Governor Babangida Aliyu, one of the best educated governors in the outgoing dispensation has criss-crossed the political and public service sectors since his first election to the House of Representatives in 1983. His recent outbursts, however, have been laced with controversy.

By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

Dr. Babangida Aliyu was in 2006 at the top of his civil service career as permanent secretary in the juicy Ministry of Federal Capital Territory when as it was alleged, President Olusegun Obasanjo phoned him to enter the 2007 Niger State governorship contest.

His belated entry into the race, it was believed, was on account of the divisive power struggles among the power brokers in the state, with the nickname, Power State.

Since that his controversial entry, Dr. Aliyu has remained a man of many controversies stirring controversies along the way in his nearly eight-year stint at the helm of affairs. While a number of his actions have been pointedly salacious, Dr. Aliyu would leave office with a name etched in controversy after his recent outing with fellow Peoples Democratic Party, PDP governors in Lagos.

The PDP governors had last Tuesday descended on the nation’s commercial capital in seeming determination to save their political legacies in the face of the burgeoning support for the opposition presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. The stage was a parley with the media and civil society.

Media and civil society

For the PDP governors, stopping Buhari was not just for the sake of President Goodluck Jonathan, but also, in their personal political interests. The governors are not ignorant of the possibility that their individual bids to plant pliant successors could be derailed on the coattails of a possible Buhari success.

So it is no surprise that many of the governors have put aside their personal issues with one another to rally behind their presidential candidate.

Governor Jonah Jang who had for long reportedly had issues with Aliyu following Aliyu’s controversial hang on to the chairmanship of the Northern States Governors Forum, NSGF as such did not mind sharing platform with Aliyu to hit at Buhari last Tuesday.

Following Governor Godswill Akpabio’s diatribes against Buhari that Tuesday, Governor Aliyu emerged to speak whereupon he again stirred controversy with his claim that Buhari had entered into an agreement to serve only one term in office.

“Buhari promised them that he is going to do one term. The implication of that would result in the short-changing of rotational presidency when it gets to the turn of the north,” Aliyu said.

The import of the governor’s assertion was to stir passion among Northern power shift advocates to the effect that a Buhari presidency would be a loss for a region that has desperately craved for power for a long time.

It was not surprising that even before his words distilled that the APC issued a sharp rebuttal.

Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum and governor of Niger State, Dr. Babangida Aliyu

Responding, APC spokesman, Lai Mohammed said: “The APC will not abridge the right of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to spend the constitutionally-guaranteed two terms as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria if elected in the March 28 poll.

“No conditionality, whatsoever, was attached to Gen. Buhari’s candidacy. He won the party primaries fair and square in a globally-acclaimed transparent manner, and he was neither a compromise nor a consensus candidate; hence there is no need for him to make a deal with anyone.

“We are, therefore, telling Nigerians to disregard the tales by the moonlight which some PDP elements are spinning in their desperation to muddle the waters ahead of the forthcoming elections and create disaffection between a section of the country and another.”

The Buhari Campaign Organisation equally fired back tracing back Governor Aliyu’s past controversial utterances about an alleged single term agreement between President Jonathan and the party’s governors.

The Campaign Organization further described the “insinuation as the outbursts of a perpetual rabble-rouser, amateurish ethno-religious propagandist and unrepentant mischief-maker bent on stocking division and disaffection in the APC.”

Digging at the governor’s performance, the campaign in a statement issued by Mallam Garba Shehu said: “When has this Governor of a grossly underdeveloped state suddenly become a clairvoyant who knows what obtains in places where he was never present or represented? Is he an APC member? If not, how and where did he get his information from? And what Northern Nigeria is he representing?”

Political clairvoyance

The reference to the governor’s political clairvoyance was to the assertion by the governor in a radio interview in February 2013 where he alleged that President Jonathan agreed with northern governors that he would serve one term.

He had said: “I recall that at the time he was going to declare for the 2011 election, all the PDP governors were brought together to ensure that we were all in the same frame of mind.

“And I recall that some of us said given the circumstances of the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua and given the PDP zoning arrangement, it was expected that the North was to produce the president for a given number of years.

“I recall that at that discussion, it was agreed that Jonathan would serve only one term of four years and we all signed the agreement. Even when Jonathan went to Kampala, in Uganda, he also said he was going to serve a single term.

“For now, President Jonathan has not declared a second term ambition and we must not be speculating based on those who are benefiting from the campaign.

“I think we are all gentlemen enough so when the time comes, we will all come together and see what is the right thing to do.”

The assertion had been flayed by associates of the president who dared the governor to produce the agreement or give evidence. He never gave, but a month later, and he insisted on his claim.

“If to be truthful is to be illiterate, I stand by it. On the political scene, I am happy with what some people say. I don’t see it as a condemnation of PDP; I see it as trying to correct a situation.

“We should look at the problem as one we must confront correctly. Agreement made in secret must be adhered to.”

The governor’s political pathway has also been laced with several other controversies.

Before now, the falling out with his deputy, Hon. Ahmed Ibeto leading to the latter’s eviction from a state executive council meeting, the handing over to the speaker of the House of Assembly and the relocation of the deputy’s office from the Government House were some of the controversies to have shadowed Governor Aliyu this year.

However, none may have stirred the polity and none as potent as his assertion on Buhari.