In the high
brow Asokoro District of Aminu Kano House, Abuja,
is not a thoroughfare. Vehicles don’t stop and pick passengers
around the building, which is
the official residence of the
governor of Kano State.
Neighbours of Aminu Kano
House – including Lagos House and Ondo House – are aware of
the unwritten rule prohibiting
loitering around the area. But
that Tuesday morning, the
golden rule was consciously
waved for political expediency. As early as 8am, scores of
vehicles had started piling up
opposite the house. As the
vehicles screeched to a halt,
the occupants moved towards
the governor’s residence. Before long, convoys bearing
political bigwigs from the
People’s Democratic Party, PDP,
and the All Progressive
Congress, APC, also breezed in
and went straight into the waiting arms of their host, Dr.
Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso, the
Kano State Governor. Kwankwaso, Governor Rotimi
Amaechi of Rivers State,
Murtala Nyako, a retired
admiral and governor of
Adamawa, GovernorAhmed
Abdulfatah of Kwara, Babangida Aliyu of Niger State
and chieftains of the
rampaging APC had gathered
there for one main reason: to
make a clear statement that
they there were fed up with the political crisis in the ruling
party and were ready to move
over to the opposition APC. And, already waiting eagerly to
receive the decampees into
their fold, were APC bigwigs,
Gen. Muhammadu Buhari,
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,
APC interim National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande,
Ogbonanya Onu and scores of
other chieftains. On the side of
the leadership of the faction of
the PDP popularly known as
nPDP, were the chairman, Alhaji Kawu Abubakar Baraje,
Dr. Sam Jaja, Olagunsoye
Oyinlola, Senators Bukola
Saraki, Adamu Abdullahi and
former Bayelsa governor, Chief
Timipre Sylva. Inside the expansive building,
the defecting governors met
for about three hours with
their new-found party and
concrete decisions taken
before they emerged to address anxious reporters on
the lobby of Aminu Kano
House.
”We are merging,” Baraje, said;
and added that “all these are
implications of merging! What we are telling you is that we
have merged and we have
agreed to merge”. But as they sauntered out with
broad smiles on their faces, it
was clear also that some
dramatic developments that
could jostle the merger
arrangement had just taken place to the discomfort of the
parties. Niger State Governor,
Babangida Aliyu, and his Kwara
counterpart, who were at the
parley, had sneaked out even
before the final decision to merge was taken. While
Abdulfatah, a scion of Bukola
Saraki, took permission from
his boss to travel, Aliyu, on the
other hand, stormed out of the
venue when the decision to merge with APC was being
taken. He, like his Jigawa
counterpart, Sule Lamido, does
not appear to favour a hurried
defection to the opposition
earlier than January next year. For that disagreement on
transition timeline, Lamido did
not even come to the venue of
the meeting. Sokoto governor,
Aliyu Wamakko, a staunch
believer in the early defection to APC, was out in Senegal,
attending an international
development programme but
had sent words to his peers to
count on his support. Not many can fault the two
governors for their deft
decision given the peculiar
socio-political atmosphere in
the two states. Both are
walking on a tight rope, which requires tact and patience and
political engineering to sort
out. Even before now, Lamido’s
traducers had used tar brush to
paint him black, apparently to
scuttle his alleged presidential ambition and weaken him and
his supporters. The Federal
Government-controlled
Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, has been
unleashing its hound dogs on the Lamido family, bringing up
accusations of huge money
laundering against his two
sons. In fact, the children were
in detention as at the time the
governors were to move over to the APC. It was therefore
impudent for Lamido to have
closed his eyes, take a plunge
into the opposition when his
beloved children were
languishing in the EFCC gulag. His decision actually paid off,
as the children were left off
the hook subsequently – at
least for now. Babangida, on the other hand,
has been very discrete about
his next political move because
he is surrounded by political
sharks, whose allegiance to the
Presidency is rather very difficult to decipher. Not many
can say what if former Military
President, General Ibrahim
Babangida and his successor,
Abdulsalam Abubakar, are
angry or happy with President Goodluck Jonathan or if they
would ever support a party
with Gen. Muhammadu Buhari
playing an active role. As a man, who defers seriously
to the two former heads of
state, known to be actively
involved in Niger state and
Nigerian politics, it would be
foolhardy for Aliyu to cross over blindly to the opposition
without getting the clearance
of the political decision-
makers in his domain. In fact, the fear is that leaving
PDP at all not even now or in
the future, would effectively
deny him the slim political
edge and structures that he
enjoys as a governor and could therefore quicken his plunge
into his political wilderness.
Both former heads of state are
said to have their preferred
candidates for the
governorship of the state and it is not likely that the governor
can adequately and effectively
confront them from the fringes
of opposition in Niger State. For sure, the difficulty in
arriving at a common position
on when to move to the APC,
clearly demonstrates the
intense war that has been
raging between those wholly committed to the new
marriage and those opposed to
the deal. The inability of the two men to
also make up their mind at
once over the matter, has now
given the PDP a ray of hope
that it had not lost all members
of the G-7 to the opposition. That glimpse may be
responsible for the party’s
somewhat initial arrogance
and refusal to admit the
painful loss of its stalwarts and
field commanders to its main rival at a time it should be
consolidating for the big
showdown in 2015. Sounding surefooted as ever,
the Presidency and the PDP
leadership dismissed the
defection by the five governors
as a non-issue that did not
pose any serious challenge to its electoral fortunes. Political Adviser to the
President, Ahmed Gulak, was
quick to call the bluff even
without weighing the full
import of his boast. “The
Presidency does not feel threatened. PDP is the party to
beat. We have heard it before;
even people who occupied
higher offices left the party
and still came back to its fold. “It is good that the five
governors have shown the
world that they have taken a
stand to leave so that PDP will
not be distracted,” the adviser
noted. But just as the statement was
sinking, the PDP National
Chairman, Bamanga Tukur,
who is at the centre of the
raging storm, came out openly
to admit that the defection of the five governors was
shocking and an anger taken
too far. He hit the nail on the head,
arguing that the governors
should still pursue the option of
dialogue and reconciliation.
Tukur’s mild tone differs
sharply with the acidic tongue of his National Publicity
Secretary, Olisa Metuh, who
dismissed the governors’ action
as inconsequential. Metuh said, “We wish to state
categorically that the PDP
remains unperturbed as we are
now rid of detractors and
distractions. “We urge all our members
nationwide to remain focused
and close ranks, now that
agents of distraction have
finally left our ranks,” the PDP
spokesman pleaded. Despite its hard lined
posturing, it is clear that the
party has been hit below the
belt and its top echelon left
tongue-tied. President
Goodluck Jonathan, whose hard line hawks unwittingly
frustrated an early resolution
of the intra-party feud that
finally decimated the once
cohesive party, is yet to find
enough courage to openly speak on the matter. BEST DECISION OF MY LIFE –
KWANKWASO
Kano State Governor, Musa
Rabiu Kwankwaso, told
Vanguard in an interview that
defecting to the APC was one of the best decisions he had
ever taken and that he would
stand by it. Kwankwaso said that he came
to the conclusion to move over
to the opposition party after
the PDP, which he co-founded
in 1998, deliberately and
consistently undermined him and his administration in all
matters relating to him and his
office. The governor said, “Let me say
this and very clearly; the
decision we made to move over
to the APC is one of the best
ever taken by me and we have
no regret whatsoever. I stand by it and I will always abide by
it.” It is to be noted that the crack
in the ranks of the PDP poses a
real threat to its winning
streak and may as well reshape
its future. As things stand, any
further slide in its ranks, may effectively push it to the
precipice and render it
impotent in the nation’s
political arena. With the latest
development, PDP which
initially had a sweeping majority of 27 governors and
almost 90 senators is now
facing serious threat from the
new APC. The PDP now has 18
governors with the APC
following with 16. There are reports that no fewer than five
more PDP governors may be on
their way to pitting tent with
the APC and that would put a
final nail on the PDP coffin. All hope is not however lost if
the party wakes up from its
slumber and makes amend
where it hurt some persons.
But as it is today, the PDP
appears as a man who has put his hand into a burning furnace
and cannot hope to get out
without some burns. How soon
it withdraws from the searing
heat will also determine its
health now and in the months ahead. But is it ready?
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