Nigeria’s ruling party approved President Goodluck Jonathan and his main rival – former vice-president Atiku Abubakar – to contest its primaries on Thursday, setting the stage for one of the biggest showdowns in its recent history.
A panel from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) screened and approved three hopefuls on Tuesday for the presidential primaries in two days’ time, including Jonathan, Abubakar and veteran politician Sarah Jibril.
“We have cleared all of them to participate as contestants in the presidential primaries,” Aminu Wali, head of the party’s screening panel, told reporters in the capital Abuja after the three were vetted one-by-one in closed-door sessions.
Jonathan and Abubakar had been expected to be the two main candidates but the panel has the power to disqualify aspirants on the basis of background checks or if they have failed to meet party regulations.
“The exercise was rigorous,” Jonathan told reporters after completing his screening.
Such is the dominance of the PDP in Nigerian politics that past elections have been decided at its primaries – the party’s candidate has won every presidential election in Africa’s most populous nation since the end of military rule in 1999.
But this time it is more divided than ever, with opinion split over Jonathan’s candidacy, which breaks a power-sharing agreement meant to ensure that power rotates between the mostly Muslim north and largely Christian south every two terms.
Jonathan, a southerner, faces a tough battle with Abubakar, a northerner who emerged as the consensus candidate to challenge him from a group of influential northern politicians.
Jibril, the only female in the presidential race, has run for the country’s highest office in the past without success.
The rivalry between Jonathan and Abubakar has already led to legal challenges.
A court on Monday threw out a suit by three PDP members seeking to stop Jonathan from standing on the grounds that his candidacy would break the “zoning agreement”.
The move came after other party members filed a suit to try to prevent Abubakar from standing in the primaries.
Some analysts had suggested the panel could try to disqualify Abubakar because he only recently rejoined the PDP.
“I was asked many questions. I was asked about my return to the party, I was asked how I would unite the party… They cannot disqualify me,” Abubakar told reporters.