Vice President Namadi Sambo at the weekend stepped up a self-survival battle ahead of the 2015 presidential nomination of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as calls for his replacement continue to resonate in the north.
The calls for Sambo’s replacement as President Goodluck Jonathan’s running mate have become more pronounced in his home state Kaduna.
But the vice president’s last-ditch battle for political survival tilted towards a positive direction for him with support from Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa and Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, former governors of Sokoto and Kano states respectively who defected to the PDP. The anti-Sambo forces insisted that Jonathan’s deputy was a political liability to both his party and the north.
A source close to the vice president confided in LEADERSHIP that there was nothing wrong if Sambo decided to fight back in the face of the opposition that has stood against him recently.
The development is coming on the heels of several solidarity visits to Aso Rock by groups ostensibly loyal to the vice president, the first being the one led by former national chairman of the PDP and erstwhile defence minister Dr Bello Haliru. Bayelsa State governor Seriake Dickson also led a delegation from the state to beef up support for Sambo two weeks ago.
As part of the last-minute self-survival battle, Sambo, it was learnt, plans a rally in Kaduna for early next month where all state chapters of the PDP in the north-west zone will participate and pledge their loyalty to and confidence in the vice president.
It could not be confirmed if former minister of state for works and special adviser to the vice president Isaiah Balat’s response to the calls for Sambo’s replacement in major national dailies yesterday had any link with the planned counter-offensive. A source told LEADERSHIP that the camp of the vice president was prepared to take on any politician in the north.
But speaking against the background of Balat’s explosive write-up, the source said: “Well, there is nothing wrong if the man is seen to be fighting back because it appears there are some forces bent on tarnishing his image; it is not all about 2015 but the way some are going about the whole thing shows that they want something else.
“For a very long time, we have watched this shameful act coming especially from the state of the vice president; what they fail to realise is that even if it is agreed that another person run with President Jonathan, he or she may not be from Kaduna where the noise is coming from.
“What you need to know is that it is not as if the vice president does not know those behind the plot to rubbish him; he knows them; they are people who think without them nothing works in Kaduna and they have been painting such fake picture of themselves. But from now on, it is tit for tat in the media because we know ourselves in the north.”
The source, who accused a serving senator from the north-west and a minister who hails from the north-east zone as the sponsors of the anti-Sambo movement in the north, further added that both Shekarau and Bafarawa have given their support to Sambo to run with Jonathan in 2015 on the second term ticket, a development that was confirmed by the former Sokoto State governor.
Shekarau, Bafarawa back Sambo
Bafarawa’s media aide, Yusuf Dingyadi, told LEADERSHIP that his principal did not join PDP for any pecuniary motive, saying the former governor was fully in support of the Jonathan/Sambo ticket for 2015.
“Look, those who undermined the former governors in the APC are the same people sponsoring stories and fake groups to say that either Bafarawa or Shekarau is eyeing the vice presidency; please ignore them anytime they reach you.
“For the avoidance of doubt, these two governors believe in leadership; they believe in hierarchy and the PDP has all these as against the APC; so they cannot come to the PDP for the purpose of unseating someone in the PDP.
“Be rest assured that, come 2015, both Bafarawa and Shekarau have made up their minds to give maximum support to the Jonathan/Sambo ticket; this is unwavering because the two former governors did not join the PDP for any selfish and pecuniary reason,” Dingyadi said on telephone.
Balat fights for his boss
Part of Balat’s publication reads: “While most of these political gamblers are already in the camp of the opposition and are surreptitiously working against the interest of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), they are still posturing as members, indeed leaders, of the ruling party and they would want the world to believe that they alone can deliver Kaduna to President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. And the plot they have devised is simply to denigrate the person of the Vice President in pursuit of their ambition.
“So desperate have these politicians become that, almost on a daily basis now, they invent stories about how “unpopular” the VP has become in the North just as they are now screaming themselves hoarse about the ‘dwindling fortunes’ of the PDP in Kaduna State.
“They persist because the VP would neither be distracted by the antics of those who do not wish the PDP and the Jonathan administration well nor join issues with political time-servers who would want to drag him down with them. Yet there should be a limit to the kind of dirty politicking that is becoming a daily feast now as we move towards the 2015 general elections.
“As one of the five founding leaders and financiers of the PDP in Kaduna State, I consider it rather unfortunate that some misguided political manipulators in Abuja are buying into the fraud that because some people can make noise and have access to the media, nothing moves in Kaduna without them.
“But since these Abuja armchair ‘strategists’ know little about the politics of Kaduna State, we can pardon their ignorance by telling them some home truths.
“The first issue to tackle is whether the PDP is as ‘unpopular’ in Kaduna State as some of these politicians would want the world to believe. A party that has always controlled the state since the inception of the current dispensation in 1999 with a history of performing governors should have no problem winning any election, even if there are some disgruntled elements within its fold.
“Since I am not aware that any of the prominent politicians from Kaduna State who are holding elective or appointive offices has defected from the party, I therefore wonder where these faceless politicians get their stories from.
“But given the nature of the time we live in, it is easy to situate why there is a well-oiled campaign that PDP has suddenly become ‘unpopular’ in Kaduna State. We have been on this road before, even though the stake seems to be higher now.”
You are unpopular in the north, group tells Sambo
The battle notwithstanding, the coordinator of the Northern PDP Stakeholders Forum, Alhaji Shehu Maishanu, has said the vice president’s unpopularity was bringing misfortune to the party in the region.
According to him, Sambo was more interested in his personal protection rather than the interest of party leaders.
“First and foremost, the vice president is not a politician and it is because of that lack of tact and proper understanding of the politics of the north that President Jonathan has been having problems in the north.
“We have nothing against the president as a person. But what we are saying is that the man Mr President picked has mishandled the peculiar politics of the region and because of that he is not useful to the region.
“Sambo should tell us a particular politician he has empowered; everything about Sambo is himself, his family and friends and this is killing the party coupled with the fact that he is very unpopular in the north to be able to understand the politics in the area.
“For instance, when Sambo had the opportunity to produce the deputy governor of Kaduna State, he brought in a man, the current governor of the state who was the accountant in his company; when it was time for ministerial nominees, he brought a former classmate of his and, at another opportunity, he brought his wife’s crony as minister.
“He has abandoned our leaders and the real politicians like Hinkuyi, Makarfi, Musa Bello and others who are pillars of the PDP in the state. This is our misfortune just in Kaduna State and you can imagine the disappointment in other states of the north.
“What we are saying is that Mr President should scout for a real politician from the north to pair with him if he really wants to win the 2015 presidential election,” he said.
Sambo keeps mum
The vice president has however refrained from reacting to the political drama. Umar Sani, Sambo’s spokesman, told LEADERSHIP his principal had nothing to say: “There is nothing to say about what you have just told me. I have said it severally that his continued pair as the president’s running mate in 2015 depended on his boss, Jonathan; and that since the presidency has made it clear that the presidency was one inseparable entity, what else do you want me to say?”
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