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MARCH 19, 2007 VOL. 20. NO 23

Depth of a Burden

**Umar Musa Yar'Adua**

Aside the unimpressive health profile of the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the party may have other reasons to replace its standard-bearer before next month’s general elections
By Edward Dibiana
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, governor of oil-rich Bayelsa State in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region and vice-presidential running mate of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in next month’s general elections, was in an upbeat mood last Monday, March 5, as he arrived Lagos, the county’s economic capital and home to the second largest concentration of voters, after Kano in the North-west. Despite a heltic campaign schedule which ensured that Jonathan and the entire PDP federal campaign machinery remained on the trail daily, the vice -presidential hopeful was particularly enthusiastic about the Lagos arm of the campaign slated for that day. As the major out-post of the rival Action Congress (AC), all top PDP stalwarts eagerly looked forward to the Lagos rally, in a determined bid to sway the populace from the AC, one of whose arrow-head is Bola Ahmed Tinubu, governor of the state.
But before the rally proper slated for the Skypower Grounds, Ikeja, Jonathan and his principal, Presidential candidate and Governor of Katsina State, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, had another important engagement to honour: a recording at the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) offices in Victoria Island part of the city.
PDP insiders told The Source that Jonathan was readily available for the interview session billed for 9a.m, but as the minutes inched towards the agreed time and there was yet no sign of Governor Yar’Adua, the vice-presidential candidate, began to make frantic efforts to reach him. After several tries, without luck, a PDP official told The Source, a decision was taken to contact Governor Yar’Adua through his Aide-de-Camp (ADC).
While they were yet at it, a call came through, from a top presidential aide, who explained that the PDP standard-bearer was slightly indisposed and may, therefore, need to take a break from the rigours of campaign. In fact, the said aide directed that Governor Jonathan could go ahead with the Lagos rally as scheduled.
Confused over what was really amiss, especially against the backdrop of the ominous silence from the Katsina end, Jonathan reportedly intensified efforts to hear from Governor Yar’Adua himself. His insistence paid off a short while later as the Katsina State helmsman allegedly called to say that he was only slightly tired. Assuring his running-mate that the interview would still hold, Yar’Adua, however, requested for a little understanding, as he was sure to “arrive Lagos at about 1 p.m.”
This was not to be, however, as The Source’s findings indicate that top PDP stalwarts in Abuja pressured him thereafter to see a physician. First taken to the Julius Berger hospital in Abuja, medical experts in the place reportedly advised an immediate medical attention for the presidential hopeful abroad.
Thus began Governor Umaru Yar’Adua’s journey to the Mainz Hospital, Frankfurt, Germany – and to boot a flurry of speculations, include death mid-air enroute Germany. Ironically, when that was doused, talks of an imminent replacement of the troubled PDP presidential candidate took centre-stage.
Indeed, his health profile has remained one of the major concerns about his status as the standard -bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in next month’s presidential election. Governor Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s pale, frail and fragile appearance found ample space in contemporary political discourse since his unexpected emergence as the consensus candidate of the PDP after the December 16 national convention of the party.
While the Katsina State governor became an issue in Nigeria’s politics by virtue of his candidature of the largest party in the land, his health status, rather than his competence, was to become veritable news item. His rumoured terminal ailment and his visible colourlessness combined to overshadow his reported managerial abilities and frugality in the handling of public funds. Some critics of the PDP’s choice of candidate had argued that Yar’Adua is too fragile and “sickly” to withstand the rigours and challenges that go with the position of a president as robust and complex as Nigeria.
Although the presidency, the PDP leadership and the presidential candidate himself did not take kindly to the views of the critics, as they laboured hard to dispel the “rumour” of his ill-health, Yar’Adua’s alarming health scare which last week culminated in his rumoured death enroute Germany where he went for medical attention, put life to the concern of critics over his physical frailty.
Besides, many believe that inspite of the grandstanding of the PDP top brass over the development, there is yet growing fears within the party as regards the candidacy of the Katsina State governor.
Weeks before his sudden need for medical attention, The Source gathered that there were underground moves within the party establishment to substitute Yar’Adua with another candidate– a move proponents of the idea reason will brighten the chances of the party.
Proposers of this move hinge it on three basic planks, which they argue are rooted in the best interest of the party. Aside Yar’Adua’s fragile make-up, this group are also of the view that inspite of the crowd that usually turn up for the PDP presidential rallies, core players within the party are yet to truly accept the candidature of the Katsina State governor, owing largely to the mode and circumstance of his emergence as the party’s flag -bearer.
In the main, The Source gathered that some of Yar’Adua’s colleague- governors are still embittered, not only over how they were stampeded into stepping down for him, but also the almost humiliating and insensitive manner they were treated, even after they made the huge sacrifice of drowning their own ambitions in the sea of the party’s supremacy and loyalty gambit.
Pundits believe that some of these governors, who had invested enormous funds, energy and time traversing the nation in colourful campaign and aggressive politicking, feel bruised and hurt by the same party which preached loyalty, but had little or nothing to compensate loyal party men. The most annoying aspect of the process of selecting the party’s flag-bearer, The Source checks reveal, was the apparent game of deceit that the party employed in persuading some of the presidential aspirants to drop their aspiration before the actual convention. The party bigwigs in conjunction with the presidency, were said to have dangled the carrot of a vice presidential slot to a number of the aspirants. That promise, however, still remains in the deficit till date, as none of the main contenders were considered at the final decision table. Rather, Governor Goodluck Jonathan of Bayelsa State, who was still celebrating his elevation to the status of a governor due to the impeachment of his former principal, DSP Alamieyeseigha, became the chosen one, leaving the short-listed governors in the cold.
As if that was not enough heartbreak, two of the governors in the league of the rejected, Dr. Peter Odili of Rivers and Obong Victor Attah of Akwa Ibom, also got their noses further bloodied at the party primaries in their home states. Both governors from the South south region, which had agitated loudly for the opportunity to produce the president of the federation for the first time, failed to get the Abuja power house of the PDP to accept their candidates at the state primaries.
While Odili’s candidate, Rotimi Amaechi was rejected on allegations of corruption, Attah’s candidate, Bob Ekarika, who is also his son-in-law failed to impress the party’s leadership.
Perhaps, because of cases of concealed greviances by these set of party faithful and their supporters and sympathisers across the nation, sources said, some of these key figures may have vowed not to support Yar’Adua at the election. An indication of the unwillingness of these governors to support the party at the coming election, especially at the centre is the allegation that none of the governors, apart from Governors James Ibori of Delta and Lucky Igbinedion of Edo have kept faith with the party’s directive for financial contribution to the Yar’Adua campaign organisation.
The presidential candidate himself, The Source gathered, have not been able to attract much funds to finance his campaign, either from the multi-nationals, or from the private sector. The Source in fact learnt that even some multi-national companies that approached some of Yar’Adua’s colleagues for that regard have been advised to withhold such donations until a clearer picture emerges between now and the election date.
These people, The Source gathered, are seriously angling for a replacement for Yar’Adua. Their concern is that aside the collective grouse over how the presidency threw up Yar’Adua, the taciturn governor, they contend, lacks the charisma to rule a multi- ethnic state such as Nigeria and as well project it sufficiently to the international community in order to attract foreign investors.
In the view of some of these pundits, some PDP key actors would rather prefer a candidate that is not only charismatic, but somebody with a better clout, wider reach, who will also be acceptable to majority of the core interests within the party.
A short-list of such personalities especially from the Northern part of the country have started making the rounds. The names frequently mentioned in this regard are Governor Ahmed Makarfi of Kaduna State, his Bauchi counterpart, Adamu Mu’azu, former National Security Adviser to President Obasanjo, General Aliyu Gusau, former military governor of Lagos State, Buba Marwa and General Ibrahim Babangida.
Among these people, however, Babangida’s name stands out, according to political observers as the one that may rightly fit the bill of “charisma, wider reach and better clout.” His recent romance with the presidency, that saw him being sent to Guinea where he successfully brokered peace between the feuding parties in that country, observers say, is intended to brighten his chance in the event of any such consideration.
Babangida, much more than Yar’Adua, some anyalysts believe, will do the bidding of Obasanjo better essentially as regards any talk of probing the administration in the future. Yar’Adua, some people contend, might easily succumb to pressures to probe Obasanjo’s government, giving his often talked about transparent make-up.
But in the party's reaction to the speculation last Wednesday, March 7, declare that the suggestion that the party is shopping for a replacement for its presidential candidate is baseless. The PDP’s National Secretary, Ojo Maduekwe, while affirming that Yar’Adua is alive against the groundswell of fears over his health, asserted: “We are not shopping for a replacement for Yar’Adua. This is not a shopping exercise. I agree with you that the issue of the health of Governor Yar’Adua was raised at the very beginning and was made an issue by a lot of people and I won’t say all those who raised that were all those opposed to him or PDP.”
Yar’Adua, himself, while philosophically contending that as a Muslim he believes that death is inevitable, also assured his supporters that he would return to continue the presidential campaign.
Remarkable, the fire of the current clamour for replacement was inexplicably ignited by recent statement by Maduekwe himself, to the effect that the PDP ticket for all the offices, the presidency inclusive, remain open till March 16, 2007.
President Obasanjo, many believe, may not have thoroughly considered some of these unfolding variables when he settled for Yar’Adua. Aside using the Yar’Adua choice as a tool in his fight to ensure that his deputy, Vice President Atiku Abubakar did not succeed him, Obasanjo was also looking out for a successor that will be loyal to him.
The late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, the presidential candidate’s elder brother was also Atiku’s mentor. The elder Yar’Adua’s political structure, the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM), was what many believed Atiku would rely upon in his quest to succeed Obasanjo– thus the reasoning by the President that by picking the younger brother of the owner of the structure, Atiku would automatically lose his primary support base.
Yar’Adua also got the blessing of President Obasanjo, some insiders say, largely owing to the president’s perception of the Katsina State governor as a prudent administrator who has not allowed himself to be corrupted by the trappings of governance. His profile was so captivating to Obasanjo – who is also known to be frugal – that he reasoned that he would be the right person to continue his war on corruption after he must have left office.
Essentially, this presidential interest in Yar’Adua turned out to be his strongest credential in dislodging other credible aspirants at the convention.
Notably, when Obasanjo approached him with the offer, a shocked Yar’Adua, it was said, had expressed his unpreparedness and unwillingness to join the race. His reasons were that he lacks the money to prosecute a presidential campaign, and also that it was rather late since other aspirants had been on the field for months canvassing for support.
But the president successfully erased his fears as he reportedly directed the trio of Govenror Ibori, and private sector moguls, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola to fuel Yar’Adua’s campaign machine. After a pep talk by these three moneybags, a reluctant Yar’Adua jumped at the offer to the consternation of many of his less favoured colleagues, whose toils on the political field were subsequently reduced to nothing.
Babangida also, as if on cue, officially withdrew from the race, citing the Yar’Adua factor. In his letter to Obasanjo, dated December 19, 2006, IBB told the President that his decision to withdraw from the race was anchored in his personal relationship with both Yar’Adua and Gusau.
IBB: “Those who know me, know my relationship with the Yar’Adua family. The patriarch, Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua took me as his adopted son, with his son, the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and instilled in the late Shehu and me that nothing should be done by either of us that would give the impression that there is a strain in our relationship. To me, this extends to his younger brother. Whenever I see him, I see late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and I am always reminded of what his late father told us about our relationship.
“As soon as he collected the form, he came to me to solicit for my support as an elder brother and I freely gave him. I still stand by that. What this means is that I will not be in competition with him. This is what he would expect from his late elder brother, General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua.”
That singular statemanly action by IBB has continued to receive accolades from his numereous admirers and may make the pill of Yar’Adua’s replacement, in the event that it happens, easy and “statemanly” for him to swallow.