BETWEEN FIVE NORTHERN GOVERNORS AND PRSDNT JONATHAN It is hard to imagine that Alhaji Sule Lamido, gover-nor of Jigawa State, would be involved in any mutiny against President Jonathan. In 2011, at the Eagle Square, venue of the January 14th People’s Democratic Party national con-vention, Lamido had slapped one of the delegates from Jigawa who had vowed to vote according to his conscience in the hot presidential primaries of the People’s Democratic Party, between Atiku Abubakar and President Goodluck Jonathan. Adamawa State governor, Murtala Nyako, has every reason on the other handto beef with Jonathan whose alliance with the PDP National Chairman Alhaji Bamanga Tukur has robbed him of the control of the party executive in his state. In Sokoto State, the state executive remains solid as a rock behind Governor Aliyu Wamakko but his suspension and its sudden reversal by the national executive has stolen the governor’s thunder as far as the PDP is concerned, now and forever. The same cannot be said of Babangida Aliyu, a career civil servant, whose loyalty to the establishment should be as constant as the northern star. The megalomaniac Babangida Aliyu may have contemplated running for the highest office in 2015, but his performance sheet in his state, according to many Nigerlites, does not stretch longer than the word “Chief Servant”. The last but most intentionally progressive of the bunch is Kano State governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. Many Kano State indigenes who once declared Kwakwaso a monumental failure now wish that an extension of Kwankwasiyya beyond 2015 was a possibility. But it is not! Beyond the synopsis, it is important to outline what these five northern governors have in common that is driving them to revolt against their president. In the last couple of months, they have visited all former military heads of state and T.Y. Danjuma, and also visited former president Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari. Four out of the five governors – Sule Lamido, Murtala Nyako, Rabiu Kwankwaso and Aliyu Wamakko – met behind closed doors for several hours with Shagari’s Vice President Alex Ekwueme on what a source close to the governors described as “further consultation” with the founding fathers of the PDP and explained their grievances to him as a member of the G-34, which founded the PDP. They did not disclose the details of their discussion. The meeting with Ekwueme enlarged the number of top profile shoulders that the aggrieved governors had so far soaked with their tears. They are also planning on meeting General Yakubu Gowon any moment after Ramadan. Whiletheir mutiny would have emanated from the floor of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum where the hullabaloo of nineteen, a figurewhich almost pulled down the roof on the second republic,because politicians had difficulty with addition, subtraction, division and multiplication, the mystery of nineteen is still haunting Nigeria,so much that it is becoming convenient for many to suggest and even insist that since the meetings have been kept under wraps and their outcomes have been classified, the governors are not pursuing a people oriented agenda, but their selfish and self-serving goals. It is true that in the eyes of many informed Nigerians, President Jonathan may not have turned out a happy-camper as his campaign slogans once suggested. His transformation agenda ended up as a transformation fiasco. His fresh air turned to foul air. Analysts posit that Jonathan’s choice of key men rendered him captive to the old brigade of politicians, like Bamanga Tukur and Tony Anenih, which has made his government to stagnate in words and deed, leaving it with all motion no movement. But still that does not give anyone the right to rain on Jonathan’s parade, if that person is not looking for ways to better the lot of Nigerians. Grapevine sources close to most of the former military bigwigs visited by the governors say that their demands were so ridiculous that their hosts simply told them, sarcastically, to keep their thoughts to themselves. For example, all five of them are lame duck governors because they are only waiting out their final term in office. In terms of political indomitability, if recent political history is any guide, not all of them are likely to determine who succeeds them. And even if they are allowed to choose and install their successors, as they are said to have demanded, of what use would these successors be to them? In the north alone, we have seen how Saidu Nasamu Dakingari disobeyed Muhammadu Aliero, how Shinkafi chased Yeriman Bakura out of Gusau, how “that boy” Gabriel Suswam disgraced Akume and how Namadi Sambo frustrated Makarfi. The same recent political history is also replete with the powerlessness of outgoing governors. In Sokoto Bafarawa could not stop Wamakko just like Ahmed Muazu could not clip Isa Yuguda’s wings when he began to fly in Bauchi. Try as he did, Shekarau could only watch in disbelief as Kano people heralded the return of Kwankwaso. That is just to mention a few. Whatever happens, these governors are going through their political midlife crises. They surely would vacate government houses, but what would they do after that? If any of them is interested in the presidency, the next two years provides ample opportunity for that governor to put his right foot forward and campaign seriously to sweep the rug from under Jonathan’s feet, after all Amaechi had once boasted that governors hold the ace to all primaries. What he failed to mention was that outgoing governors cannot be part of that ominous arithmetic. If they seriously crave relevance, there are already five of them and Governor Rotimi Amechi of Rivers State, who is still unable to remove his gloves as he continues sparring with the First Lady. If as it is said that politics is a game of numbers, they have the right configuration to pull their resources together and pull Jonathan to the ring early enough so as to give the Nigerian people the luxury of selection based of value. Anything else is a jamboree and will ultimately become a fiasco. Nigerians have had enough.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 05:46:49 +0000
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