The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sentry

  • Aisha Buhari: blood thicker than water

    THE First Lady, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, on New Year ‘s Eve stunned the opposition and proved critics wrong when she raised a 700-member campaign team to support President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election bid. The development dispelled rumours of a strain in the relationship between the First Lady and her husband over the 2019 poll. A source in the presidency said the First Lady has never said she won’t support the second term aspiration of the President.

    The source said although she has always criticized the administration of her husband, she believes President Buhari deserves a second term in office. He said: “There is nothing like a change of mind against the second term  bid of the President. She is fully in support of her husband’s re-election.  It is untrue, she has never said that the President should not take a shot at the presidency again. In fact, when she went through the list of members of the Presidential Campaign Council of the APC, she observed some mobilization gaps to be filled. And she worked with the party to produce a list in order to take the re-election campaign to the grassroots. She is actually going for broke, she is coming out forcefully to campaign for her husband. Her occasional criticisms of the administration of President Buhari were to exercise her democratic rights.”

    What the source did not tell Sentry is that blood is thicker than water. No matter the tension in the “Other Room” a good wife is always expected to support her spouse.

  • 396 pre-election cases may stymie Vote 2019

    ABOUT 42 days to the general election, there are still a lot of pre-election matters before the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court with glaring implications for  the umpire (INEC), the parties and candidates. Many candidates in  Adamawa,  Zamfara, Rivers, Ogun,  Kwara, Imo and others do not know their fate. According to records obtained from INEC, there are 396 court actions arising from the primaries conducted by political parties. The figure is higher than 200 matters in court before the 2015 poll. A source in INEC said: “All the things we have criticized about general elections manifested during the primaries.”

    The big question is: Will the court be able to resolve all pre-election matters on or before February 16? Will candidates still win elective offices through the backdoor this time around?  Nigerians look forward to the Judiciary to save the electoral process and restore sanity.

  • Imagine Melaye as a learned friend!

    The enfant terrible of Nigerian politics, Senator Dino Melaye, recently stunned his audience at a dinner in Abuja with the disclosure that he was already a 200-Level Law student in an unnamed university. Bragging with his customary panache, Melaye did not mince words in confirming that he had a test on Constitutional Law a day after he addressed his audience. While everyone eagerly awaited the latest melody from “Ajekun Iya” maestro, he shocked the guests with his reason for studying Law. He said he opted for Law because of the high cost of legal fees he incurred on election petitions. What he failed to say was the extent to which the fortune he is blowing on hiring defence counsels for his trial for some crimes had depleted his resources.

    Obasanjo in electoral shuttle diplomacy

    DESPITE his determination to stop President Muhammadu Buhari from being re-elected, things are not adding up for ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo in his game plan. On Tuesday, he made an emergency shuttle to Abuja where he met with PDP presidential candidate, ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar, the National Chairman of PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, and some of his foot soldiers in the North on what can be done to end Buharimaniac in the three zones in Arewa.  One of the outcomes of the session was the adoption of Alhaji Atiku on Wednesday in Abuja by  46 mushroom parties under the so-called umbrella of Coalition of United Political Parties(CUPP). The endorsement was hardly concluded when it became obvious to PDP that the 46 parties were more of liabilities than assets. None of them has ever won a councillorship seat.

    Is Gov. Shettima tired of his SA Media?

    The question on the lips of many observers of Borno politics is what went wrong between Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State and his Special Adviser, Communications and Strategy, Isa Gusau. Both have enjoyed a robust relationship that spans more than a decade even before the governor handed him his communication machinery to superintend when he became governor in 2011.

    But the events of December 6, 2018, which saw the dramatic resignation of Mr Gusau barely six months to the expiration of his boss’s tenure, has puzzled many people.

    Sentry learnt that Mr. Gusau resigned because he was unnerved by a  heavy gang-up against him by a powerful political class in the state that had run out of patience with his excesses, excesses connected with privileges enjoyed from his principal, Gov. Shettima. “Mr Gusau was not just a spokesman for Gov. Shettima, he became  so powerful in taking decisions that affected the political direction of Borno State because of his closeness to the governor,” a source disclosed.

    On the straw that broke the camel’s back, Sentry gathered that the APC leadership in the state had openly dismissed Mr. Gusau as a nobody to question their intention to welcome back to the APC Grema Terab who left their party to the PDP after he was removed as SEMA chairman.

    Mr Gusau, according to some sources, complained to his boss about the spiteful treatment of the party leadership towards him but was unhappy that his boss took no drastic measure against his persecutors, “not even a warning and therefore felt unprotected and threw in the towel”.

    Was Gov. Shettima tired of his SA Media , or is he just respecting his boundaries as he winds up his term in office?

    Atiku in danger of walking alone

    THE golden saying is that charity begins at home. But for the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he appears to be a political refugee in Adamawa State. It is an open secret that there is a cat and mouse game between him and the party’s governorship candidate in Adamawa, ex-Acting Governor Umaru Fintiri. Following an ongoing case with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Alhaji Atiku had wanted Mr Fintiri to step down by writing a letter of withdrawal from the race. The latter however sent word that Atiku would need to amputate his hands to get such a letter.

    While still thinking of how to handle the Fintiri conundrum, one of Alhaji Atiku’s key aides, ex-Deputy Governor Muhammadu Tahir, during the week defected from PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC). There are suggestions that one of his cousins, Dr. Umar Ardo, might also leave PDP to APC.  And coupled with the political headache from one of his former boys, ex-Rep Emmanuel Bello, who is the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party(SDP), the home front is obviously not solid for the former vice president at all. Mr Bello enjoys the solid backing of the Christian community in the state.

    The last straw that broke the camel’s back is the failure of ex-Governor Murtala Nyako to be on the same page with Atiku. The ex-governor, who is still influential in the state, parted ways with Atiku by joining African Democratic Congress (ADC) with his son, Sen. Abdulaziz Nyako. He refused to return to PDP. Wherever he turns, Adamawa State is like an active volcano to Allhaji Atiku.

    Saraki, Lai Mohammed and Berlin Wall allegories

    SINCE the November loss of a House of Representatives seat to the APC by the PDP in Kwara State, the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, seems to have lost sleep. The signs were too ominous for him, and his political insomnia grows by the day. The PDP-Saraki’s latest ploy is to instigate traditional title holders in Ilorin Emirate (who are closer to the masses) to address the press to insinuate that the claim by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, to have destroyed “Kwara’s Berlin Wall” on November 17, 2018 was targeted at mocking and diminishing the Emirate. PDP and Saraki on Tuesday leaned on the Magaji/Alangua Forum to hold a briefing alleging that Mr Mohammed actually suggested that the “Berlin Wall” of Ilorin Emirate had been broken.

    But the people of Ilorin Emirate are not gullible; the Forum was shocked by the backlash. None of the local governments in  Ekiti/Irepodun/ Isin / Oke-Ero Federal Constituency in Kwara State is in the Emirate. And Mr Mohammed was more forthcoming when he said: “While it is indeed true that I mentioned the Berlin Wall in my speech at the victory rally in my country home in Oro on Sunday, November 18, 2018, it was undoubtedly in reference to the stranglehold of the Saraki political dynasty on Kwara politics. Not once did I mention Ilorin Emirate in that speech…”

  • Atiku yet to convince, placate Ekweremadu

    DESPITE the hoopla about the PDP Presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar’s nocturnal peace shuttle to the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, on Monday, the session was still inconclusive. Apart from appeasement, Atiku is still not forthcoming on his idea of restructuring and power shift to the Southeast  in 2023. These were two knotty issues he could not untie.  Instead, Atiku merely rationalised the over-flogged issue of how he chose Peter Obi as his running mate. But   at the parley Ekweremadu made it clear that he had no personal demand from Atiku. He said  the Igbo wanted him to respond to the 2023 conundrum. Although Atiku left satisfied that he had at least had an audience with Sen Ekweremadu, his trepidation on what the Southeast leaders and governors are up to in 2019 heightened. The governors, Sentry recalls, were absent at the installation of Atiku as Wazirin Adamawa last week in Yola by the Lamido Adamawa, a ceremony attended by PDP bigwigs.

    Ganduje, Kwankwaso in battle of attrition

    WHILE ex-Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso is trying to unseat his erstwhile deputy, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, he is painfully unaware that his roof is leaking. Some of his high-profile loyalists, penultimate Tuesday, defied the holy hours of the night to reconcile with the governor on his re-election bid. A few of them even regretted resigning their choice appointments because of rabid loyalty to Kwankwaso. A governor, who was around when the bigwigs sneaked into the Ganduje home at night, was heard saying: “This game(politics)  is the most dangerous and slippery. The red cap man is already feeling secure without knowing that he will probably walk alone in the end in 2019.” What the spectator governor did not say, however, was why the governor seems immune to any anti-graft agency sting going by the numerous allegations against him involving bribery and corruption.

    Lies, damned lies, and statistics in Northeast

    MORE than 10 days after news of the Metele, Borno State, attacks by Boko Haram, the controversy over casualty figures is yet to abate. For those 10 giddy days, domestic and international news sources put the number of those killed by Boko Haram insurgents at more than 100, with some insisting the figure is about 118, and others indicating over 150, and all of them quoting unnamed sources close to the battlefields. In the cacophony, the Nigerian military kept an ethereal silence for about four days before finally admitting the Metele attack but not its severity or the casualty figures, whether manageable or worrisome.

    Since the military abandoned the news field, and could not be tempted to corroborate or deny the casualty figures, independent sources had a field day, leading to the parliament and all manner of vested interests asking for an investigation. President Muhammadu Buhari also deemed the attacks serious enough to visit Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, to empathise with injured troops and to attend a military conference holding in that city. Eventually, the government acknowledged 23 soldiers killed and some 31 injured. The worry is that it took more than 10 days to release a figure, a gap sufficient to allow speculations to fester badly and dangerously.

    No one seems surprised that Nigerians disbelieved the government. Too many sources had claimed more than a hundred killed and more than 100 missing; that is the approximate figure likely to stick in the public mind. The parliament has called for a release of the names of the dead and injured; it is not clear whether the government will oblige them. But if the lawmakers will do their job well, they can get to the bottom of the controversy. Sometime in the near future, the truth may finally come out, and that truth will probably indicate who is right or wrong. But that truth will not exculpate the government of failing to expeditiously address the controversy. The government was wrong and irresponsible not to know and disclose their battlefield dead and wounded in two, three days, let alone nearly two weeks, a source in Maiduguri told Sentry. The source insisted the military understated the facts of the November 18 and 19, 2018 attacks.

    Cold war in Yobe

    THERE are speculations that all is not well between Gov. Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe State and his anointed candidate for the 2019 governorship election, Mai Mala Buni, National Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Sources close to the governor tell Sentry that the governor is ill at ease with the way and manner his anointed candidate is hobnobbing with his perceived political foes after securing the governorship ticket.

    The sources say that the governor is apprehensive about the post-May 29, 2019 Yobe State politics after the APC secretary might have been sworn in as governor should these foes worm their way into the heart of the incoming governor. A source revealed that Gov Gaidam had at some point shunned calls from the APC gubernatorial candidate after learning that the candidate paid reconciliatory visits to some of those who contested the primary election. The governor, Sentry learnt, was particularly piqued by Mai Mala’s visit to the house of one of the aspirants, Sidi Yakubu Karasuwa,  a member of the House of Representatives from the state. “We heard that Gov. Gaidam refused to pick Mai Mala’s call three times when he was in Sudan because he was displeased with him reconciling with the people he contested against,” the source said.

    Hon. Karasuwa, a former commissioner in the state, former council chairman, former state party chairman,  and two-time Director General of the Ibrahim Gaidam campaign organization, had refused to step down for Mai Mala during the primary election despite entreaties. Instead, he insisted on the election which he lost by a wide margin to the governor’s anointed candidate and two other candidates.

    Apart from the anointed candidate’s rapprochement with co-contestants, the governor is said to be also worried by the growing number of his political foes getting close to his successor, and the  shift of loyalty to the APC national secretary by party members in the state who have virtually relocated to the house of the incoming governor in Abuja.

    Southwest PDP candidate begs for campaign cash

    THIS is not the best of time for a PDP governorship candidate in the Southwest who is desperately looking for campaign contributions. The last time he contested, he got a huge war chest from the presidency such that money was not his problem. But the clever man he was, instead of pumping the cash from the presidency into his campaign, he used it to rehabilitate his business and family leading to a big loss. After he wangled his way to get the PDP ticket again, the governorship candidate ran to the presidential candidate of his party for assistance. He hit a  brick wall when the presidential candidate said: “I am also looking for money to finance my campaign.” For PDP chiefs, it is a case of once bitten, twice shy.