2015: Hard Political Lessons For Jonathan’s Ministers: Most of the ministers who resigned from President Goodluck Jonathan’s cabinet to pursue their governorship ambitions are currently reeling in pains after they were politically battered at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primaries. In this report, GEORGE AGBA recounts their travails and the lessons they may have learnt. Call them runaway soldiers and you may be close to the truth. Some have tended to describe them as ministers on the loose, while others refer to them as ‘unhealthy subjects to inordinate ambition’, and not a few Nigerians prefer the biblical analogy, “all ye like sheep have gone astray” in addressing them. Yet, if you choose to call them ‘prodigal’ sons, that might be just perfect a name for these amateur political actors in last year’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primaries. Whichever diction one prefers to the other in describing them, the issue at stake is the manner in which five former ministers who left President Goodluck Jonathan’s cabinet to pursue their governorship ambition are swallowing the bitter pills of political reality. The primaries have come and gone, won and lost, but it must have left the ministers reeling with bloody noses. Save for former minister of State for Education, Barrister Nyesom Wike, who clinched the PDP governorship ticket for the 2015 gubernatorial race in Rivers State and former minister of State for Niger Delta Affairs, Darius Ishaku, who made it to become the governorship flagbearer in Taraba State, other former ministers are currently in the political wilderness, struggling to escape confinement in political oblivion. The five ex-ministers, Onyebuchi Chukwu (Health), Musiliu Obanikoro (State for Defence), Labaran Maku, (Information), Emeka Wogu (Labour) and Samuel Ortom (Industry, Trade and Investment) are in the shadow of their own goal post. As FEC holds its first meeting of the year today, it is certain that these former ministers will be missing in action. In October last year, they left the cosy council chamber of Aso Rock presidential villa after the president and their colleagues had bid them farewell in a valedictory session held in their honour. With political swag, they told whoever cared to listen that their mission was to heed the call of their people in their various states who have been yearning for their political stewardship. Like the proverbial dog who refuses to listen to the hunter’s whistle, or worse still, the fly that follows the corpse to the grave, the former ministers’ hearts turned to steel when President Jonathan covertly gave them a last minute warning. He cautioned them to think twice before ditching his cabinet for mainstream politics. The president directed them to send their resignation letters to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, but not without drawing their attention to the fact that they still had ample time to change their minds before tendering the resignation letter to Anyim. To put Jonathan’s admonition in clearer terms, the ministers were told point blank that there would be no repentance in the grave. This fatherly advice from Jonathan fell on deaf ears as the former ministers who were apparently burning in an unquenchable desire to be called ‘your excellency, the governor’ became even more hell-bent on trading their ministerial fortunes. For them, there was no going back at that point; their ambition was already made of sterner stuff. Deceived by their supercilious illusion that as ministers, they had become political heavyweights whose affinity with President Jonathan could open political doors for them, they embarked on a political voyage of discovery. But Maku, Wogu, Chukwu, Obanikoro and Ortom were not as lucky as Wike and Ishaku who got the PDP governorship tickets in their respective states. Maku While Wogu and Chukwu may have embraced and accepted their destinies without grudges, Maku Obanikoro and Ortom are still playing smart. Hardened by the intricate network of Nigerian political canals, they now tend to be die hard politicians who seem to have become too enmeshed in do-or-die politics. In Nasarawa State, Maku learnt his lesson the hard way. It dawned on him lately that electoral victory does not come to someone merely because he is inebriated by the fecundity of his own verbosity. What he saw was beyond the hurdles of being a federal government’s spokesman. He was clearly defeated by Alhaji Yusuf Agabi who polled 214 votes against his160 votes to emerge winner of the primary supervised by a former Senate president, Chief Adolphus Wabara. Still not convinced that he lacked the popularity and dexterity which grassroots politics demand at home, the former minister proceeded to do the unimaginable- biting the finger that fed him. Maku jettisoned the PDP, a party he rode on to become minister, to join the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). In a farcical tangle of event, the former federal government’s spokesperson imported APGA, a party that is rather more functional in the South-east than anywhere else in the country to Nasarawa State. For him, it does not matter even if it is ‘Okada men’ party, so long as it will provide him the platform to achieve his gubernatorial ambition. Curiously, Maku wants the people of Nasarawa to vote for him as governor under APGA platform and vote Jonathan as president under PDP. Political observers say his game is not awkward since APGA is generally seen as an extension of PDP. He noted that he left PDP because of the irregularities that characterised the party’s primaries in Nasarawa. He said he opted out “to seek for Justice”. But pundits believe that Maku may have found himself in a situation where going forward is a great difficulty and coming back is not possible, probably because he dreads to find himself in the same shoe once worn by his predecessor, the late Prof. Dora Akunyili. The late minister of Information had left her position to contest the 2011 senatorial election in Anambra State. She lost out in the election and became a political orphan. Obanikoro Obanikoro’s case is a quintessence of the biblical prodigal son who returned to his father and begged for forgiveness after squandering his fortune. He was defeated by Mr. Jimi Agbaje in a keenly contested primary election conducted at Yard 158 Event Centre, Oregun, Lagos. He polled 346 votes against that of Agbaje’s 432. Convinced that he lost out in the primary because of his political feud with PDP leader in Lagos State, Chief Bode George, Obanikoro initially faulted the process, vowing angrily to challenge it in court. At a press conference immediately after the primary result was announced, the former minister alleged that George was responsible for his failure. He claimed that George deployed religious sentiment to secure victory for his anointed aspirant. His words: “The entire primary was a sham. I still cannot comprehend how accredited delegates of 806 will turn out to be 868. To be honest with you, with the benefit of hindsight, you can tell that the outcome was pre-determined. The path of fraudulent electoral success is condemnable and we intend to fight this. “There is an opportunity to appeal and I hope the party will do the right thing. Bode George has been the major problem as far as this party is concerned and there is no doubt in my mind that he supervised this electoral malpractice. How do you explain the panel chairman arriving in Lagos by 10am and not starting the election until about 5pm? “There are many things that you can look at like the pronouncements made by George, Ogunlewe and others. One of the reasons the PDP has failed in Lagos is because the party is being led by the likes of George and Ogunlewe”. But George did not only refute the allegation that he manipulated the primary, he fired back at Obanikoro, describing him as a “rude boy” who has no regard for elders. The PDP chieftain said Obanikoro is a violent person and the people of Lagos State cannot trust him with their votes. Sensing that his grandstanding would take him nowhere, the former minister ran back to Aso Rock to seek internal redress. At a point, Obanikoro became a regular visitor to Aso Rock. It was not quite certain whether it was President Jonathan who had been inviting the aggrieved ex-minister to pacify him. He was always seen shuttling between the office of the chief of Staff to the president and that of the president’s principal secretary. Now, there are unconfirmed report that the president may have offered to return him as substantive minister in the next dispensation. But the question yawning for answer on the lips of observers is how morally justified is Obanikoro’s recall to the cabinet if the other ministers like Wogu and Chukwu who accepted their fate are not considered? Or is that what is sauce for the goose is no more sauce for the gander? Ortom Like Maku, former minister of State for Trade and Investment, Samuel Ortom, may have learnt a hard lesson in his political escapade in Benue State. He must have realised that grassroots politics go beyond the goodwill he enjoyed in Abuja as a federal minister. The state governor, Gabriel Suswam, who had treated him like a brother each time they met in Aso Rock, became the architect of Ortom’s misfortune. Suswam’s anointed candidate, Terhemen Tarzoor, a former speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly, defeated Ortom woefully at the PDP primary. The governor was said to have coaxed 10 out of the 18 aspirants in the contest to step down for his preferred candidate. In the end, Tarzoor polled 517 votes to defeat Ortom who was considered as having the highest level of acceptability in the state among the other aspirants. According to monitored reports, persuasion by some stakeholders for Suswam to back Ortom on the race fell on deaf ears, as the governor was bent on giving the ticket to Tarzoor. It is believed that the governor deliberately worked against the emergence of Ortom because he was not comfortable with his political antecedents. Determined to fight his political battle to the end, Ortom turned against his benefactor, the PDP. After losing out at the party’s governorship primary, he defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) where he was received wholeheartedly by the leaders of the party in the state. Ssenate minority leader, Senator George Akume, was said to have described Ortom as the prefect candidate to uproot PDP in the state. But Ortom did not find it easy in his new party. Other aspirants who contested the APC primaries felt short-changed by the party. They alleged that the former minister was imposed on the party as its governorship candidate by its leaders in the state. As it stands, all the aspirants who lost out in APC primary have threatened to frustrate whatever chances the party may have in February election. Chukwu For former minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, it was a case of a blind man leading another blind man. His governor, Martin Elechi of Ebonyi State, could not even win the senatorial ticket of his own zone, before thinking of securing the governorship ticket for his anointed son, Chukwu. Sensing that he had already lost the bid to get the PDP governorship ticket in Ebonyi, Chukwu was said to have boycotted the primary where the state deputy governor, Mr. Dave Umahi, emerged as the candidate against the wishes of Governor Elechi. His case seems helpless because, as a university teacher turned politician, he lacks the political structure and experience to make any further move. He probably may have resigned to fate. Wogu Like Chukwu, former Labour minister, Emeka Wogu, may have also given up his political ambition after Abia State governor, Theodore Orji, sealed his fate by securing the governorship ticket for his anointed candidate, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu. The former general manager of the state’s Passengers Integrated Manifest and Safety Scheme polled 487 votes to defeat Wogu and six other candidates. Whatever injury these ministers may have suffered would be the price they have to pay for leaving certainty for uncertainty. Sadly, their investment in the primaries had gone down the drain because of their lack of political savvy. All the same, President Jonathan is better off for their political misadventure. Some observers believe that the ministers’ political ordeal showed that Jonathan is not a dictator. The thinking is that unlike what entailed in the past, where PDP delegates’ vote did not count, the president has allowed a level playing field for every aspirants without impositions. To them, it is indicative of the fact that PDP is gradually changing for good from what it is used to be- an Animal Farm where some animals are more equal than the others. Original link Read More goo.gl/tHdQ4Z (y) ✍comment ☏share
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 21:11:40 +0000
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