2019: The difficult search for a candidate as Northern politicians tango around Tambuwal, Kwankwaso, Jonathan’s Tanimu

By Kemi Kasumu, General Editor

“The Tambuwal that I know, I am not close to Kwankwaso, but the Tambuwal that I know is as at today an APC governor.  And even if for any reason he wants to aspire for presidency, he will definitely not do that with people who are seriously enmeshed in moral issues like PDP or their likes now in SDP and Obasanjo’s ADC.  Who are the former rulers pushing on behalf of PDP or the Third Force?  They should tell us they are the self-acclaimed few ‘Owners of Nigeria’ among whom Obasanjo is one.  But Obasanjo has just been asked a simple question, ‘where is the power’ after spending $16 billion? And he has continued to rant since then without an answer.  Is that the man Tambuwal will allow himself to be identified with? No.  He will not. Tambuwal is going for second term as governor of Sokoto State.  When in 2023 the Yoruba becomes President, Tambuwal, we will push for him, will become the Vice President preparatory for his substantive Presidency eight years after.  Take that from me,” the respondent who spoke to The DEFENDER from Kaduna Wednesday night said.

For quite some times the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has never hidden its desperation in returning to power come 2019.  How the PDP, a party just sent packing from centre of power basically on the ground of horrible corruption, unpardonable impunity and wicked insecurity state it plunged the country especially in the last six of its 16 years of hold on Nigeria, wishes to make it back to power now remains the question on the lips of many.

But politicians of the former ruling party has an option: to look for clean politicians and woo them into their fold for the purpose of finding one candidate that will be presentable to the acceptability of already eye-open Nigerians.  It is reason, The DEFENDER gathered, they have gravitated towards the Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and former Minister of Special Duties in the embattled administration of Goodluck Jonathan, Alhaji Turaki Tanimu.

While they consider that as an option, another option the once self-professed Africa’s biggest party has and which it has made effort on is to claim innocence of the open corruption cases established against it even as the very President, Goodluck Jonathan, in whose administration corruption in history of Nigeria became more institutionalized, had publicly confessed that he did not know that while he was in power corruption of that magnitude was ever going on under him.

Jonathan however cannot convincingly tell any sane Nigerian that he knew nothing about those horrible situations of his days because, currently, all of the former officers of his government undergoing trials have repeatedly claimed that he authorized their loots of the nation’s treasury particularly the diversion of arms money meant to fight insecurity for the security and safety of innocent citizens into individual pockets of PDP politicians.

Recall Jonathan had shown further disrespect for the court when he was summoned by an Abuja Federal High Court to come and tell what he knew about claim by Olisa Metuh, former Publicity Secretary of PDP, who said the N400 million the Muhammadu Buhari government was trying him for was actually approved for him by the former President.  That “I don’t care” attitude alone on Jonathan’s part has a big way it rubs off on the integrity of PDP to any more be trusted with the leadership of any nation like Nigeria desirous of moving forward.  As an added blow, Jonathan demanded that N1 billion be paid into his account before he could honour the court’s summon and up till today nothing has been said about that disrespect for constituted authority of the court; although the same Jonathan has told Nigerians few days ago that he was ashamed as a Nigerian to know that Nigeria now under President Buhari is used to tell “negative stories” after he had earlier said Buhari is the most corrupt President of Nigeria.

It therefore makes Nigeria a laughing stock when people who actually commit indecency not only seem not to know but are vocal in accusing people who advocate that justice is done over them of what they should be accusing themselves of.  That remains with the PDP that is using every illogical means to drive its way back to power come 2019.  The worry of many now resides how Tambuwal and Kwankwaso would allow the PDP to stain them with their moral problem.

But one of the respondents who spoke to The DEFENDER from Kaduna Wednesday night said, “The Tambuwal that I know, I am not close to Kwankwaso, but the Tambuwal that I know is as at today an APC governor.  And even if for any reason he wants to aspire for presidency, he will definitely not do that with people who are seriously enmeshed in moral issues like PDP or their likes now in SDP and Obasanjo’s ADC.  Who are the former rulers pushing on behalf of PDP or the Third Force?  They should tell us they are the self-acclaimed few ‘Owners of Nigeria’ among whom Obasanjo is one.

“But Obasanjo has just been asked a simple question, ‘where is the power’ after spending $16 billion? And he has continued to rant since then without an answer.  Is that the man Tambuwal will allow himself to be identified with? No.  He will not. Tambuwal is going for second term as governor of Sokoto State.  When in 2023 the Yoruba becomes President, Tambuwal, we will push for him, will become the Vice President preparatory for his substantive Presidency eight years after.  Take that from me.  But to allow himself with these Obasanjo/PDP stuff today will just be like a matter of political suicide because one, Obasanjo, even as testified to by Tambuwal’s predecessor Ghali Na’Abba, is not a man to be trusted neither anybody in PDP is man of his word.  Two, Buhari has declared interest and to take this thing from him will be very difficult being that Obasanjo’s Third Force of the likes of Ibrahim Babangida, TY Danguma, Atiku, Saraki, Melaye, and others, has failed to dent his popularity continentally and globally,” the Kaduna-based respondent who spoke on condition of anonymity told The DEFENDER Wednesday night.

Furthermore, in trying to claim innocence of the sinful past, the PDP now under the chairmanship of Uche Secondus, as if to test a ground, threw a challenge to the Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed to mention one person who stole government money under the watch of PDP.  Unknown to Secondus, before Lai Mohammed, who they tried to tag “Lie Mohammed”, speaks he has his facts ready.  To prove to the umbrella party family that the Buhari administration is not cynic out to do mischief, Lai Mohammed came up with even more than one name as request by Secondus and he gave a list of six looters under the watch of PDP.  But when the list came, the PDP national chairman did not received well as he kicked seeing that his name topped the list of the first six looters released.

He then threatened to sue Lai Mohammed for libel if, after 14 days, he failed to remove his name from the list.  Surprisingly even those others on the list who have been admitting to having stolen money and have therefore been undergoing their trials in court joined Secondus in threatening the Information Minister with court suit and among them are Olisa Metuh and Raymond Dokpesi both of who have cases of N400 million and N2.6 billion loots hung on third respective necks.

But Lai Mohammed refused to be cowed by those threats, which they actually made true as they eventually filed libel suits in court against him, as he dusted his documents of facts and released a bigger list which now included former Chiefs of Army Staff Emeka Ihejirika and Kenneth Minimah and the vocal PDP’s pastor-lawyer Femi Fani-Kayode and the minister, now joined by Prof. Itse Sagay, promised to still come up with a third list that will be all-inclusive and they (PDP) kept their silence and moved to another areas of criticism.

All of the aforementioned are attempts made so far by PDP leaders to claim innocence of their loots of the nation into what Buhari inherited as a “Nigeria in Recession” which was further hit by Niger Delta Avengers later discovered by investigations to have been sponsored also by the PDP to avenge their defeat by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate of Muhammadu Buhari.  But those efforts have paved to nothing as the Buhari government has not only succeeded in establishing his case against them but also has been noted on the African continent and the world to be the best Black leader fighting corruption in the world.

All of these are a thing of concern for those in the North who are shopping for a replacement for President Muhammadu Buhari.  The permutations by high-level stakeholders opposed to his second term have therefore been gravitated towards three North-West politicians who they think have nowhere to be mentioned in the stains that the PDP have splashed over themselves and they are Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto State, Senator Rabiu Kwankwanso and former minister of Special Duties under the embattled Goodluck Jonathan administration, Alhaji Turaki Tanimu.

Report has it that while Governor Tambuwal and Senator Kwankwanso have for long been on the radar, the gravitation has increased towards Tanimu by high-level stakeholders who see him as lacking the kind of baggage dogging others, including Tambuwal and Kwakwanso. Despite reports that some influential generals, who had played similar roles in the past, had endorsed him (Tanimu), it was learned that former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is, however, drawing back, having apparently stuck his neck out for Senator Kwankwanso.  Among those said to have endorsed him are also several emirs who were said to have also been moved by an influential North-West traditional ruler.

“Obasanjo has been briefed on him, but he is holding back,” a source privy to the development told Vanguard. An associate of Obasanjo did not hide the former president’s preference for Kwankwanso.

“Even the manner of his (Tanimu’s) entry into the contest inspires suggestions of some high-level influence pushing his candidacy,” another source privy to the development said.  Tanimu’s original aspiration was to be governor of Kebbi State, a source close to him said.

“But you know that Shehu Shagari’s original aspiration was to be a senator, but the principalities were able to nudge him towards the presidency, and that is the same pattern we see with Tanimu,” a Northern Nigeria-based political player who is already enmeshed in the Tanimu campaign said.

Obasanjo’s determination on Kwankwanso, a source close to him said is not just based on the long-running political association between the former president and the former Kano governor who also served as a minister in the Obasanjo administration between 2003 and 2007.

“Kwankwanso is someone like Buhari, a northern irredentist who will appeal to the same political base as Buhari and that is one reason counting for him,” an Obasanjo ally said.

Besides the association with Obasanjo, also counting for Kwankwanso is the extensive political machine he has been able to build since his last days as governor of Kano State.

The governor-turned-senator, despite being out of Government House has been able to sustain his political structure across the country, holding regular meetings with political co-ordinators in many of the states.

Those fronting Kwankwanso, a report in Vanguard specifically said, believe that unlike Buhari, his irredentist inclinations could be better managed given that his views are not new to political stakeholders.

“We know him, and the worst of him is not worse than Buhari; he is well educated, and going into the presidency we can be better prepared to get our agreements with him better than those who burnt their fingers with Buhari,” a Southern politician involved in the Kwankwanso arrangement hinted.

Whatever momentum Kwankwanso had, Vanguard gathered may have been derailed with the entry of Tanimu into the contest at the instance of former PDP ministers and some former governors. The Tanimu aspiration, it was gathered, has been successfully taken in by former President Goodluck Jonathan and at least two former military leaders from the Middle Belt and the Northern establishment.

“Tanimu is the dark horse,” one of his canvassers said as he pointed out that the Buhari administration has not been able to link him with any of the alleged corruption acts that has been traced to several aspiring presidential aspirants.

“Tanimu, despite being the minister from Kebbi State did not collect the election money for the state as it was left for a former national officer from the state,” the canvasser said, adding that pressure by the Buhari administration on other PDP presidential aspirants will amount to nothing in the case of Tanimu.

The momentum for Tanimu has inevitably put canvassers for Tambuwal at odds. Governor Tambuwal with a nationwide support base consisting of mostly former and serving members of the House of Representatives was the face of many who believed in a young and dynamic northern politician to confront Buhari.

However, his past political infidelity has bothered some, especially some die-hard PDP enthusiasts.

“How can we empower the man that helped drive us from power?” One PDP enthusiast queried.