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As the opposition Peoples Democratic Party heads to its convention in October about a dozen candidates are now in the race to clinch the party’s presidential ticket; but who does the cap fit?
By Olu Ojewale
At the last count, no fewer than 11 persons have declared to contest for the presidential ticket of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The aspirants spread across every zone in the Northern part of the country. This apparently is line with the unwritten decision that the presidential candidate of the party should come from the North to contest against President Mohammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who has decided to seek for a second term in office.
Those in the race for the PDP ticket include former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar; Bukola Saraki, president of the Senate; Governor Aminu Tambawl of Sokoto State; Rabiu Kwankwaso, a senator and former governor of Kano State; Attahiru Bafarawa, former governor of Sokoto State and Ahmed Makarfi, former governor of Kaduna State. The rest are Ibrahim Dankwambo; Ibrahim Shekarau, former governor of Kaduna State; Kabiru Taminu Turaki, SAN, a former minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs; Sule Lamido, a former governor of Jigawa State and David Jonah Jang, a former governor of Plateau State.
To pick from the array of interested party members, a lot of interests are going to be in play. Interestingly the aspirants are varied in ages, political weights and geographical locations even though they are all from the northern part of the country.
In all fairness, all the aspirants are prominent in their political careers so far. But it is also well known that nobody has been in the race more than Abubakar. The former vice-president is seeking the party’s ticket for a third term. He resigned from the APC about a year ago when it was obvious to him that he will not be able to achieve his political ambition on the platform of the ruling party because Buhari is poised to seek for a second term in office. But whether the former VP will eventually get the ticket is very hard to know.
Abubakar, it can be rightly said, is a front runner among the PDP aspirants. He started his campaign for the party well before any other aspirants. He has a deep pocket to prosecute his campaign project and he can be said to be one of the favourites to win the ticket. He is also from the North East, a section of teh country that has never produced a president in the country. But that is if the party is not thinking about picking someone younger and energetic to meet the rigour of leading a complex nation as Nigeria. Abubakar, a retired Customs officer, will be 72 years old in November. The current president is 75 years old.
Another septuagenarian in the race for the PDP ticket is Jonah David Jang, a retired air-commodore and former governor of Plateau State from 2007 to 2015. He is 74, having been born on March 13, 1944, in Du, Jos South Local Government. He had previously served as military governor of Benue State and the defunct Gongola State.
He voluntarily retired from the Nigeria Air Force in 1990. Jang, who took a Bachelor of Divinity Degree at the Theological College of Northern Nigeria, 2000–2002, was a two-term governor of Plateau State, having served in the capacity between 2007 and 2015.
Jang, a senator representing Plateau North in the National Assembly, formally declared his intention to run for the president when he led his supporters to the PDP secretariat in Jos, on Tuesday, August 28.
In the meantime, the presidential aspirant is facing trial for an alleged misuse of public funds released to Plateau State by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. On May 24, Justice Daniel Longji of the Plateau State High Court granted bail to Jang and Yusuf Gyang Pam, a former cashier in the office of the secretary to Plateau State government. The accused persons were arraigned before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on 12 counts allegation. The offences were said to have been committed few months to the end of Jang’s tenure as governor in 2015.
But the former governor repeatedly said his ordeals were caused by his presidential ambition, insisting that they were politically motivated. Jang is from the Middle Belt of the country.
To get the party’s ticket he also needs to defeat Sule Lamido, a former governor of Jigawa State and a fellow septuagenarian from the North West of the country. Lamido, who was elected governor of Jigawa State in April 2007, was successfully re-elected for a second term in office in April in April 2011. But shortly after leaving office in 2015, he and his sons were put on trial for embezzling state fund by the EFCC. The case is yet to be concluded in court.
The 70-yera-old veteran politician was born on August 30, 1948, in Bamaina, Birnin Kudu Local Government Area of Jigawa State. Lamido, perhaps, is most experienced politician seeking for party ticket. He entered politics as a member of the People’s Redemption Party, PRP, left-of-centre, in the Nigerian Second Republic. He was the national secretary of the defunct Social Democratic Party, SDP, during the Nigerian Third Republic, where he received criticism for his handling of the June 12, 1993, presidential elections won by the late Moshood Abiola, who was prevented from taking office by the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida.
When the military ruler General Sani Abacha announced his plan to return to democracy, Lamido was a founding member of the Social Progressive Party, and was national secretary of the new party. He was imprisoned in 1998 by Abacha for criticising Abacha’s plan to perpetuate himself in office. After Abacha’s unexpected death in June 1998, General Abdulsalami Abubakar announced a revised transition strategy and new parties were formed to contest the 1999 elections. Lamido became a member of the PDP. He ran for governor of Jigawa State in the 1999 elections at the start of the Nigerian Fourth Republic, but was narrowly defeated by Ibrahim Saminu Turaki, candidate of the All People’s Party, APP.
He was later appointed as the Foreign minister in the regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in June 1999.
Eventually, in April 2007, Lamido contested and won the governorship election in Jigawa State. He took office on May 29, 2007. After leaving office in 2015 Lamido and his two sons were briefly jailed after being arrested and tried for allegedly arranging for contracts to be placed by companies that they controlled. Lamido blamed the case on his political enemies.
Like Lamido, Rabiu Kwankwaso, a serving senator, is also a former governor and from the North West. Kwankwaso was a two-term governor of Kano State. He was first elected governor in 1999, but lost a re-election to Ibrahim Shekarau. He was re-elected for a second term in 2011 and finished his term in 2015. He was succeeded in office by Abdullahi Ganduje, his former deputy in office in May 2015, while he was elected senator.
Kwankwaso, 61, was born on October 21, 1956, in Kwankwaso village of Madobi Local Government Area of Kano State. A graduate of the Kaduna Polytechnic, the senator did postgraduate studies in the Middlesex Polytechnic (1982-1983) and Loughborough University of Technology (1983-1985) where he got his Master’s Degree in Water Engineering. He started work in 1975 at the Kano State Water Resources and Engineering Construction Agency, WRECA, serving as a civil servant for 17 years in various capacities and rising through the ranks as the principal engineer.
In 1992, Kwankwaso was elected as a member of House of Representatives representing Madobi Federal Constituency. His subsequent election as deputy speaker in the House brought him to the limelight of national politics. He belonged to the Peoples Front faction of the SDP bed by the late General Shehu Yar’adua.
He joined the PDP and was elected as governor of Kano State. When he lost the re-election to Ibrahim Shekarau whom he removed from the highest civil service position of permanent secretary to a lecturer in a higher institution (College of Arts and Science, Kano), he was appointed as the minister of Defence by Obasanjo in 2003. In 2007, he was appointed as the Presidential Special Envoy to Somalia and Darfur by the Obasanjo administration after losing the bid from his party to contest the 2007 general governorship election. He resigned his ministerial position to contest the election in 2007 but he lost because he had been indicted by a Government White Paper. Eventually, Kwankwaso was re-elected for a second term as Kano State governor on April 26, 2011, and sworn in on 29 May, 2011. He defected from the PDP to join the All Progressives Congress, APC, in 2014 with many other big wigs in the party.
In 2015, Kwankwaso contested the APC presidential primaries but lost to Muhammadu Buhari, who eventually was elected president. He was elected to the Senator for Kano State Central Senatorial District Seat on March 2, 2015.
Interestingly, Kwankwaso has Ibrahim Shekarau, his former political foe, as one those to contest with for the PDP ticket. Shekarau, 62, born November 5, 1955, was a two-term governor of Kano State. He was elected in April 2003, and re-elected in April 2007. He was also a former minister of Education.
Shekarau was born in the Kurmawa quarters of Kano. He was educated at Gidan Makama Primary School, the Kano Commercial College and at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he received a degree in Mathematics/Education.
He was a civil servant, school teacher and an administrator. He was deputy director of Education in charge of Bichi Zonal Education Area in 1992. One year later, he was promoted to director, Planning, Research and Statistics in Ministry of Education. Two year later, he became director-general (permanent secretary), Ministry of Education and Youth Development.
He was later redeployed as chief lecturer (Mathematics) at the Department of Physical Sciences, in May 2000. Shekarau remained in this post for 17 months before he voluntarily retired from the services of Kano State Civil Service on October 2, 2001.
As governor, Shekarau has opposed polio vaccination campaigns on the grounds that they were actually attempts to make Muslim women infertile. The World Health Organisation denied this. He has been the driving force behind the creation of the local religious police, the “Hisbah Guard”, which enforces Sharia law.
Shekarau was one of the candidates for the Nigerian presidential elections of 2011.
Another former governor interested in the PDP ticket is Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, former national chairman of the party. Makarfi, 61, is also from the North Central area, Kaduna State. Born on August 8, 1956, in Makarfi village of Kaduna State, the former PDP chair was governor of Kaduna State in Nigeria from May 29, 1999, to May 29, 2007, and was elected Senator for Kaduna North in April 2007.
He was educated at the Federal Government College in Enugu from 1973 to 1978. In 1979, Makarfi was admitted to the School of Basic Studies at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting. He was a part-time lecturer in the Department of Accounting from 1987-1993. During this time, he received a Master of Science degree in Accounting and Finance.
Makarfi started his working career at the Nigeria Universal Bank, where he rose to the rank of assistant general manager. In 1994, he was appointed to the Kaduna State Executive Council as commissioner of Finance and Economic Planning before returning to the private business.
In 1999, Makarfi was elected governor of Kaduna State in 1999 and won a second four-year term in 2003. In April 2007, he was elected senator into the National Assembly, representing Kaduna North Senatorial District. He was re-elected senator in the April 2011 elections. In 2016, Makarfi was appointed PDP national chairman at a convention held in Port Harcourt.
In 2017, after a series of court battles with Ali Modu Sheriff faction of the PDP, the Supreme Court confirmed him as authentic chairman of the party.
Another age-mate of Makarfi in the race for the PDP presidential is Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, SAN. A former minister of Special Duties and Inter – Governmental Affairs with responsibility of supervising the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, in 2014 until 2015, Turaki is another PDP faithful that wants the party ticket to contest the presidential election in 2019.
Born on April 3, 1957, the former minister hails from Kebbi State and he is a current member of the PDP Board of Trustees, BoT. He attended the famous Barewa College, Zaria, where he was the deputy House Captain, Suleiman Barau House and president Young Farmers Club of the school. He later went to the then College of Arts and Science, Sokoto and then, the University of Jos, to read Law. He graduated with honour and proceeded to the Nigerian Law School, Lagos, where he was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1986.
He started his political career as the secretary, Youth Wing, of the defunct National Party of Nigeria, NPN, in 1981. He joined United Nigeria Congress Party, UNCP, in 1996 where he stood as Kebbi State gubernatorial aspirant for the party in 1998. He joined the All Peoples’ Party, APP, where he was member of its national executive committee and in the year 2000 he was elevated to member of its BoT. From there, Turaki decamped to United Nigerian Peoples’ Party, UNPP, and contested for the seat of Kebbi State governor in 2003. After the 2003 elections, he later decamped to the PDP the same year and was the party’s Kebbi State governorship aspirant in 2007. Following series of accusation of betrayals and numerous controversies, he defected to the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in 2011. But he returned to the PDP the same year. In 2014, Turaki was appointed deputy director-general, North, of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation.
Believing in his wealth of experience and age on his side, Turaki is capable to handle the affairs of Nigeria as president.
But the likes of Ibrahim Dankwambo, governor of Gombe State, is equally interested in being the PDP flag-bearer in the 2019 presidential election. Incidentally, Dankwambo is a serving his second term in office as the state governor. The 56-year-old presidential aspirant was born on April 4, 1962, in Gombe State. He graduated from Ahmadu Bello University in 1985 with a degree in Accounting. He obtained a Master of Science degree in Economics from the University of Lagos in 1992 and a PhD in Accounting from Igbinedion University. He began his career with Coopers & Lybrand in 1985, and worked at the Central Bank of Nigeria from 1988 to 1999. He was then appointed Accountant General of Gombe State, holding this position until 2005. He was appointed Accountant – General of the Federation on April 20, 2005. He held this office until he resigned to start his campaign for election as Governor of Gombe State January 2011.
In April 2011 election, Dankwambo was elected governor defeating Abubakar Aliyu of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, and Sa’idu Umar Kumo of the All Nigeria People’s Party, ANPP.
On an account of age, another middle-aged politician in the race for the PDP presidential ticket is Abubakar Bukola Saraki. He is 55. Born on December 19, 1962, Saraki has been the president of the Nigeria’s Senate since 2015. He was a two-term governor of Kwara State from 2003 to 2011, before going to the Senate. He was first elected to the Senate in April 2011 under the PDP, representing the Kwara Central senatorial district, and re-elected in the March 2015, election on the platform of the APC. He decamped to the PDP July 31, this year.
After his re-election in the 2015 general elections, Saraki was on June 9, 2015, elected unopposed as president of the Senate by an across the party alliance comprising PDP and APC Senators. Saraki had faced stiff opposition from Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan, a senator preferred by a group of senators-elect within the APC, to be the Senate president.
In any case, Ike Ekweremadu, deputy Senate president, emerged after a tightly contested election. Since then, Saraki had never had it easy with the powers that be in the APC, which could be said to be parts of his reasons to re-join the PDP.
Saraki, who comes from a political family, which dominates Kwara State, is gunning for the PDP presidential ticket from North Central of Middle Belt of Nigeria.
Also interested in the ticket is Aminu Tambuwal, a former federal legislator and serving governor. The current governor of Sokoto State at 52 years-old, is so far the youngest among those who have declared for the PDP presidential ticket. Born on January 10, 1966, in Tambuwal Village in Sokoto State, he was elected as governor after the April 11, 2011, general elections. He is also the former speaker of the House of Representatives of Nigeria.
He attended Tambuwal Primary School, Tambuwal, Sokoto State, where he obtained his First School Leaving Certificate in 1979; and Government Teachers’ College, Dogon-Daji, where he obtained the Teachers Grade 11 Certificate in 1984. He then proceeded to the Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto, where he studied Law, graduating with an LLB (Hons) degree in 1991. He completed his one-year compulsory legal studies at the Nigerian Law School, Lagos, obtained his BL and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1992.
Tambuwal started learning the legislative ropes from 1999 to 2000, while working as personal assistant on Legislative Affairs to Abdullahi Wali, the then Senate leader. In 2003, he was elected into the House of Representatives on the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP. Few months to the 2007 general elections, he defected to the Democratic People’s Party, DPP, alongside Attahiru Bafarawa, a former governor of Sokoto State. But when the DPP denied return tickets to former ANPP legislators, Tambuwal swung back to the ANPP, where he eventually succeeded in picking up a ticket for the election.
However, Aliyu Wamako, the then ANPP governorship candidate for Sokoto State in the 2007 election, dumped the party for the PDP, Tambuwal also followed suit. In 2005, he became the minority leader of the House until he defected to the PDP. Upon his re-election to the House in 2007, he was also elected the deputy chief whip. He was elected speaker of the House of Representatives in 2011 on the platform of the PDP.
On October 28, 2014, Tambuwal formally defected from the then ruling PDP to the opposition APC and few days later his security details were withdrawn by the inspector general of Police, a move that has been criticised by a lot of well meaning Nigerians as being barbaric and undemocratic.
In April 11, 2015, Tambuwal contested and won the governorship election of Sokoto State. He was inaugurated on May 29, 2015.
On August 1, 2018, Tambuwal defected from the ruling APC and returned back to the PDP.
Indeed, the PDP appears not to be short of aspirants and seasoned politicians who believe they can shepherd the flocks of Nigeria. Perhaps, what would be of advantage for a good number of them is experience, age and geographical location.
As it is being rightly propagated, Nigeria needs energetic and competent person to take on the onerous task of president. That means a good number of candidates in the 60s and 50s look better positioned to clinch the party ticket. But other factors such financial standing of each of the aspirants and the political savvy to beat the incumbent president may also determine how far the party electorate may look in electing its candidate. Only the party can do that and it does have a good stock to pick from.
– Aug. 31, 2018 @ 18:55 GMT |
Tags: PDP Presidential Ticket: Who does the Cap Fit?
