How He Emerged

Written by This Day Friday, 14 May 2010

It has emerged that Governor Namadi Sambo’s nomination as Vice-President by President Goodluck Jonathan enjoyed the overwhelming support of all the governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

A source privy to the meeting held on Wednesday night between the President and the governors told THISDAY that the support of the governors made the choice easy and straight forward.

If President Jonathan had plans of nominating him as Vice-President before Wednesday, he did a good job of keeping his choice close to his chest. Not even the governors had prior knowledge of his choice before Wednesday.

But the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said as soon as Jonathan announced his choice, the whole room erupted in thunderous applause.

“He (Jonathan) told the governors that he had decided to appoint one of them as Vice-President. He then proceeded to name the governor of Kaduna State. When he named (Namadi) Sambo, there was spontaneous applause; everybody was happy and there was a lot of backslapping,” the source said.

Governor Bukola Saraki, who responded on behalf of the governors, was said to have expressed happiness with the choice. He thanked the President for the confidence he has shown in them and pledged their support and loyalty.
The choice of Sambo was said to have been made easy by the untied front put up by the governors. “They were united; they spoke with one voice. They did not break up along regional or ethnic lines. It was neither Northern Governors’ Forum nor South-south Governors Forum; they were all together. Other candidates did not have such an advantage.

The National Assembly, for example, could not line up behind a single candidate. But when the President named Sambo, all the governors applauded the choice; they all supported him,” the source explained.

“That was how a dark horse emerged on Wednesday.” And, he was indeed a dark horse. There were several intimidating lists of candidates for the position and Sambo was not on any of the “most credible” ones. Even when the lists were pruned down eventually by analysts and political pundits, his name was nowhere near the top five.

Sambo was not even on the list of nominees allegedly favoured by the PDP governors. Candidates said to have been favoured by the governors were Governors Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Ibrahim Shema (Katsina) and Danjuma Goje (Gombe). Then, there were other candidates said to have been put forward by PDP members in the National Assembly.

Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Masari, and former Governor Ahmed Makarfi of Kaduna State were the prominent names on this ‘list.’ There were also strong candidates who were not necessarily ‘party men.’ The likes of former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Nuhu Ribadu, Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Yayale Ahmed, Muktar Shagari, the Deputy Governor of Sokoto State and General Aliyu Gusau, the National Security Adviser appeared on this list.

Intense politicking followed as stakeholders, power blocs and political godfathers fought to get their candidates nominated. The political scheming and horse-trading was said to have led to delays in naming a final choice on Tuesday morning.

By Tuesday night however, there were strong rumours that a shortlist had been made by President Jonathan and the names of four candidates had been submitted for security screening.

In fact, there were suggestions that the President would name Makarfi or Shagari on Wednesday morning. But neither of the two was named. Instead, it was Sambo, incumbent Governor of Kaduna State that was named. So, the natural question would be, how did he emerge from the thick smoke of political intrigues?

One of the arguments posited in favour of the quiet governor is the fact that his choice presents fewer problems. A PDP chieftain told THISDAY that the choice is more likely to be supported by everybody than the choice of any of the other candidates.

“Almost all the other candidates want to be president come 2011; so, any of those people would cause distractions. Some of them are also being backed by controversial politicians; they would only become divisive factors. But Sambo is a quiet person. He is not known to have a presidential ambition and he is more sincere than many of his colleagues,” the politician said.

If these were the thoughts of Jonathan, he did not share them with many people until he met with the governors on Wednesday night. And the unanimous endorsement of the governors sealed the nomination.