OBJ, IBB And A Revolving Political Calculus

Taiwo Adisa, Group Politics Editor

Babangida and obasanjo Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo and former military leader, General Ibrahim Babangida, are two leaders who have some things in common.

Both of them had ruled this country as presidents. Obasanjo first ruled the country in 1976 to complete the regime of the slain Gen. Murtala Mohammed and returned to power as a democratically elected president in 1999 and spent two terms of eight years.

Babangida became self-appointed Nigerian president in 1985 after he had ousted the former Head of State, General Mohammadu Buhari.  He chose to be addressed as president and also spent eight years in office.

Though Babangida left office in the haze of the June 12, 1993 election debacle, he has also bounced into reckoning as a leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He was a member of the Supreme Military Council (SMC) headed by Obasanjo between 1976 and 1979, and after leaving power, he was instrumental to the emergence of Obasanjo as President in 1999.

There was a bit of camaraderie between them in the early part of Obasanjo’s second coming that made some to conclude that there was a pact  for Obasanjo to hand over to IBB after his tenure.

After making a feeble attempt at contesting against his former boss in 2003, IBB backed out and supported the Ota farmer’s second term bid. He was hopeful that, in 2007, he would take over from his boss and possibly equal OBJ’s record of being a former military leader who emerged civilian President. That hope was, however, cut short when the incumbent president, Umaru Yar’Adua, emerged on the political scene.

IBB did not pursue his dream further, as he announced his withdrawal from the presidential race after Yar’Adua picked the campaign form. There is always one thing that links these leaders at strategic times. After Obasanjo handed over to Yar’Adua in 2007, there were indications that the new government was craving a complete break from the past. Some political calculations immediately linked the two of them as working hand in hand, possibly against the interest of the current administration. But Yar’Adua quickly moved to cement the cord. He warmed up to IBB and made him an envoy on the crisis that engulfed Guinea and also made Obasanjo a special envoy on some African affairs.

The former President was away in South Africa when the special convention of the PDP was held in Abuja in April. It was later discovered that the incumbent president had pulled out that move as a way of ensuring that his predecessor did not attend the convention where the amendments he engineered to the PDP constitution while in office were uprooted.

After leaving power, Obasanjo had retired to Ogun State. He has assumed the political leader of the PDP in the South West and in his native Ogun State. But he has not been having the best of times in retirement. Apart from the reported bad blood between him and the incumbent president, Obasanjo has been linked with the series of attempt to remove the governor of Ogun State, Chief Gbenga Daniel, following the crises that have been engineered in the Ogun State House of Assembly.

The state House of Assembly has been divided along the lines of G15 and G11, with the former supporting the Obasanjo line and the latter standing for the governor.

Notwithstanding the series of claims by Obasanjo and his supporters that the former president was not involved in the brouhaha that has engulfed the Ogun State House of Assembly, since the removal of the first Speaker, Hon. Titi Oseni, it has been difficult for that claim to hold water.

There is the belief that the former president’s intention to have his daughter, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, contest the 2011 gubernatorial election in the state had pitched him against the incumbent governor. The battle still rages in Ogun as there has not been respite between the Daniel supporters and the Obasanjo warriors.

In Niger, the bubble burst last week when the game of musical chairs reared its head in the House of Assembly. The game had hit the Assembly chambers on Tuesday, June 9, when Speaker Mohammed Alkali was impeached in dramatic fashion.

The speaker, said to be loyal to Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu, was removed by some members who believed that his closeness to the executive was a cog in the wheel of progress of the House.

It was learnt that the members, who struck and got Alkali removed, did it in a military fashion. It was learnt, as well, that some resources were made available to the strike force such that they could withstand any counter-move by the governor, if he ever got wind of the plot.

The plot succeeded and Alkali was replaced by Alhaji Saidu Ndako Idris as Speaker. Incidentally, Ndako was a member of the administration of the immediate past governor of Niger State, Alhaji Abdukadir Kure, who has been investigated by a judicial commission of enquiry headed by Justice Aluyi Mayaki.

That commission had recently turned in its report and the government of Governor Aliyu, only days before the impeachment of the Speaker, endorsed a white paper on the report, which reaffirmed severe punishments for Kure, Ndako and eight others.

Fingers immediately pointed to the direction of Babangida, whom sources said was unhappy with the way the new governor has been managing the state.

A source even disclosed that Governor Aliyu had effected the transfer of some government teachers, who were teaching at the El-Amin secondary school owned by Babangida’s wife, Maryam, when he assumed office.

The governor was said to have effected the transfer on the claim that the said teachers were originally on the payroll of the state government.

Besides, the governor is said to have offended the IBB camp by going after Kure, his adopted godson, when he assumed office. The former military ruler and members of his camp are said to be waiting in the wings to stall Aliyu’s second term. But besides that, the group is said to have concluded plans to ensure they stall the implementation of the white paper which banned Kure and others from holding public office for 10 years.

The election of Ndako, however, ran into foul weather when it was discovered that he had a skeleton in his cupboard. The Niger State police command also declared him wanted shortly after he emerged speaker, prompting him to allegedly go into hiding.

From his hiding, the Speaker, who never presided over a sitting of the House, sent in his resignation letter to pave the way for the emergence of Alhaji Usman Musa Ma’ali as the new speaker.

Though the IBB crew did not get Ndako to do the job they had wanted on Governor Aliyu, it is clear that the group had  succeeded in stirring the waters in the state politics.
Investigations by the leadership of the PDP is said to have revealed that the second term aspiration of Governor Aliyu is one of the issues that led to the movement, while his bid to implement the white paper on Kure’s administration is the immediate catalyst.
President Umaru Yar’Adua, who received details of the happenings in Niger through security reports, sent for Aliyu last week. It was confirmed that the President met with the governor and had close discussions on the development in the state.

A source close to the presidency had said of the meeting:  ”I can confirm to you that the Niger governor was guest of the President till late on Tuesday. He was there on the invitation of the President who read the situation in Niger State correctly. The President saw the hands of external forces in the schemes in the House of Assembly and decided to get the details from Governor Babangida Aliyu.”

The President was said to have asked the governor to ensure good working relation with the new speaker and also maintain law and order in the state. Some close aides of IBB have, however, been distancing him from the Niger debacle. A former council boss, Alhaji Nma Kolo, told newsmen in Minna that IBB would not involve himself in the murky waters of the state politics, being a statesman. But the youth leader of the PDP in the state, Hon. Isah Lanpene, told the Saturday Tribune that IBB was fully in the know of the strike in the House of Assembly. He said that the former military ruler has never offered to lift a finger to get Governor Aliyu out of the myriads of political troubles he has had to contend with since 2007. He also stated that IBB’s silence is always ominous, as, according to him, those who know the military general had contended that his silence on any matter is dangerous.

He said: “Since the crisis broke out, IBB has been silent. Whenever IBB is unhappy about something, he keeps quiet and that is what has happened. When he is silent, it is dangerous.

“The bigwigs cannot claim that they were not involved in the impeachment. The target is the governor and the kind of resources made available to those who executed the impeachment cannot be sourced by an ordinary individual.

“What does he stand to gain? IBB’s silence on this matter is dangerous because he is involved.
“No politician of my class in the state will agree that IBB is happy with the current government. Since the governor came in, he has been facing one trouble or the other.” Like Obasanjo, IBB’s camp is busy defending the innocence of their man in the Niger Assembly crisis, but the game is still on in the two states.