The Dilemma of Lamido, Aliyu

Why didn’t Governors Sule Lamido and Babangida Aliyu join other ‘New PDP’ governors who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) last week? There are several reasons for it, but their indecision has trapped them in between the devil and the deep blue sea
Two vocal critics of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State and Governor Babangida Mu’azu Aliyu of Niger State behaved in a shocking manner to Nigerians last Tuesday, when against all expectations, they failed to cross the Rubicon to the All Progressives Congress (APC) along with five other governors christened G-7. The five governors who opted to join the APC included Governors Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State, Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, and Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State. With Lamido and Aliyu, the governors had organised their opposition to certain practices in the PDP using the appellation nPDP, headed by a former PDP acting national chairman, Abubakar Kawu Baraje.
Were Governors Lamido and Aliyu fearful? Were they all the while not with the other five governors in spirit? Was there a secret deal between them and Jonathan? Why didn’t they jump ship, considering the fact that the PDP and Presidency had not spared the rod to deal with then at every given opportunity? Are they afraid of being pounced upon by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) if they dumped the ruling party, considering the fact that the anti-corruption agency has arraigned two of Lamido’s sons, Aminu and Mustapha, over alleged N10 billion fraud.
LAMIDO CAN’T QUIT FOR JONATHAN TO REAP WHERE HE DIDN’T SOW
A statement by Governor Lamido’s media aide, Umaru Kyari last Tuesday said he was not part of the deal with the APC. Beyond this terse statement, Sunday Trust learnt at the weekend that Lamido had consistently disagreed with other members of the G-7 on the issue of moving from the PDP to the APC since the governors’ face-off with the Tukur-led PDP turned to a street fight.
“Lamido believes that as a founding member of the PDP, he would not abandon it for Jonathan,” a close associate told Sunday Trust. “If the G-7 didn’t want Jonathan to obtain PDP’s ticket on the platter of gold for the 2015 presidential election, then it would be wrong to quit the party because doing so would give the president a free ride.”
Our reporter learnt that the defection of the G-7 governors to the APC was initially planned for July, but as a result of the disagreement among them on whether that was the right step to take in fighting their cause in the PDP, the action was delayed. “Even when Asiwaju Tinubu and other chieftains of the APC visited Dutse in November to persuade him to join the APC, Lamido told them that there could be collaborative efforts between the APC and the group, but that he would not be leaving the PDP for APC.”
In his previous interviews, Governor Lamido had expressed his disdain for the APC, calling it a fraud and emphasising the superiority of the PDP to it. In one of those interviews in July, he had said of the APC: “When you look at the party called PDP, I’ve been saying it since 1999- 14 years in 2013- it is PDP only that has remained. AD had gone from AD into AC, into ACN, into something else and now going to APC. APP had gone into ANPP and then, later on they are going to something. They are going to APC. Now, CPC is a one-man party. It is not so lost out on us of some parties that see Buhari as their industry. So they hang unto him and because he is very naïve, he thinks they are serious.”
On November 3, the governor told journalists that he would not leave the PDP, expressing the hope that the issues that had caused friction between the nPDP and PDP were still being tackled. He had said, “The crisis has a history which we identified and which we listed as our resolution and on which we are meeting. So, obviously, if all the issues are met, we won’t have any moral authority to fight again, because the fight is based on principle. It is our desire to ensure that we remain in the winning party. There are changing dynamics, but in spite of everything, we gave conditions and these conditions are on issues bordering on the party’s interest, not on an individual’s interest. When we met for the second time, in principle, all the demands were acceded to. First was the restoration of the Adamawa party structures; second was the recall of Governor Chibuike Amaechi and give him back his structures; third was the sack of Bamanga Tukur; fourth was to convene a new convention where the election of new officials can take place and ensure that the officials who were shut out are allowed to participate.”
Sunday Trust also gathered from reliable sources that Governor Aliyu Wammako of Sokoto State breezed into Dutse at the weekend and took Lamido out of Dutse to convince him to join the APC. The question is: Will he buckle and plunged into the APC, or will he remain in the PDP and fight from within?
WHY SHOULD TINUBU PRESSURISE THE NEW PDP GOVERNORS?
One of Lamido’s close confidant told Sunday Trust on condition of anonymity that Lamido was upset with Tuesday’s decision to announce the merger of the APC and nPDP. He said that was not what was agreed, adding that Tinubu who was present during the announcement of the merger was the one who put the pressure on the nPDP leadership to make the announcement and Lamido was not comfortable with that. The source also told Sunday Trust that Lamido doesn’t like to be dictated to, and as such, wanted to do things with his full conviction. He added that what might likely happen is that Lamido might remain in the PDP and yet instruct his supporters to vote for the APC as it happened in Kano during the SDP and NRC era where protest votes from the SDP ensured Kabiru Gaya’s victory in 1992.
The question most pundits are asking is: How will Lamido remain in the PDP in view of the fact that he has recently  openly rubbished the PDP chairman, Bamanga Tukur and President Goodluck  Jonathan. Last week when he hosted the Emir of Gumel, Alhaji  Ahmed Muhammad Sani, he said the arrest of his two sons over alleged money laundering by the EFCC was part of a plot  by President Goodluck Jonathan and the EFCC  to silence him and make him change his position.
Sunday Trust gathered that development in the National Assembly may also force Lamido to have a rethink on the APC issue. Hon, Farouk Adamu Aliyu, an APC chieftain in Jigawa told Sunday Trust that four out of the 11 PDP members in the House of Reps who are known loyalists of Lamido had defected to the APC.
He said, “Lamido is welcomed to the APC anytime he wishes, but for now we cannot wait for him because he was part of the decision to join the APC by the G-7. Right now, four loyalists of Lamido in the House of Reps have defected to the APC out of 11 members, and more are still coming. Few days to the announcement of the merger I told a radio programme that we were sure of five governors joining the APC but we were not sure of two. We can’t wait for Lamido to finish his EFCC and SSS cases before he joins the party, but we will welcome him when he comes”.
Chairman of the PDP in Jigawa, Alhaji Mahmuda Kuit told Sunday Trust that he was not aware of their members in NASS joining the APC and that the governor would not abandon the PDP.
“I have been a political associate of Lamido for well over 20 years. Lamido is not known to engaged in anti-party activities. He has said he could not abandon the house he built to go elsewhere, and I trust him on that. If any of our members in NASS has defected, I don’t know, I can’t comment on that.”
THE OBASANJO CONNECTION
As it were, other sources told Sunday Trust that during the various discussions with former heads of state, former President Olusegun Obasanjo did not give his express support for the nPDP to move to the APC. It is, therefore, suspected that Governor Lamido, not wanting to be seen as working at cross-purpose with the former president, decided not to leave the PDP.  Like in 2011, the governor initially insisted that the party’s zoning principle which meant the Presidency should rotate to the North, must be obeyed. However, he was believed to have changed his mind when he discovered that former President Obasanjo wanted Jonathan to contest in the election. Governor Lamido, therefore, mobilised Jigawa State delegates to vote for Jonathan, instead of the northern consensus aspirant, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
The governor’s associate, who spoke to our reporter, dispelled this insinuation, saying, “If you know Lamido, you would realise that he can’t be so naïve. If you look at the situation critically, he’s not personally affected by the crisis in the party. For one, the structure of the PDP in Jigawa State is still under him. He’s still still in control, unlike the situation in Kano, Sokoto, Adamawa and Rivers, where the governors have lost control of the structures of the party. He’s not as desperate to control a political structure as the others are.”
THE DILEMMA OF THE CHIEF SERVANT
On the part of Governor Aliyu of Niger State, his decision to opt out of the merger did not come as a surprise to many, as about a month ago, Daily Trust had exclusively reported that he had opted out of the New PDP. Though he denied the story, from his decision last Tuesday, it is apparent that Daily Trust story was correct.
Giving the reason why the Chief Servant opted out of deal with the APC, Governor Aliyu’s Chief Press Secretary, Danladi Ndayebo, in a press statement, said, the governor believed that there was still an opening in resolving the crisis in the PDP, because peace talks were still ongoing. However, Governor Murtala Nyako has told journalists in an interview at the weekend that expecting a peaceful resolution of the crisis based on peace talks may be wishful thinking because previous talks didn’t produce any fruitful results.
Governor Nyako argued thus: “We have been negotiating for long. We have been holding meetings.  Do you see any move for reconciliation from their part? You mean I should wait for a year for a simple decision after everybody has clearly stated that the dissolution of Adamawa State Executive Committee of the party by a single person should be rescinded?”
However, Sunday Trust learnt that he may be afraid of losing his political support base in Niger State, considering the fact that many pro-Jonathan elements had sprung up in different shapes. Professor Jerry Gana, former governor of the state, Engineer Abdulkadir Kure and Senator Dahiru Awaisu Kuta are the people believed to be planted by President Jonathan, not only to hijack the PDP as a party, but also to wrest power from him by ensuring that before the next general elections he must have been made politically irrelevant in the state.
Professor Jerry Gana is one of the political heavyweights who have been for sometime within the corridors of power at the center which as well gave him the opportunity to wield enormous powers. Though according to some political analysts, the professor has little or no influence as far as grassroots politics is concerned, with the current turn of events it would be easier for the professor to make greater impact if the governor is seen to have lost his popularity.  In July this year, Governor Aliyu said there were some individuals from the state who were busy holding meetings with a view to creating political disharmony between him and the president. He said further that they were plotting to destabilise his state by mobilasing a segment of the state under the guise of religion and ethnicity.
He had said, “Some people, very few of them, are holding nocturnal meetings; they are telling Jonathan that they are his only supporters. In our own case, we are supporters of the constitution of Nigeria. Whoever got this power, we are in support of him.”
His relationship with Engineer Kure, a former governor is another subject of discourse in the political circle. Now, Kure is believed to be very close to President Jonathan and may become minister if the president reconstitutes his cabinet in the near future.  Most analysts believe that the erstwhile governor has an edge over the incumbent governor because of his ever growing popularity and firm grip of the grassroots politics in Niger State. He could successfully prosecute President Jonathan’s agenda, come 2015.  Another political force in the state is the serving Senator Dahiru Awaisu Kuta whose position the governor wants to take in the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly at the end of his tenure in 2015. There is a kind of cold war between the senator and the governor over this issue. It is suspected that Senator Kuta may jump ship to Jonathan’s side in the next few months.
Speaking on Governor Aliyu’s failure to join the APC, the interim Committee Chairman of the State’s chapter of APC and 2011 CPC gubernatorial candidate, Ibrahim Bako Shattima, said, his party was not surprised because the governor had a way of changing his positions on issues, irrespective of  the attendant consequences on his personality and integrity.
Shattima further stated that the formation of APC was as a result of the coming together of people of like minds, but perhaps, for the fact that Governor Aliyu did not share the views of others, he decided not to defect to the APC
His word, “In any case, whether Governor Aliyu joins the APC or not, APC is the party to beat in Niger State. We are determined to wrest power from the ruling PDP, come 2015”.
Reacting to the political development, chairmen of the 25 Local Government Councils of the state declared their support for the governor’s decision not to join the APC. Speaking to newsmen yesterday, chairman of LGCs Chairmen Forum in the state, Isa Kanitgi, said the battle between Governor Aliyu and the national leadership of the PDP was not a personal one, as it is a fight for the reformation of the party.
He said, “We are strongly behind our leader, the Chief Servant, Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu on the ongoing struggle to revive our great party. He has severally said he was not leaving the PDP. We are with him 100 per cent.”
WHAT FUTURE FOR THESE TWO PDP’S CRITICS
When the activity of the G-7 governors was still at its infancy, Governor Aliyu made a statement that was widely considered as the point of no going back in the group’s bitter disagreement with Presidency and the mainstream PDP.
Governor Aliyu claimed, in an interview with a Kaduna-based radio station, that Jonathan had entered an agreement with PDP governors to serve for a term, adding that it was based on the pact that PDP governors supported the president in 2011.
“At that discussion, it was agreed that President Jonathan would serve one term and we all signed and when he went to Kampala, he said the same thing. But for now, President Jonathan has not declared his candidacy and we must not be speculating based on who those are benefiting from such a thing. I believe that we are all gentlemen enough and when the time comes, we will all sit down and see what the right thing to do is,” he said.
Even though President Jonathan had later denied knowledge of the purported agreement and challenged the governor to make it public, the singular statement was construed as an indication of the irreconcilable nature of the differences between the two factions of the PDP, thereby foreclosing any chances of their coming back under one umbrella.
Since then, the governor had sustained the tempo of criticising the mainstream PDP, throwing blames on its national leader, Bamanga Tukur, who he said was the sole problem rocking the PDP. Even when the party’s Board of Trustees (BOT) chairman led a reconciliation delegation to the governor in Minna earlier in the year, Aliyu was reported to have fingered Tukur as the architect of PDP’s woes.
With his position against Jonathan and Tukur, many believed that Aliyu had made up his mind never to return to the mainstream PDP, especially as both Jonathan and Tukur have denied his charges.
Many were surprised, therefore, when the governor sidetracked when his colleagues dropped the PDP and moved into the APC, especially as he had denied an earlier report that he was pulling out of new PDP in order ‘to save his political career and ease his bid to anoint a successor.’
Also, days before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) nabbed his two sons over allegation of money laundering involving N10 billion, Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State had made headlines accusing President Jonathan of playing down allegation of corruption against members of his cabinet.
Lamido had told the world that Jonathan did not act when he personally informed him about a serving minister who collected $250 million as bribe from an oil firm. The Presidency, however, denied the allegation and challenged the governor to expose the minister and provide evidence, a request he was yet to meet.
When the EFCC officials picked his two sons, the arrest was linked to the Presidency’s attempt to clamp down on the G-7 governors, which was also interpreted as a move that could scuttle any chances of resolving issues with the aggrieved governors.
Equally, Lamido blamed Tukur for the ills affecting the party, which he said was being operated without regard to “due process, integrity and transparency.”
“It is the brigandage we are fighting and we will fight until justice is done,” he added, declaring that “Jonathan is free to contest, but the process must be free and fair, credible and transparent.”
Governor Lamido showed his practical commitment to the idea of the faction when he recently declared, at the swearing-in of a local government chairman, that Jigawa State belongs to the new PDP.
“I congratulate the new PDP for this victory,” he said on the occasion, “We will continue to fight manipulation, intimidation and imposition. I will fight oppression either by Jonathan or Bamanga Tukur.”
SO WHAT ARE THEY DOING IN THE PDP?
Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, National Publicity Secretary of the nPDP told Sunday Trust last night that Governors Sule Lamido and Babangida Aliyu were giving President Jonathan a long rope to hang himself before they eventually move to the APC.
Eze said it was understandable why the two governors were taking time to exhaust all dialogue opportunities with Jonathan before making their decision known.
“I can tell you that both Governors Lamido and Aliyu are experienced politicians and they are trying to give President Jonathan enough rope to tie himself,” Eze said.


Sunday trust