PDP GUBER PRIMARIES: RIBADU, TAKAI, SHAGARI, SHINKAFI, OTHERS HOPEFUL As Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirants across the country square up for their party’s ticket in their respective states tomorrow, Sunday Trust. undertakes a rundown of the profiles of the major contenders and outline factors that may see them to victory. In Kano, the race for the ticket of the PDP has been hot among the frontrunners that include Dr. Umar Musa Mustapha, Dr Akilu Indabawa, Alhaji Sagir Takai, Mohammed Abacha, Abba Risqua, Engineer Bello Sani Gwarzo and Alhaji Mansir Ahmad. Until lately, the pendulum was swinging towards Takai, the preferred candidate of the Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau. But the collapse of a consensus arrangement that was being worked out among the contenders early in the week shifted the swing away from Takai’s favour. Our correspondent gathered that the plan to arrive at a consensus candidate failed because of insistence on going to primaries by three of the aspirants. Takai, who was the candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) in the state in 2011, is being supported by the Shekarau camp of the PDP in the state, and by extension, the federal government. Equally, in Sokoto four aspirants are ready to slug it out following the failure of a reconciliatory committee of the party to pick a consensus candidate. The aspirants are former Minister of Transport, Alhaji Yusuf Sulaiman, deputy governor of the state, Barrister Mukhtari Shagari, the Nigerian ambassador to Morocco, Ambassador Abdallah Wali and Senator Abubakar Umar Gada. However, many people in the state believe that the actual battle would be waged between Shagari and Wali, who appear to be the major contenders in the race. Shagari is said to be having the backing of the Presidency following his endorsement of an automatic ticket for President Goodluck Jonathan, while Wali enjoys the support of former Governor Attahiru Bafarawa, who joined the party from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and succeeded in taking over its structures in the state. In Kebbi, pointers have indicated that retired Gen Sarkin-Yaki Bello may emerge as the governorship candidate of the PDP in the state because of the backing of the state governor, Sa’idu Dakingari, that he enjoys. Sources said he may clinch the ticket despite opposition by party bigwigs who are not in support of Dakingari’s position. In Niger State, out of nine PDP contenders, the former Chief of Staff to Governor Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, Mohammed Umar Nasko, is being closely watched as the aspirant who is standing a better chance to spring up surprises during the primary election, having been anointed by his boss. The governor threw his weight behind Nasko, even though his deputy, Ahmed Musa Ibeto, had equally indicated his interest for the office. Nasko, who will be 40 next year, is contesting against the likes of Senator Nuhu Aliyu Awna, Mustapha Bello, a former minister and former military governor, Aminu Isa Kontagora. In Adamawa State, the odds favour Nuhu Ribadu. In Yobe, four candidates have obtained nomination forms to participate in tomorrow’s gubernatorial primary. They are: Adamu Maina Waziri, Dr. Yerima Lawan Ngama, Alhaji Ibrahim Talba, and Alhaji Hassan Kafayos. Analysts said Waziri had an edge over his rivals, considering his experience and closeness with the current PDP national chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu. Also, a former Minister of State for Finance and strong financier of PDP in the state, Dr Ngama has established a formidable political structure in Yobe while he held sway as minister. Party supporters touted him as the aspirant that is likely to emerge winner of the primary election with a clear margin, considering his commitment to the party and a purported backing from the Presidency. But analysts argued that Kafayos may equally be considered as best option if Dr. Yerima Lawan Ngama and Adamu Maina Waziri fail to reconcile and pursue the interest of the party. In Katsina, eight Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) aspirants, comprising Engr Musa Nashuni, Ibrahim Ida, Tkur Jikamshi, Gide Yar’Adua, Nura Khalil, Kabir Barkiya and Abdullahi Umar Tsauri would square up for the governorship ticket. Out of this number, the immediate past Commissioner of Resource Development, Nashuni, who has been anointed by Governor Ibrahim Shema, is projected to have the brightest chance of emerging as the party’s flag-bearer. The state government is being rumoured to have blocked delegates from meeting with the other aspirants ahead of the primary, a development that was said to have greatly affected their chances. Nashuni, on the other hand, has the backing of the state government, the party and several other stakeholders. In Lagos, out of about 10 aspirants gunning for the party’s ticket in the state, the names of Senator Musiliu Obanikoro and Chief Jimmy Agbaje ring bell. Obanikoro, who resigned his Ministry of Defence portfolio recently to make way for his gubernatorial ambition, has a solid structure on ground that he has built for some years, with which he contested as the party’s candidate in 2007 and lost to Mr. Babatunde Fashola. The state political watchers think that the strength of his structures and the fact that he could use his ‘Abuja connection’ could swing victory in his favour. In Benue State, last minute horse-trading among leading contenders for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ticket has continued to generate anxiety, as former minister, Dr. Samuel Ortom, Terhemen Tarzoor and deputy governor, Steven Lawani top the list of the likely would-be flag-bearer in tomorrow’s primaries. Former state assembly speaker, Tarzoor, may not emerge the flag bearer of the party, though he is said to be Governor Gabriel Suswam’s preferred choice, as his candidature had been rejected at a stakeholders meeting held in Government House, Makurdi by the components making up the lower Benue North-West expected to produce the next governor of the state. Similarly, there are palpable fears that Ortom, who obviously is presumed to have the overwhelming support of the party’s delegates in almost 23 local government areas of the state may have his ambition scuttled by the powers that be. However, the prominent power-brokers of the party in the state have, in the past few days, begun to work for the consideration of an Idoma aspirant. They are rooting seriously for the candidature of Lawani, with the support of his boss. For Kaduna State, the PDP has more governorship aspirants than its rivals and they include, Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, who is seeking re-election, Jimmy Nabaida Dung, John Ajeye, Hassan Hyat, Haruna Aziz Zego and Samaila Yakawada. Some of the governorship aspirants have since expressed fears that the delegates who voted at the local government congresses in the state were loyalists of the state governor and may eventually vote for him at the primaries tomorrow. But in spite of Yero’s firm grasp on the structure of the party in the state, it is believed that he may not have an easy sail in the primaries. In Nasarawa State, the PDP ticket is for former governor, Aliyu Akwe Doma to lose. Almost four years outside of office, Doma who lost power to the then newly registered Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), (which merged with other parties to form APC) has continued to enjoy a firm grip on the party. Doma is angling for the PDP ticket alongside the former Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, and his former deputy, Dr. John Michael Abdul. Similarly, Senator Solomon Ewuga (PDP, Nasarawa-North), and Damsehi Barau Luka, the state deputy governor; who defected from the APC in March, are contesting too. Also in the race is Alhaji Yusuf Agabi. Maku, Abdul, Ewuga and Luka are from Nasarawa North. All four will split the votes of their people and the zone, in favour of Doma and Agabi who come from Nasarawa-South. Doma is from the majority Alago ethnic group which populates the PDP and has been holding sway since 2003, producing senators and House of Representatives members, as well as state lawmakers consistently on the PDP platform. Agabi is from the minority in the south and will have to struggle with that reality at the primary. But in Zamfara State, the struggle for the Peoples Democratic Party’s ticket has thickened among a motley of powerful aspirants that include former Governor Mahmud Aliyu Shinkafi, Alhaji Bashir Adamu, Dr Bello Muhammad Mutawalle, Alhaji Ibrahim Shehu Gusau and Alhaji Sagir Hamidu Gusau. Political observers in the state are of the opinion that the real contest is between Shinkafi and Mutawalle. Mutawalle is believed to have both the political and material wherewithal to clinch PDP’s ticket in the state. He is considered as one of the strong financial backers of the party and could use whatever is at his disposal to woo delegates in the state. But for an average indigenous inhabitant of Zamfara, Shinkafi is a household name in the state having been a deputy governor and governor successively. The race for PDP ticket is crowded in Rivers State, where 17 aspirants have picked the party’s nomination forms. Those who have indicated their interest to fly the party’s flag include Barrister Nyesom Wike, Bekinbo Dagogo Jack, Dumu Lulu Briggs, Tonye Princewill, Senator Lee Meaba, Alagbo Samuel Horsefall and Professor Dom Baridom. Others are Nemi Walson Jack, Lancelot Anyama, Atamuno Atamuno, Gabriel Pidomson, Odien Ajumogobia, among others. The 16 governorship aspirants are up in arms with Nyesom Wike, who they accused of truncating the traditional zoning system in the state, where the governorship position is said to have rotated between the upland and the riverine areas. The aspirants had argued that since the Ikwerre ethnic nationality, where Wike came from, had produced Governor Amaechi, who would have ruled the state for 8 years come 2015, equity demands that the next governor of the state should come from another ethnic group. Wike is having the upper hand against the 16 gubernatorial aspirants, having placed the entire PDP structure in the state at his beck and call. All the delegates that will vote at the primaries are virtually under his control. In Bauchi, speculations among the PDP stakeholders suggest that former Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Aminu Hammayo, may likely emerge the winner of tomorrow’s primary election, because of his link to Governor Isa Yuguda. This is even as the result of the state’s assembly primaries showed that majority of the aspirants that got elected are ‘Yuguda boys.’ Yuguda, who is the leader of PDP in the state, may be in control of delegates and some PDP stakeholders, a situation that could confer advantage on Hammayo, who had served as Commissioner of Finance, Budget, Lands and Survey and Secretary to the Bauchi State Government under Yuguda administration. However, there are other aspirants who have chances to win the primaries, and they include the former Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Mohammed Auwal Jatau, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mahmud Yayale Ahmed , former deputy governor, Babayo Gamawa, former Minister of State, Health Dr Mohammad Ali Pate and Senator Adamu Gumba. The Plateau State chapter of the PDP has a large number of governorship aspirants, many of them weighty. The aspirants include the incumbent deputy governor, Ambassador Ignatius Longjan, immediate past speaker of the state House of Assembly, Rt Hon John Clark, immediate past chairman of the party, Dr Haruna Dabin, former governor of the state, Sir Fidelis Tapgun and Senator Victor Lar. Also in the race are Gyang Pwajok, former federal permanent secretary, John Alkali, former Federal Capital Development Authority director, Engr Jimmy Cheto, and a number of others. However, Pwajok appears to be the most popular among the aspirants. His aspiration is a ball of controversy which started to roll when Governor Jonah Jang anointed him a couple of months back as his preferred successor, and is still rolling. Pwajok comes from the same Plateau North senatorial zone as Jang, and a widespread and apparently determined opinion favours the southern zone to produce the governor in 2015. So, the battle for the PDP governorship ticket for Plateau State is between Pwajok and the more than 10 other aspirants, a huge majority of them from the southern zone where the opposition to Pwajok’s aspiration is loudest. Pwajok looks set to clinch the PDP ticket tomorrow. Source: Daily Trust
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 10:36:32 +0000
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