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Can the North dump President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019? That is the question some Northern elders and stakeholders plan to answer as they shop for a credible candidate that is acceptable to them and other parts of the country ahead of 2019 presidential election
By Olu Ojewale
POLITICKING is gradually gaining momentum across the country. As usual when election time is approaching, many political parties, interest and ethnic groups are gearing up to position themselves in vantage position to get ahead of others.
Little wonder Northern elders and major actors in politics from the region met in Abuja on Saturday, February 8, to brainstorm on how to pick a consensus candidate from the North for the 2019 presidential election.
The forum, under the aegis of Northern Elders and Stakeholders, announced that the meeting was meant to find means of getting a consensus presidential candidate from the zone.
At the end of the meeting, a communiqué was issued to show that far reaching measures were taken to find a presidential candidate as the stakeholders claimed with other political issues. But the one that would probably interest Nigerians more than others is to know who eventually emerges as the candidate of the zone.
To determine that, a committee was set up to search for and present such a candidate. In the same vein, another committee was set up to look at the desirability or otherwise of the restructuring of Nigeria, while the group also approved the holding of a political summit, called “Northern Political Submit” on March 15. This, the group said, was to commemorate the attainment of self-government of the Northern region in 1959.
The meeting was convened by Bello Mohammed, a former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; Ibrahim Mantu, a former deputy Senate president and stalwart of the PDP and Paul Zannan, a senator.
Other prominent northern leaders at the event are Babangida Aliyu, a former governor of Niger State; Attahiru Bafrawa, a former governor of Sokoto State; Bala Mande and Solomon Ewuga, both senators.
Ango Abdullahi, a professor of Agriculture and former vice-chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; Awwal Yadudu, SAN, professor of Law; and Bala Mohammed, a prominent politician, were also in attendance.
The forum was chaired by Tanko Yakassai, an elder statesman and chieftain of the Northern Elders Forum.
The meeting was said to have been informed by the growing discontentment trailing the alleged poor performance of President Muhammadu Buhari with failing health; hence the need to look for a younger candidate ahead of the political party primaries.
Does that mean that Buhari will not get the endorsement of the North to contest in 2019? Perhaps; but nobody can be too sure for now. In a newspaper interview, Yakassai argued that although the group was a political one, it was non-partisan as some participants from various parties were in attendance.
In response to a direct question as to whether the group would support Buhari should he declare a desire to seek re-election or whether the group was shopping for another candidate for the 2019 presidential elections, the elder statesman said: “Our meeting was not to support any candidate; we don’t even know the candidates yet. The purpose is to see how to bring about unity of purpose in the North. Our main preoccupation is how to unite the North to relate better with the rest of Nigeria on a common ground.
“We are a political group but non-partisan (almost) all political parties were here, we are fighting for unity of the country we are not having anybody in mind, we want to have a common purpose.”
Indeed, Mohammed, who is also a former minister of Defence, was more blunt in his speech at the gathering. He said the meeting was convened “after due consideration of the current political situation in the country.”
He said: “After due consideration of the current political situation in the country, it becomes highly expedient to convene a conversation of critical Northern elders and stakeholders to deliberate on the best way forward for the region.”
The PDP chieftain said it had become imperative for the region to get together to deliberate and reach “an acceptable choice for representation, given that the 2019 Presidency has been zoned to the North.”
Besides, those who had been emerging as presidential candidates never enjoyed the input of Northern leaders in the past. What we want is that this time round, let us have the opportunity to come together so that whatever is decided for the North, it is the northern leaders who decide it and then we get support from other regions.
“If we are able to do that, then we should be able to produce a leadership for this country that would be just, equitable and lead us to nation’s development which is eluding us. That is the reason why we are here,” he said.
That is quite instructive given the fact of the eminent position that Buhari holds in the North. In any case, the forum itself in a subtle manner indicted the Buhari administration for some of the lapses facing the country. In a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, the forum declared: “It has been established that North has lost her leadership for a long time and there was no any mechanism put in place to rectify this damaging situation.
“It has also identified security architecture being drastically collapsing and there is no attempt to arrest the problem. Other problems like poverty, education and empowerment are also lingering.”
The forum also identified problem of policies summersault, and negligence of social welfare … as some of the problems facing the country as a nation.
But the noble idea of searching and adopting a Northern candidate for the coming presidential election is not peculiar to the Northern elders and stakeholders alone. In fact, the PDP muted the idea about two months ago. Walid Jibrin, chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, BoT, who disclosed this on Tuesday, January 9, while receiving members of the PDP ward-to-ward team in his office, said the party had commenced profiling of presidential aspirants that could fly the flag of the party in the 2019 presidential election.
He said the aim of embarking on the search is to identify who is the best candidate to rule the country, the best person that would help the PDP take away power from the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
Indeed, some political gladiators from the North, whose names are frequently brandished, include former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; Sule Lamido, a former governor of Jigawa State, and Ibrahim Shekarau, a former governor of Kano State, who are said to have already indicated their intention to run for the office.
Nevertheless, Jibrin said the stakeholders of the party in the North would ensure that only the best candidate is presented for the presidential race.
“All of us as a party, have agreed that the president of Nigeria should come from the North. I enjoin you to support the North to bring and give you a very capable president, never-a-no-do-well president, a good quality president,” he said.
The standpoint of the PDP is understandable. The party needs a presidential candidate to contest election in 2019 and has to chose from the array of aspirants in its fold. But for the ruling party, the body language of Buhari has so far indicated that he is willing to have another shot at the presidency.
Indeed, from different corners of their mouths several APC members have declared that Buhari as the best hope for the party to win election, never minding the likes of Rabiu Kwankwaso, a senator and former governor Kano State, who is showing interest. Others are also testing the waters in a subtle manner in order not to offend the president.
That notwithstanding, it appears that the support for the president, even from the North, is waning.
About two months ago, the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, disowned Paul Unongo, its convener, when he declared that the North had endorsed President Buhari for 2019. Bashir Sodangi, the forum’s director of logistic at its national secretariat, said all the views expressed by Unongo in the press interview represented his personal opinion and not that of the NEF.
Sodangi pointed out that the forum which had not met since September 2017, had never discussed the politics of 2019 not to talk of adopting a candidate. “It follows, therefore, that NEF has at no time recently met, discussed or adopted a common candidate for the 2019 presidency,” he said.
In a similar way, the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, AYCF, dismissed the endorsement claim of the NEF convener. Shettima Yerima, leader of the AYCF, in a statement on Sunday, December 3, Unongo was speaking for himself as usual and neither for the NEF, nor for the whole north. The AYCF leader said Unongo lacked the requisite authority to speak for the North on any matter as his antecedents are full of inconsistency and lack decorum.
“It is quite unthinkable that a person with such little grasp of diplomacy should think himself as a worthy successor to the respectable chairmanship of the NEF vacated by the late Danmasani Kano.
“We all know that Danmasani was the convener of the NEF and a noble leader that never steered the group in the path of partisanship,” he said.
Does that mean the North is not going to pick Buhari as its candidate for the next presidential election? That answer may take a while to come from the Northern stakeholders.
But what is indisputable is that Buhari has lost some grounds since the 2015 elections which brought him to power. The president rode to power on the platform of change in various areas of the country’s activities and ways of doing things.
Nevertheless, some political analysts would be quick to point out that the president’s way of handling corruption war leaves so much to be desire as some fellows close to the president who are being accused of corruption seem to be getting away with their alleged crimes. Besides, the president has also been accused of treating rampaging Fulani herdsmen’s attacks with kid gloves.
Indeed, the recent attacks of herdsmen in the Middle Belt may be responsible for the president’s loss of support in the area, which is also part of the North. Added to that are some changes in economy and social life of the nation which are yet to manifest or put in place by the Buhari administration.
That notwithstanding, Danladi Rabiu, a commentator said that any other consensus candidate other than Buhari would not be acceptable. “We cannot afford to lose power so soon with a weak candidate considering how GEJ used our turn. The elders should support Buhari to complete our full eight years,” he argued.
Rabiu seems to be in support of Governor Nuhu Yakassaiof Kaduna State, who had said in January this year that Buhari remains the best option for the country. But the assertion caused so much condemnations from members of the public, who asked El-Rufai to bury such a thought.
Indeed, the likes of Kefas Samu, a civil servant in Gombe State, accused the Northern elders of hypocrisy. He said: “Northern elders talking about northern unity because of 2019 election is near. When Buhari was playing the ethnic and religious card in his appointment of key cabinet members the elders didn’t say a word.
“When southern Kaduna was set ablaze by Fulani militia they didn’t say a word. When Taraba, Benue and Plateau states where northern minorities live burned nothing was wrong in the eyes of these elders but now its election time and they have commenced mobilising for northern unity to use and dump them shortly after elections.
“You call the northern Christians Kafiri and Arna and no good for anything but to give Northern Hausa Fulani Muslims and their surrogates power. Well, if the people concerned accept this internal colonisation it is entirely their cup of tea but I don’t think all of us are not seeing these things.”
In the same vein, Musa Aliero, a businessman, said: “God forbid, Buhari is a waste of our turn wallahi. He has done more damage to the economy and security of this nation than the 16 years of PDP. Let us now use our turn wisely before it goes back to the South. We have better qualified people in the North. Buhari is old and he has been hijacked by a cabal! He is not the general he used to be in 1983!”
Notwithstanding arguments for and against the president, it is not yet sacrosanct that the North has dumped Buhari in favour of yet to be identified person. But it is not also given that there would not be other candidates from the North to contest against him should his party pick him as the flag bearer.
– Feb. 17, 2018 @ 4:00 GMT |
Tags: 2019: North to dump President Buhari?
