OGA***AT***THE***TOP! 2015: Jonathan Dumps Sambo ALL is definitely not well with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). For months now, the party leadership has been straining topatch up the cracks dividing the self-touted largest party in Africa, but to no avail. Last week’s highly celebrated National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja fell woefully short of the desired, it even went down as the shortest ever: only 15 minutes; without resolving many issues including granting of automatic tickets to President Goodluck Jonathan and governors seeking a second term in office. As if that was not enough, damning reports emanating from the Aso Rock Villa showed that the cracks within the party run deeper than currently being speculated, the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is waging a silent war against his immediate colleague, Vice-President Namadi Sambo, a situation reminiscent of the unsightly war that characterised the twilight of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Alhaji Abubakar Atiku partnership. A source close to Presidency told National Daily that President Jonathan is now weary of Sambo’s political antics, hence his decision to starve the VP’s office of funds. According to the source, all files from the VP’s office that bear any trace of financial implication of recent has been deliberately kept in view so as not to allow any further cash flow in that office, this is because, the President is of the opinion that his Vice is working with some northern elders to thwart his (President Jonathan’s) 2015 ambition. “It appears that President Jonathan no longer trust his Vice. He is suspecting that Sambo has a hidden agenda for 2015. One of the informants of the President revealed that VP Sambo is currently working with some northern elders to endorse him as a consensus candidate from the North in 2015. President Jonathan’s camp is thinking that Sambo might have deliberately refused to reach out to his co-northerners so as to weaken Jonathan popularity in the North. Others also said that he has not done enough to market the president to his northern brothers just as Atiku Abubakar did to former President Olusegun Obasanjo before the 2003 presidential elections. It was based on these permutations that the office of the vice president is being starved of funds. “Apart from that, there is also pressure from some prominent northern elites and politicians to drop Vice President Sambo in 2015 elections because, according to them, he is a businessman who does not know politics. They also believe that he is a political liability and that he has not represented the north very well,” our source revealed. National Daily investigations further revealed that the president has concluded plans to run for 2015 elections with either Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa state or Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina state. The choice for Sule Lamido was based on his current rising political profile in the north. According to our investigations, Jonathan/Lamido combination in 2015 could ensure the ruling party, PDP clinching victory in the polls once again while Shema is merely being considered to personify the Yar’Aduas of Katsina. However, a reaction from Vice President’s camp said it will be suicidal for Jonathan to dump Sambo at this stage of the struggle, adding that they have come a long way; “The VP has been very loyal to the President, he has served him faithfully. Whoever is thinking of Jonathan dumping Sambo is just day dreaming. Jonathan will crash in 2015 if he tries it. As far as Nigeria politics is concerned both of them are still learning.” BELEAGUERED PARTY Sambo’s palaver began, early in the year, when, well ahead of the upcoming Special National Convention of the PDP, four governors of the party in the North-west and some elements within the Presidency moved, albeit separately, against Sambo over the choice of persons to fill the posts of National Treasurer and National Organising Secretary, which are zoned to the geopolitical region. The four are Sokoto’s Aliyu Wamakko, Kebbi’s Usman Dakingari, Jigawa’s Sule Lamido, and Kano’s Rabiu Kwankwaso. The governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Mukhtar Yero, being Sambo’s political godson, is, expectedly, backing the VP’s nominee for the office of National Organising Secretary, Alhaji Abubakar Mustapha, while Katsina State Governor Ibrahim Shema is said to be neutral. But Wamakko, Dakingari, Lamido and Kwankwaso, along with some persons within the PDP, are said to be sponsoring another candidate from Kaduna State for the office of National Organising Secretary, against Sambo’s nominee. The office of the National Organising Secretary is the engine house of all electoral activities in PDP and the political leaning of its occupant is viewed as an indicator of future trends. The pre-convention intrigues emerged according to PDP sources, when Kwankwaso, Lamido, Wamakko and Dakingari backed former PDP National Treasurer Bala Kaoje to obtain a nomination form for the office of National Organising Secretary to contest against the vice president’s nominee, Mustapha, at the upcoming Special National Convention. Kaoje was among the National Working Committee members that resigned en masse on June 20 to allow for the rectification of anomalies in their elections on March 24 last year, which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) observed in a report. INEC had noted in the report, which was published on April 8, that 12 of the 16 members of the NWC were not properly elected; stating that the process that brought them into office is unacceptable. Mustapha, who held the post of National Organising Secretary until the June 20 resignations, was Head of Service of Kaduna State when Sambo was the governor. He was believed to have also been sponsored by the VP to emerge National Organising Secretary at last year’s national convention. A source in the party disclosed that, “The four governors have asked Bala Kaoje (former national treasurer) to pick form for the National Organising Secretary knowing full well that the vice president is still sponsoring Abubakar Mustapha for the same office. “The four governors are also insisting that there should be voting for the office.” The source said some elements within the Presidency were also sponsoring another politician from Zaria, Ibrahim Bamali, for the same office of National Organising Secretary. By this, three candidates may be vying for the office at the PDP special national convention, namely Mustapha, who is believed to be sponsored by Sambo; Kaoje, alleged to be sponsored by the governors of Kebbi, Sokoto, Kano, and Jigawa states; and Bamali, who is said to be a nominee of some hawks in the Presidency. FENCE MENDING Moreover, the President, sources revealed, has been trying to tow a moderate path in order to rally the whole party, especially, the aggrieved elements from the north, behind him before the 2015 Elections campaign starts. Early in the month, Governors Babangida Muazu Aliyu of Niger, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso reportedly at a meeting with President Jonathan notified him of their intention to quit the PDP ahead of the 2015 election on grounds of irreconcilable differences with the leadership of the party. Although both sides later denied the incident, the evidence of the dire strait the party is refused to be wished away. The governors stated that the meeting with the president was as a result of their resolve to rescue the party. Nyako’s chief press secretary, Ahmed Sajoh stressed that, “For record purposes, it must however be stated that the visit of the governor, alongside his colleagues, to the president was not abnormal as it was meant to save the ruling party from suffering further crisis as well as a means to save our democracy.” “However, it should be noted that Governor Nyako’s meeting with the president, including other governors, was to avail the president an opportunity to know certain things that have gone wrong in the PDP under the current leadership. “More contradicting in the report is the fact that the governors only went to the president to save the PDP and democracy as the leader of the country and of the PDP; so it is only laughable to read that such governors with that level of passion for the party have issued a notice to quit the PDP. But a recent call from former president Obasnajo directing the aggrieved governors of the party to forget any plot to dump the ruling party, showed the magnitude of the ongoing rumble within the party. An impeccable source close to the Otta farmer revealed that the former president passed the message through one of the aggrieved governors during the recent birthday celebration of Chief Tony Anenih in Abuja, warning that the solution to their grievances is not in quitting the party. The former Nigerian leader, whose presence at the birthday reportedly excited the presidential family, was quoted as telling one of the governors at the event that All Progressives Congress (APC) was not an option, urging them to “explore all internal remedies, and if necessary, fight from within.” It was, however, gathered through the source that the directive to the aggrieved governors and others did not signify that he had endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan; rather the source hinted that the retired general could be “strengthening a bloc within the ruling party.” Another source close to Obasanjo in the South-West, while confirming this mindset of the former president, added that he had also impressed it on his other allies across the country to remain in the PDP. Obasanjo was reported to have reminded all aggrieved party chiefs that the real reason behind the formation of the PDP was to safeguard the unity of the nation, insisting that PDP remained the only vehicle to sustain the unity of the country. It would be recalled that Chief Obasanjo was responsible for the nomination by the PDP of the governors involved in the nationwide consultation which the Presidency considered hostile but which the governors called Save Democracy Campaign. It was, also, gathered that notable governors from the PDP, who were on lesser hajj (umrah) in Saudi Arabia, held several meetings in the holy land on whether or not to remain in the party. A party insider stated that the governors were unanimous in their opinion that President Jonathan had been unfair to them for supporting the national chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, and refusing to recognise the River State governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, as the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF). The source stressed that most of the said PDP governors are from the North-West and North-Central. But the source added that those of them (governors) who are currently in their second term called for caution, saying that, for the sake of those still eyeing a second term, it would be risky for them to openly work against the establishment by identifying with the All Progressives Congress (APC). All these agitating issues and several undisclosed ones forced last week’s NEC meeting to close early. The absence of former vice president Atiku Abubakar from the meeting was resonant enough. The Turaki was angry at the preference of some supporters of the President for an automatic ticket. The party stakeholders, at the meeting, were said to have agreed to shelve the contentious issues on the grounds that they could tear the party apart and widen the gulf between the various aggrieved members of the party. Source: NATIONAL DAILY
Posted on: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 12:42:03 +0000
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