Muazu, Babangida  Aliyu, Shema connection

By Henry Umoru

THE National Executive Committee, NEC, of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,  at its 66th meeting, endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan as the party’s sole candidate for the 2015 presidential election ahead of  his formal declaration for his re-election bid and the party’s national convention fixed for December 6.

Prior to the position of the NEC, the party’s highest organ, the National Caucus, the Board of Trustees, BoT, the governors, and members of the National Assembly, at their various meetings, had endorsed the president’s sole candidacy for the 2015 election.

Sambo

At the meeting where Jonathan was adopted by the NEC, the governor of Niger State and Chairman, Northern States Governors’ Forum, NSGF, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu, spoke  on behalf of PDP governors; a former Deputy National Chairman, Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun, spoke for the BoT; Senate President David Mark  for the National Assembly while Ambassador Justina Eze spoke for the PDP women.

To give the process what could be termed a legal backing, a former Acting National Chairman of the PDP, and past Minister of Defence, Dr.  Haliru Mohammed Bello, who moved the motion, said, “In view of the fact that we have a tradition in the PDP of recognising excellence, in view of the fact that the transformation president has performed creditably well according to the manifesto of the PDP to the satisfaction of party members, in view of the fact that at meetings like this, year after year, we have made similar decisions, and we have always gone into elections in harmony and have always won fair and square, I will like to move that the decision of our governors to endorse the candidature of our serving and performing president, the decision of the Board of Trustees to recognise the performance and endorse the candidature of our sitting president, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the decision of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is to enable us  present one front at the next election to avoid fractious arguments and contention that has always tended to break the unity of our great party.”

Seconding the motion, a former governor of old Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo, said, “It is difficult to change a winning team because this team has done so well. I think it is just fair that I second the motion that Dr. Ebele Jonathan be returned as the sole candidate of the PDP”. Soon after Nwobodo seconded the motion, PDP National Chairman PDP, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu,  put the motion into vote and it was unanimously adopted  by the NEC.

An elated Jonathan, while accepting the adoption  as the sole presidential candidate  by all the organs of the party, said he was humbled, overwhelmed and promised not to disappoint the PDP governors, the leaders, stakeholders and members of the party. “Let me really say that the events of yesterday, starting with the BoT meeting last night and what has just happened today, with the various motions adopting me as sole candidate of the party has really humbled me,”he told the PDP INEC.

”Let me specially thank our governors that initiated that action, let me thank members of the BoT, let me thank the Senate President and members of the National Assembly, let me appreciate the PDP women for their position and the NEC, because no matter whatever anybody does, if NEC does not approve, you will be on your own.

”Adopting me as the sole candidate of the party has humbled me; I am totally overwhelmed. When the governors came up in a jointly signed paper, though House of Representatives started it, governors intervention was like an atomic bomb. I commend all departments of the NEC. I am so overwhelmed that I lack words to express myself. I leave it for another day. For today, for you to have that kind of confidence, I am extremely challenged. It means that whatever we had done in the past three years, we triple it. That is the only way Nigerians will appreciate it. I promise I will not disappoint you.”

Meanwhile, Jonathan’s adoption has triggered controversy on the status position of Vice President Namadi Sambo as what could be described as an oversight on the part of NEC happened as there was no categorical statement that the adoption includes Sambo other than playing on words like, “It is a winning team, you don’t change a winning team.”

The 2002 episode
Taking advantage of the loophole that was created, those who may not want to see the face of the vice president may have been selling a dummy on the issue of whether the president would run with him or not when he finally declares, with history about being replayed when, in the face of political quarrels, there was an attempt by former  President Olusegun Obasanjo not to run with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar when he declared for second term in 2002 , but following  Atiku’s sagacity and doggedness, he won the war.

If Atiku and Obasanjo fought which may have explained why there were moves not to run with him,  the case of Sambo is quite different. The VP is a very loyal follower of Jonathan; he is not a political rascal. Even though many believe he is not aggressive enough, it is important to say that the president may not need any vice who may be too powerful or more colourful politically and one  who will rock the boat.

To buttress his loyalty to the president, Sambo was quoted as telling a delegation to his office, led by  Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State and which included prominent sons of the state who were on hand to commend him for his  unwavering loyalty to their son, Jonathan, that the confidence he receives from the president encourages him to do even more. “I want to assure you that I will personally continue to give my full support and loyalty to Mr. President. I also assure you that we will not allow anything to detract us. The Transformation Agenda of Mr. President is well on track. We will continue to work in the interest of Nigeria; we will continue to work as patriotic Nigerians and we will ensure that we deliver dividends of democracy to Nigerians”, the VP said.

The controversy surrounding the issue of whether Sambo will run with his boss in 2015 started  barely five days after the NEC endorsed Jonathan as its sole presidential  candidate when the national leadership of the party disclosed that the  onus would be on only the president to decide  whether to run with Sambo or not.
After addressing journalists and it was time for questions, the PDP  National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, said Sambo’s fate hanged on the President.

Metuh said, “I believe a lot of people are trying to speculate on Jonathan/Sambo ticket, but why don’t we wait when the president declares for such issues to be resolved? But I must inform that it is part of the reasons PDP has mentioned that it is a winning team; what the president has done, he has done it very well and it is a winning team. I believe that there is no need to magnify or attempt to highlight any difference between the president and the vice president, they have worked so well.

“The vice president has continued to be the second most loyal vice president in the history of this country. So I believe that he enjoys the confidence of the president. In the 2015 elections, if the president accepts to run, we will be able to take it to the next level.”

But the next day, Metuh came up with a statement, saying Sambo was part of the winning team, with the party expressing implicit satisfaction in the working relationship between the president and his deputy. “There is no doubt whatsoever that the vice president has implicit confidence of the president. The  PDP is therefore very pleased that they are working together in actualizing the Transformation Agenda to the popular acclaim of bot Nigerians and the international community”, the PDP spokesperson said.

”We wish to place on record as well  that the 66th NEC meeting of our great party, which endorsed President Jonathan as the sole candidate of the PDP for the 2015 general elections, responsibly reasoned and anchored this decision on the outstanding performance of the Jonathan presidency of which Vice President Sambo is an integral part. This motion, which was unanimously endorsed by the NEC, left no room for any form of speculation  as Sen. Jim Nwobodo, who seconded it, expressly commended both the president and his vice for lifting the banner of the PDP very high while  praying the  NEC to approve the motion.”

Also speaking 48 hours after Metuh, the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Professor Rufai Ahmed Alkali, described Jonathan and Sambo as a winning team, saying, “I don’t know why people will continue to overflog the issue of the vice president.

Why don’t you wait for him (Jonathan) to accept before any other thing on the fate of the vice president?”
Alkali went on: “A lot of people are trying to speculate ?such issues. Jonathan is yet to communicate his decision to the party or the entire nation. Why don’t we wait till the president declares for such issue to be highlighted.

”The PDP has mentioned that it is a winning team. The president and the vice president have done very well. I believe there is no need to magnify or attempt to highlight any difference between the president and the vice president. The president and the vice have worked so well. The vice president has been the second most loyal vice president in the history of this country besides the President when he was the Vice President. I believe he enjoys the confidence of the president. And in the  2015 elections, if the president accepts to run, then we will be able take it to the next level. For the various organs of the party to adopt Jonathan as its sole presidential candidate means that a lot of work was done.”

The Lamido promise

*Sule Lamido

Sunday Vanguard gathered that ahead of the 66th PDP NEC’s meeting and before he finally dropped his presidential ambition and agreed to support the sole candidacy of Jonathan for the 2015 presidential election, Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State was said to have been promised to be the president’s running mate because of his performance in his state, his loyalty to the PDP and as a founding member of the party, just as it was said to have been agreed that frustrating his ambition without concrete sealing would amount to injustice.

But a source said that the Presidency may have been advised to have a second thought because of overwhelming political prowess which may lead to the replay of the Obasanjo, Atiku episode. The president was then asked to continue with the Jonathan-Sambo ticket because of the VP’s loyalty and especially since Sambo is one who may not have the capacity to cause trouble.

Besides Lamido, several  names like Governor Ibrahim Shehu Shema of Katsina State, Governor Aliyu of Niger State and  the PDP National Chairman, Adamu Muazu, were being mentioned as those who want to take Sambo’s job  as running mate to the president in the 2015 elections.

As a way of saying ‘thank you’ to Lamido because he was not around at the last NEC meeting when the Jigawa governor dropped his presidential ambition and declared support for Jonathan’s re-election, the Chairman, BoT of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih, visited Lamido.  Anenih  was accompanied by senior party members among whom was the PDP’s National Vice Chairman North-west, Ambassador Ibrahim Musa Kazaure.

Speaking at the Dutse International Airport, Anenih said: “I came to see my son, Governor Sule Lamido”.

He declined to comment on the speculation that the PDP would replace Sambo with Lamido, saying, “Sule Lamido is a mature leader. This is my third visit to Jigawa this year and we have no problem as you are speculating.”

Last week, posters of Muazu were seen pasted around the federal secretariat and strategic corners in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The posters, pasted in broad daylight, read,  ‘2015: Alhaji Adamu Muazu for Presidency’.

It was gathered that the posters were a necessary collateral by the Adamu Muazu support group, but the interest may be  Sambo’s job, by  positioning him for the 2019 presidency when Jonathan would have finished his second term. The posters, bearing the photographs of the president and Mu’azu, were produced by the PDP National Chairman Support Group, one of the associations assisting the PDP National Chairman to consolidate in office.

Although Shema, also from the North-west like the VP,  may have tacitly said he was not interested in  Sambo’s job, he is a politician who may say due to pressure from his people, he wants to run, just  as Aliyu has not denied the speculation against the backdrop that, for this ambition, he may say he did not follow his colleagues who left the PDP for the All Progressives Congress, APC.

It was also gathered that the Niger governor, who was said to be planning to use his position as Chairman, Northern States Governors Forum to woo his colleagues to get the PDP presidential running mate slot, dropped his senatorial ambition for Niger-east and supported a former deputy governor, Dr. Nuhu Zagbayi, who was elected to replace the late Senator Awaisu Kuta who died June 12.

Sunday Vanguard also gathered that there may have been a gang-up against Sambo by stakeholders in a part of his state, Kaduna, especially from those who felt he has not been fair to them.

The seeming war against the VP has never really ceased since the 2011 elections as his political opponents are of the view that the only thing he has working for him is his loyalty to Jonathan.  The opponents say he has no political structure against the backdrop that, in 2011, he never won any of the elections in his area for the PDP as the defunct opposition party, Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, emerged winner in all the elections.  His opponents are proposing that he is dropped as Jonathan’s running mate on the premise that PDP only lost his local government, Kaduna North, out of the 23 local government areas in Kaduna State in 2011.

Weakened party
Sambo’s camp must be very proactive as he has a lot of work to do on the home front to gain the confidence of his people. There is also no doubt that the PDP in the state has been weakened by the defection of several key members to the APC. Though PDP leaders in Kaduna State may claim that all is well, it is not, especially with  the defection of majority of members of former Governor Ahmed Makarfi’s group from the PDP,  a major setback that may affect the fortunes of the party in the state.

The VP may not have been winning elections in his area, but he has been able to attract many federal projects to Kaduna State and the  North-West. Of the nine new federal universities established by the Jonathan administration and located in the North, four of them are located in the North-West.

The universities are sited in Gusau in Zamfara, Dutse in Jigawa, Dustin-Ma in Katsina and Birnin Kebbi in Kebbi States in the North-West, while others are in Lafia, Nasarawa; Lokoja in Kogi; Kashere in Gombe, Wukari inTaraba and Gashua in Yobe.

With the support of Sambo, there are  several ongoing projects running into several billions of naira in Kaduna State, a multi-billion fast rail track connecting Abuja to Kaduna; the Galma Dam project, which, after completion, will provide raw water for the multi-purpose Zaria water supply scheme, the Gurara Dam project, and the Kudenda Power Project, among others.

With these projects, the profile of Sambo should increase in his state and geo- political zone. Even though the decision on whether or not to retain Sambo as running mate lies with Jonathan, it is evident that PDP leaders may be afraid that the party may lose Kaduna State if he is removed and that a devil you know is better than the saint you do not know.