Confusion in PACT as Elishama Ideh declares ‘I’m still in the race’

There is further uncertainty over the status of the alliance of some presidential aspirants under PACT who had decided to present a consensus candidate for the 2019 presidential election.

One of the aspirants in the arrangement, Dr. Elishama Ideh said on Tuesday that though she remains committed to the founding principles and ideals of PACT, she is still in the race for the presidency.

By the arrangement of PACT (Presidential Aspirants Coming Together) other aspirants or candidates in the alliance are to throw their weight behind whoever emerges as the consensus candidate.

To this end, the group had on August 30, 2018 elected Fela Durotoye of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) as it’s consensus candidate, for the 2019 presidential election.

This had however created an immediate ripple effect of denials and withdrawals, as some of the aspirants pulled out of the PACT arrangement, accusing its proponents of insincerity.

Others, like Kingsley Moghalu of the YPP who were part of the election that threw up Durotoye disowned the exercise, alleging irregularities and imposition. He stated after the election that he was still pursuing his presidential ambition.

Speaking at a media briefing in Lagos on Tuesday, Dr Ideh declared that she is still in the presidential race, but gave no details as to whether she would remain in PACT, or chase her dream outside the alliance.

Ripples Nigeria however gathered from sources that the proponents of PACT may converge again to take another look at the arrangement that produced Durotoye, with a view to studying the complaints that have trailed his emergence.

According to the source “the complaint of many of the PACT members was that the election that produced Durotoye was not in conformity with the communique the group jointly signed at their earlier meetings on how to produce a consensus candidate.

“I know moves are being made to see how they can be reconciled to present a common front”

Tomide Olukuade, Spokesperson for the Elishama Ideh Presidential Campaign Organisation, who represented Dr Ideh at the event on Tuesday, said “Dr. Ideh is totally undeterred in her quest to provide transformational leadership, curtail poverty, promote security and achieve meaningful women and youth inclusion in governance. And through a well-articulated agenda that you are all aware of, she has set out the path for the recovery of the nation’s fortunes and esteem”.

Read also: 2019 POLLS: APC increases cost of forms for presidency by N18m, govs by N17m

Accordingly, “her aspiration has neither been borne out of wishful thinking or the tentativeness of an unsure mind. Rather, it is the natural product of twenty years of interfacing with, and working to bring solutions to a segment of the Nigerian society that represents a whopping 61 percent of the populace”.

Narrating her journey so far in the political terrain, Olukuade said, “Finding a political home in ANN was natural for Dr. Ideh considering that the values espoused by the party aligned with her vision for a new Nigeria.

“The party’s claim of total divorce from the jaded and conscienceless politics of the past was soon to be challenged by a series of improprieties that took several chinks off her moral armour, chief of which was the well-planned hijack of the party by an outside element whose values cannot be reconciled with those of the party, in connivance with some party chieftains. She complained about this unbecoming development and some equally fundamental issues.

“When it became obvious that sanity had gone to sleep and the playing field would no longer be level and free, she pulled out of the party’s convention. Her fellow aspirants, Mr. Fela Durotoye and Dr. Thomas-Wilson Ikubese followed suit.

“Their action was vindicated when the party thereafter admitted to these flaws and made an attempt at self redemption by orchestrating a change of guard in some strategic positions. Whilst it is to be seen whether the party is truly purged of her bile, her relationship with the party continues to be civil and guided”.

 

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