2015: Northern politicians in proxy campaign

Regional Editor, North-West, HASSAN IBRAHIM writes on the subtle mobilisation by some northern politicians with presidential ambition and antics of their fronts ahead of the 2015 elections.
IT is about three years to the next presidential election but some groups in the North have already mapped out strategies on how to draft their favourites into the race. Prior to the 2011 presidential election, a group of northern elders led by Malam Adamu Ciroma came up with the idea of presenting a consensus candidate from those interested in the presidency who were members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and are of northern extraction.
The move was to select one candidate from among former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former President Ibrahim Babangida, Senator Bukola Saraki and General Mohammed Aliyu Gusau (retd) to contest with President Goodluck Jonathan at the PDP primary. At the end, the Ciroma-led Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF) announced Atiku Abubakar as the consensus candidate but eventually, he could not make any head way during the PDP primary which brought an end to the dream of having a northern president as they envisaged.
However, apart from Atiku Abubakar, the other contenders appeared to have resigned to fate and had over the period, not shown any visible interest in the number one political seat in Nigeria. While some of them have assumed roles as statesmen and make occasional pronouncements on national unity and cohesion, their counterparts in other parties like General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Malam Ibrahim Shekarau of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) seemed to be deeply involved in talks with other political parties on how to form a formidable merger that could wrest power from the ruling PDP in 2015. For now, talks have reached advance stage between the CPC and Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in that regard.
In the PDP however, political camps of those with interest in the presidency have since commenced subtle mobilisation through seminars and roundtables where the alleged sins of the incumbent administration usually take centre stage. For instance, disturbed by alleged misrule of the PDP in Nigeria, a group comprising retired military officers, politicians and businessmen of northern extraction led by a former military administrator had met in Kaduna to forge a united front that could checkmate the excesses of the Jonathan-led Federal Government.
A former military administrator of Kaduna State, Colonel Hameed Ibrahim Ali (retd), who spoke for the group, had said they would no longer sit down and watch a systemic destruction of the economy and the social fabric that held Nigeria together by a selfish clique. He said the group, christened Coalition for Social Justice (CSJ), frowned at those who sit and watch as unfolding events in the country portrayed doom in the long run and, therefore, admonished Nigerians, especially those in the North, to wake up from their slumber and face the challenges head-on. The group, however, distanced itself from former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, saying that the presence of the likes of Dr Usman Bugaje and others who were close to the Turakin Adamawa did not meant Atiku was behind the coalition.
At a seminar they organized where salvos were thrown at the Jonathan administration and its policies, one of the speakers and Convener United Action for Democracy (UAD), Jaye Gaskia particularly expressed dismay over the government’s plans on fuel subsidy. He also touched on the SURE Programme, saying it had no sense of the strategic linkages of the infrastructure and that there was no prioritisation, no costing and no timeline for implementation. “There is also no indication of what each project  will cost to implement, what the total cost for the entire package is ,what part of the budget the subsidy reinvested fund will cover, what the funding gap will be  and how the funding gap will be filled,” he said.
He alleged that what was even more appalling and an indication of the shoddiness of its preparedness, as well as the inbuilt deception in the programme, was the fact that ongoing projects for which contracts had been signed were severally included in the SURE potpourri of critical infrastructure interventions.
Speakers that included Dr Bugaje, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, Colonel Hameed Ibrahim Ali and numerous also spoke on the need for effective leadership that would correct perceived abnormalities bedeviling the nation. The bottom line was that a leader of northern extraction should be encouraged and supported to occupy the exalted seat in 2015.
Similarly, another group of politicians and other concerned northerners who also converged on Kaduna had vowed to ensure that power returned to the North through the ballot box. The groups which met under the aegis of Concerned Arewa Patriots (CAP) also called on all northerners to unite and support the move to occupy the presidential villa chase in 2015.
The convener and pioneer national leader of the of the group, Alhaji Maiyaki Idris said although President Jonathan could contest for the presidency, the incumbency factor should not discourage the North from fielding a consensus candidate for the position  as the North had suffered a lot of setbacks under the current dispensation.
He said the political legacies and heritage of peaceful governance of the nation by northern leaders in the past had constrained pioneers of his group to remember the legacies of their founding fathers in order to chart an obvious way forward.
“To be able to appreciate the path to lead to our goals of unity and sustainable development, we have set machineries on course to fish out the very best of our own to seek for, and pursue the prime position of presidency in 2015 in order to broker the peace and security of the nation which has been in crisis for some time now,” he said.
He said they made the humble appeal as an initiative for all agencies in the North to begin to consider   generating their total overwhelming cooperation and support for their common consensus candidate for 2015 presidential poll.
But who is this common consensus candidate or the hand that is remotely in control of the group? Indeed, whose script are they playing?
Although no particular name was mentioned by the group, they however insisted that all well meaning Nigerians should lend support for a president of northern extraction without the undue tension, debate, legal tussle that had given rise to suspicion and insecurity in the nation today.
“Our initiative is in favour of a timely resolution to correct all ill feelings caused by selection of candidates based on sentiments, as well as re- balance the power sharing formula on merit. This will make peaceful advent of a new formula during and after 2015-2019 dispensation rancour-free.
“Towards the emergence of the Northern Presidency come 2015, CAP hereby aptly appeal to the North to passionately address the crucial choice of candidates with credibility standards that are devoid of ethnic, political and religious sentiments, but rather exemplifying incorruptible, sellable, reliable, track record of nationalism and performance, for a nation in need of a promised land,” they said.
Commenting on Jonathan and power of incumbency, Maiyaki said “If somebody is an incumbent does not mean that automatically he has won the Presidency and that is what we are talking about. There must be election.
For now, these groups have remained resolute in their quest towards mobilising support for the emergence of a candidate from the North for the 2015 presidential election and are out to unite Northerners from different walks of life and strategise toward realising their goal.
NigerianTribune