Many residents of Abuja jubilated on Monday when they heard that a former military dictator, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (retd.), was not picked by the Northern Political Leaders’ Forum as the consensus aspirant of the North. It is doubtful whether their joy emanated from their admiration of former vice-president Atiku Abubakar, who was chosen by the committee. The former military dictator was not the only person that lost out of the consensus arrangement.
The NPLF had, more than six months ago, begun the campaign for the North to produce a president in 2011. It hinged its campaign on the constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party, which it said recognised rotation of the presidency between the North and South. It argued that the North should be allowed to complete the tenure of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua. The group had thought that only northerners should be allowed by the PDP to contest the presidential election.
The hope of the NPLF, was, however, dashed when the PDP, at its National Executive Council meeting said that although it recognised zoning, it would not disallow Nigerians from other parts of the country from contesting the presidential poll. The party, through the declaration, indirectly gave President Goodluck Jonathan, the go-ahead to contest the presidential poll.
Since the battle for the PDP’s presidential ticket started, the polity has been heated by the zoning debate between pro-Jonathan groups and the NPLF. Issues relating to welfare of Nigerians have been relegated to the background.
In a desperate move to present a common aspirant that would contest the PDP’s presidential primaries with Jonathan, the NPLF had in September set up a 17-man committee that would produce a consensus aspirant for the North. Many members of the committee are familiar faces in Nigerian politics. They are people, whose names will be mentioned, if the Nigerian project fails as predicted by a former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. John Campbell, in his book, “Nigeria: Dancing on the brink.”
For example, the leader of the NPLF, 76-year-old Mallam Adamu Ciroma, was a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Between 1979 and 1983, under former president Sheu Shagari, Ciroma headed three different ministries—Finance, Agriculture and Industries—at various times.
In fact, Ciroma was one of the brains behind Shagari’s agricultural programme, the Green Revolution, which, rather than achieve massive food production for the county, succeeded in encouraging unrestricted importation of rice. Under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, he was also the minister of finance between 1999 and 2003. In 2005, his wife, Maryam, was appointed Minister of Women Affairs.
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