his unrelenting nationalistic fervour. Never a bigot, religious or ethnic. His acceptance cuts across the nation. As the candidate of the PDP, he has made the choice of running mate in Okowa, a taciturn and tactful politician who would rather let his acts speak for him than raise his voice in banal twaddle. Okowa is a silent performer. Politically deft and savvy, he comes across as a meek and gentle soul. But he packs a steely heart when he wants to get the job done. And he does get the job done.

In Delta, his clout claws across the state, from upland to riverine. In the south-south, his political silhouette hovers all over the BRACED states. Not one given to baloney, his cultured silence is often misinterpreted as a sign of weakness. But Okowa is not a weak politician. For him, quietness is a virtue. Studied silence in the midst of raucous racket is his strength. For his urbane disposition, people misread him. He’s a political strategist. His mastery of the Delta, even south-south political turf, makes him a winner every time. He has fought political battles. He has dared gang-ups and triumphed over all. He has braced barricades, overawed garrisons. In all, he came out unsinged; unburnt in the fiery furnace of political treachery.

Brick by brick, Okowa has silently built a cultic political followership in his Delta domain. The chant is: Anywhere Okowa goes, we go with him. There is strength in silence. Okowa has mastered this. He thrives in silent ardour. He blooms in his quiet mystique. This has kept him ahead of the competition. It has helped him in public administration where he has deployed the strength of silence to enthrone enduring virtues of leadership and good governance. His silence is not weakness. Most brilliant men blossom in silence. They thrive in the quietness of the ambience. Little wonder, he qualified as a medical doctor at age 22 in 1981, at a time when merit, not money, got you to school and through school.

For his brilliance and successful political career – from the cradle to the crest of leadership in his state and now a sought-after national brand – he should expect a bulwark of resistance, censure and outright denunciation. He should expect beef and bile. It’s the lot of success. Success has friends, but it also attracts enemies. In politics, with its warts of treachery and backstabbing, success is the nectar for the mob of liars, layabouts and loonies. Okowa’s rising political profile from the basement as Secretary to local government to governor of his state and now vice-presidential candidate of his party, has placed him on the slab for empty-headed, pecuniary-propelled critics. They hint at his betrayal of his south-south zone. When the band of political bandits discovered nobody is buying their money-marinated lies, they switched to another frequency of empty fairy tale. This time, they claim that Okowa is a wrong choice for running mate to Atiku.

Some, with obvious dollar-addled brain, even spin of a PDP committee that voted in its conclave with Nyesom Wike winning the 17-member committee ballot. What a jejune spin of the most unintelligent order. The PDP leadership was clear on the mandate of the committee. Get us three names especially from the south-south (the strongest PDP zone in the south). Nobody asked the committee to vote to pick one candidate ahead of others. It’s not their brief to make the choice but to nominate three likely candidates. Their job is advisory as is the duty of the PDP leadership – National Working Committee, (NWC), Board of Trustees (BoT) and others. The responsibility of picking a running mate is clearly that of the Presidential candidate. Mischief and mercantilism often blind men to law and logic. But the mob should be reminded that Section 142(1) of the 1999 constitution as amended is unambiguous in this instance. It states clearly: “In any election to which the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Chapter relate, a candidate for an election to the office of President shall not be deemed to be validly nominated unless he nominates another candidate as his associate from the same political party for his running for the office of President, who is to occupy the office of Vice-President and that candidate shall be deemed to have been duly elected to the office of Vice-President if the candidate for an election to the office of President, who nominated him as such associate is duly elected as President in accordance with the provisions aforesaid.”

This is the law. The PDP leadership in its wisdom knew this and only asked the committee to nominate three candidates, and not to narrow its decision to one candidate. The Constitution says Atiku has the sole honour and privilege to pick a running mate, not a committee, not even the party leadership. Atiku working with the party’s topmost hierarchy is because democracy is fed fat and robust by consultation. The likes of Governor Samuel Ortom and others on the runway of a dubious thesis that Atiku ought to have picked their choice, in this case – Governor Nyesom Wike – do no good to the tenets of democracy which is always anchored on the rule of law, not the rule of a mob. The three nominees – Okowa, Wike and Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom – are all eminently qualified for the position. They are loyal party men, high-performers in their respective states, all within the same age bracket and all appeal to both the youths and the old. But only one person takes the cake. Even Atiku confessed that it was a hard decision to take given the qualities of the nominees.

In the context of contemporary Nigeria, the cap fits Okowa. His antecedents lend him to the new status. In his seven years as governor of Delta, he has evolved a culture of peace in a state that was once a hotbed of violence and communal crisis. In seven years, he has moved the state from the 4^th largest producer of crude oil to the number one position which translates to more money for Nigeria. He has improved quality and quantity of education and healthcare, making Delta one of the top states in human development index. His active youth engagement through empowerment and skills acquisition stands him out as a productivity-focused leader.

Okowa is the fit man for Atiku. At this time when Nigeria needs to tame the beast of insecurity, the Okowa template for peace which he has deployed in Delta with positive results, is what is needed at the centre. For sound economic growth, national harmony and a fresh lease in infrastructure, industrialization and youth empowerment, Okowa comes primed for the huge task. Atiku got his ideal man.

First published in Sunday Sun