From Aideloje Ojo, Minna
The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Niger state, Alhaji Abdulraman Enagi, last Saturday at a rally in Minna, confirmed the second term ambition of the state governor, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu. He told party supporters at the polo ground that the governor has already indicated interest to contest for a second term and has received approval from the party leadership in the state.
Enagi said Aliyu was free, qualified and suitable to vie for second term as the governor of Niger state, however, any member of the party who respects the rule of law, the party constitution and is committed to party's goals, was also free to contest.
He made it clear that the party has zoned the governorship seat to the Niger-East senatorial district call the 'B' zone, signifying that other contestants would not be allowed from other zones. His assertion that the party will not anoint any candidate for elective positions in 2011 election did not go down well with many party loyalists, who believed that the party had zoned the governorship to the zone B where the incumbent governor hails from and that it was a calculated move to suppress healthy competition by other competent and qualified candidates from other parts of the state.
Apparently, to avoid dissenting voices, Enagi admonished all party loyalists not to take election as a do- or die affair, insisting, that those vying for various offices should go about it without acrimony and bitterness, warning that anti-party activities and acts of sabotage will not be tolerated by the party leadership.
In view of this, some party loyalists have taken the decision of the party as a ploy to favour the incumbent governor. A PDP member from Niger South Senatorial District, also known as zone A, Alhaji Ndagi Sule, told Peoples Daily that the zoning of the governorship to zone B, was to make it easier for Aliyu to grab the PDP governorship ticket.
He argued that the insistence that all candidates including the governor will face party primaries was a smoke screen aimed at deceiving party members and the public as the game plan was for the PDP leaders to organise kangaroo congresses to anoint the governor and his allies.
Sule said Enagi's call for primaries is a big cover-up aimed at saving his face after he had undergone three months suspension by the national secretariat of the party for publicly endorsing and encouraging the kick-off of the second term campaign of the governor led by his deputy, Alhaji Ahmed Musa Ibeto.
Ibeto had, at an event in Kontagora, placed the organisation code name "Talba Twice" to orchestrate the second term bid of the governor, a situation, which the governor received condemnation and was accused of converting the Jama'a forum to political rally where he launched his second term ambition even when the party national leadership was yet to give guidelines for such exercise.
Following this wide range of criticism, the governor quickly dissolved the campaign team, some with car plate numbers tagged "talba twice or talba 2", and distanced himself from activities. Peoples Daily learnt that the group, whose membership includes civil servants and politicians, went underground after the Kontagora ill-fated outing.
Today, the group forms the bulk of the governor's campaign organisation that sends out political jingles, paintings and posters on the governor. Bill boards with various inscriptions announcing the second term intention of the governor, his suitability and why he should "carry go" in 2011 have taken over strategic positions in the streets of Minna and other major cities in the state.
Few days ago, the group went about major streets with new campaign buses embossed with the governor's posters. Some of the buses with loud speakers installed, now drive through major streets dishing out jingles and praises on the governor.
The early outing of the governor for the 2011 race is seen, by political analysts, as a strategy to avoid the shortcomings inherent in his late outing in the 2007 elections.
It is pertinent to point out that the numerous legal battles against the governor, which he had won in all rounds, have no doubt sent the opposition to the trenches to ambush him and collect the peoples' mandate from him.
Peoples Daily gathered that one of the opposing groups that the governor cannot wave away with the back of his hands is that of the former governor, Abdulkadir Kure, which also comprised various loyalists including that of former governorship flag bearer of the party, Alhaji Bala Guna.
Guna, believed to be Kure's anointed candidate in the PDP primaries in 2007 elections, was replaced by governor Aliyu about three months to the election on the schemings of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Aggrieved Guna went to the court to challenge the action, but having failed from all the courts, his group within the Kure political empire, will have no option than to retreat for a better fight.
Sources say the group was not interested in any political reconciliation with in view of the indictment of Kure's supporters by a commission of inquiry, which also banned them from participating in active politics
Governor Aliyu was said to have been further pushed to the wall by the strength of the relationship existing between the former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, who has assumed the role of political godfather to Kure. So the war against Kure by the governor is seen as an affront on the former military president. Babangida is also said to have been irked by the arrest and incarceration of his first cousin, Dattijo Aliyu, by the governor Aliyu who is also his second cousin.
However, the governor is reported to have since realised his mistakes and has come back to his big brother in a bid to mend fences.
General Babangida, recently in an interaction with journalists, described the governor as a second cousin brother that is acceptable to his household any time. He described the relationship between him, Aliyu and Kure as cordial.
"He (the governor) comes here and we laugh over some of the things you the media write about us. I have nothing against him. I am not bothered by what he says because I cannot change him from being my cousin. Again his relationship with Kure is cordial despite political differences, when they meet they greet,” he said.
Peoples Daily gathered that governor Aliyu's men have begun to lure some of the Kure's men to their fold with a view to breaking into the Niger South Senatorial District, where Kure has most of his support and which produced the highest vote that gave Aliyu victory in 2007.
However, the governor is believed to be working on the premise that the support of General Babangida will, naturally, enlist his boys and Kure in his favour. It is in line with this preposition that the governor recently improved his relationship with IBB to the extent of embarking on sensitisation of Niger state indigenes on the need to support the presidential ambition of the former military president.
In some cases, the Talba Twice campaigners are seen with posters and paintings that embossed the pictures of former military president Babangida and that of governor Aliyu with political slogans. The trick here is for people to believe that the two are working in harmony towards 2011.
Another of Babangida's first cousin and National president of the All Nigeria Youth Movement, Alhaji Aliyu Adamu, see the reunion of the governor and the former military president as a good development.
Adamu whose movement is one of the several youth groups rooting for the actualisation of Babangida's presidential ambition told Peoples Daily that governor Aliyu, as a brother, has no other option than come back to Babangida after realising his past mistakes. He insisted that it is Allah that gives power and if He decides to give it to Governor Aliyu for a second term, no person could stop it
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