by Theophilus Abbah.
. As a new political bloc emerges in PDP, the former president’s associates regroup for the next political battle
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who saw to the nomination of
President Goodluck Jonathan as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
presidential candidate in 2011, may have kept a distance away from
groups advocating for Jonathan to run for a second term in 2015, checks
by Sunday Trust have revealed.
Sunday Trust learnt that the former
president is disenchanted with many political and administrative steps
taken by President Jonathan and that may have prompted his decision to
thrown in the towel as the Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees. Apart
from resigning as the BOT chair, Obasanjo was absent at the recent
Council of States meeting held in the Presidential Villa on June 11,
2012, which discussed strategies for tackling the insecurity in the
country. Also absent at the meeting were former President Ibrahim
Babangida and former Head of State Muhammadu Buhari.
Already, a bloc is emerging in the PDP
which tend to have the support of Obasanjo. Members of the bloc include
governors who may take a shot at the Presidency in 2015, and they
include Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, Governor Ibrahim Shema of
Katsina State, Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State and Governor Musa
Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State. None of these governors, who are known
associates of Obasanjo, will run for a second term, and have been
engaged in subtle moves to contest for the PDP presidential ticket in
2015.
One associate of Obasanjo and former
Governor of Nasarawa State, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, has declared that
the 2015 Presidency is for the North. According to the senator, who was
Obasanjo’s secretary in the BOT, “the PDP has no choice but to give the
presidency to the North in 2015. I believe that everybody is saying the
same thing – a northern president for 2015; I believe that the north
should have a crack at it again. I believe that it is no sin... Take it
or leave it, the country is divided; it is North and South. This is a
fact; it’s either North or South.”
This statement by Senator Adamu is in
consonance with what a former minister in Obasanjo’s cabinet told our
reporter last night. Though he didn’t want to be quoted, he revealed
that, “Obasanjo is not involved in any campaign for Jonathan for 2015.
Rather, what we have is that those of us who worked with him during his
years as President have begun to regroup to form a new power bloc within
the PDP. As you can see, even many serving governors don’t tend to
agree with Jonathan, and may not support his re-election. Obasanjo is
disposed toward a president from the North, and there are several
possible candidates. From the South-South, he is likely to support
Governor Godswill Akpabio as Vice President. A clear picture of the
situation will emerge by the middle of 2013. But you’ll realise from
Obasanjo’s recent comments on several issues that he’s not on the same
page with the president.”
In an interview published by Sunday
Trust on September 2, 2012, Obasanjo had made allusion to the clear
division in the country, and his discontent with the squandering of
money he left in the foreign reserve. He said, “When I came in 1999, we
only had $3.7 billion in our foreign reserve. And we were paying $3
billion yearly to manage the debt of about $35 billion. By the time we
left in 2007, we had over $45 billion in foreign reserve while the total
debt left behind was less than $3 billion. We also saved $25 billion in
what we called Excess Crude Account for the rainy day. And when we
left, they said the rain had come. They spent the money.”
Also, Obasanjo declared his opposition
to the ongoing plans by the Jonathan administration to introduce N5,000
note when he lamented that the move would hike the cost of production
for the manufacturing sector. Previously, he would have reserved his
position and, perhaps, made his discontent known to Jonathan personally.
Recently, the Peoples Democratic
Movement (PDM), a political organisation in which Obasanjo, the late
Shehu Yar’adua, and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar belonged was
resuscitated. Sunday Trust learnt that its structure would become an
alternative to the PDP if the emerging bloc in the ruling party is
shoved aside.
In spite of this political development,
some elements in the South-South have insisted that President Jonathan
must seek re-election in 2015.
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