Indications emerged in Abuja on Friday that the consensus committee saddled with the responsibility of picking one of the candidates among four presidential aspirants from the northern region might have asked former military dictator, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (retd.) to drop his ambition.
The committee, it was gathered, had said that Babangida does not have the clout to garner support of Nigerians across the six geo-political zones because of his past records.
Apart from Babangida, others being screened by the Mallam Adamu Ciroma-led committee are former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Dr. Bukola Saraki and the immediate past National Security Adviser, Gen. Aliyu Gusau (retd.)
The committee had before now expressed difficulties as those considered strategic among its members were avoiding meetings.
Specifically, three governors were said to have stayed away from the committee‘s meetings so far.
They are governors Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Alhaji Danjuma Goje (Gombe) and Alhaji Sule Lamido (Jigawa).
The governors were said to have been absent from past meetings despite the fact that they were invited.
Analysing the chances of the aspirants, the committee was said to have considered age, experience, national acceptability and contribution to democratic struggles in the country as part of the criteria to be considered in picking the region‘s candidate.
Our correspondent gathered that though the former military ruler was said to have scored high mark in the area of experience, he was said to be allegedly rated poorly in other areas such as age, contribution to democratic struggle and national acceptability.
Babangida, who will be 70 years old in August 2011, was military President for eight years.
A member of the committee, who spoke with our correspondent in confidence in Abuja, said the committee had realised that the Minna-born general was not acceptable to Nigerians.
Our correspondent gathered that the committee resolved to adhere to criteria that apply in other parts of the world where younger people are fielded for leadership position as is the case in the United States of America and United Kingdom.
SUNDAY PUNCH learnt that the committee had scored Babangida low on the way and manner he organised the transition programme, which ended up with the unceremonious annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
Some members of the committee were said to have exonerated him on the issue claiming that he took the step in the interest of the North. But the majority of them were said to be opposed to the position.
The committee allegedly agreed that many Nigerians were still bitter with the retired general and that fielding him could lead to unrest and could further polarise the nation.
Investigation shows that Babangida sent emissaries to some members of the committee, allegedly begging them to allow him to use this opportunity to right some of the wrongs he did while in office between 1985 and 1993, but the committee was said to have disagreed.
SUNDAY PUNCH gathered that some of the committee members maintained that Nigeria was not an experimental ground and that the country had moved on.
The committee, it was learnt, has agreed to meet to take a final decision on the matter before the end of the month.
When contacted, Ciroma, who said he was speaking from Sokoto State, said he could not tell when the committee would finalise its decision on the adopted candidate.
Though he refused to comment on the decision on Babangida‘s aspiration, he said the committee was doing certain things to enable it to arrive at an agreed candidate.
Asked what the ”certain things” were, he declined comment. He merely said one of them was the tour of the northern states to gauge the mood of the people.
He said, ”This (the tour) is part of the things we are doing. We are happy with ourselves. We do not know when we are going to pick the right candidate.
”This is because there are certain things we needed to do. As I speak with you now, I am in Sokoto. When I return to Abuja probably on Monday, we can talk.”
Source:http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201010243591357
No comments:
Post a Comment