2007: Fresh plot against
OBJ
•Senate President, Speaker on the card
By CHRISTIAN ITA
Saturday,
November 25, 2006
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•Obasanjo
Photo: Sun News
Publishing |
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The emergence of Governor Umar Yar’Adua of Katsina
State in the 2007 presidential race last week may have inspired
a fresh plot by the triumvirate of Generals Ibrahim Babangida,
Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Atiku Abubakar to checkmate
President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The candidacy of Yar’Adua, engineered by a lobby spear-headed
by two powerful businessmen who have close links with the
president, is believed to enjoy the blessings of Aso Rock
as horse-trading intensifies on who picks the nomination of
the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at its national
convention on December 16.
The Yar’Adua candidacy has obviously widened the options
of the Presidency. In the South-east, Ebonyi State governor,
Dr. Sam Egwu, is said the be highly favoured. But just when
it seem the option was zeroing in on him alone, Nnanmani surfaced
in the permutation Thursday when he picked nomination form
of the PDP.
Rivers State governor, Dr. Peter Odili and his Cross River
State counterpart, Mr. Donald Duke, are the hot favourites
in the South-south.
In the North-west, there is Governor Ahmed Makarfi of Kaduna
State and Saminu Turaki of Jigawa State.
The thinking in the Presidency, it was gathered, is that the
Yar’Adua card will help nail the “political coffin”
of Atiku perceived to still exert some control on the Peoples
Democratic Movement (PDM), the political machine he inherited
from Umar’s elder brother, the late General Musa Shehu
Yar’Adua.
Already, the Vice President is currently engaged in a legal
battle to nullify his indictment by an Administrative Panel,
which investigated alleged financial scam in the Petroleum
Technology Development Fund (PTDF).
Umar’s candidacy, in the recokoning of Aso Rock strategists,
will help swing sympathy from Atiku and also dilute the support
base of Buhari who also hails from Katsina State.
While selling the Yar’Adua option to the President,
the business tycoons (one from the North, the other from the
South) reportedly listed his “clean record” and
“level-headedness” as reasons Obasanjo should
anoint him.
Besides, being a younger brother to Obasanjo’s erstwhile
loyal deputy, the late Musa Shehu Yar’Adua, the lobbyists
were said to have further argued that the Katsina governor
could be depended on to protect the “President’s
interests” after office.
Convinced that the Yar’Adua option will spell doom for
their individual presidential aspirations, IBB, Buhari and
Atiku, Sunday Sun reliably gathered, have decided to fight
back. One of the options being weighed by them, it was further
learnt, is the rescusitation of the anti-Third Term forces
to commence impeachment proceedings against President Olusegun
Obasanjo over perceived constitutional breaches.
Incidentally, both the Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani
and Speaker Aminu Bello Masari, now have personal grievances
with the Presidency and may not need much convincing to buy
into the idea.
The senate president, it was further learnt, is among the
list of politicians from the South-east the Babangida group
is said to have been considering as possible running-mate.
Nnamani is said to be miffed that he was unaided by the Presidency
to take over the party structures in his home state of Enugu
and only on Tuesday, showed the extent of his bitterness by
venting his spleen on some state governors, describing them
as “clowns” for seeking to contest the presidential
election.
Although he spoke in a generic manner, it was obvious that
his state governor, Chimaraoke Nnamani, was the target.
If Nnamani showed his unhappiness through words, Masari on
the other hand, was more dramatic.
Masari stormed out of the Tuesday meeting of the National
Working Committee (NWC) of his party in Abuja, in what many
observers link to the fact that he has been edged out of the
governorship race in Katsina State.
Given the moods of the two presiding officers, the coalition
believes the time to move against the president was now.
Interestingly, at the public presentation of a book written
by senate president, Chief Ken Nnamani, Wednesday in Abuja,
Atiku alluded to the understanding between them when he was
quoted as saying; “We (IBB, Buhari, Atiku) formed the
group to save the nation’s democracy from abusers of
the rule of law and enemies of our people.”
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