Ebonyi Voice The shattered dreams of Jonathan’s ministers Politics is not what it appears on the surface. For some people, achieving their political ambitions is as easy as ABC, but for many others, a herculean task. The story of most of the former 10 ministers in the President Goodluck Jonathan cabinet, who opted out of their jobs at various times to seek their people’s mandate to govern their individual states from May 2015, is rather pathetic. It is at best, a misadventure. They simply did not count the cost. They include former minister of state for health from Bauchi State, Mohammed Ali Pate; former minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godsday Orubebe (Delta); former minister of state for defence, Musiliu Obanikoro (Lagos); former health minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu (Ebonyi) and former minister of state for education, Nyesom Wike (Rivers). Others are: former trade and commerce minister, Samuel Ortom (Benue); former labour minister, Emeka Wogu (Abia); former minister of state for finance, Yerima Lawal Ngama (Yobe); former information minister, Labaran Maku (Nasarawa) and former minister of state for Niger Delta Affairs Darius Ishaku (Taraba). Four of the former ministers – Wike, Maku, Ngama and Obanikoro – hail from states controlled by the All Progressive Congress (APC). Among the rest who are from PDP-controlled states, only Chukwu enjoyed the backing of his governor, Martins Elechi, but that was not enough to secure him the party’s ticket, as he faced stiff opposition from former governor, Sam Egwu and Anyim Pius Anyim, secretary to the state government. The eight former ministers who lost in their states include Pate (Bauchi), Orubebe (Delta), Chukwu (Ebonyi), Ortom (Benue), Wogu (Abia), Obanikoro (Lagos), Maku (Nasarawa) and Ngama (Yobe). But Ishaku (Taraba) is yet to know his fate, as the PDP national leadership has met with major stakeholders in the state with a view to holding the primaries at a later date due to inability of the National Working Committee (NWC) to resolve internal crisis of the party. Danladi Abubakar, the Taraba State acting governor, who led a delegation of major party stakeholders, had insisted on the zoning of the gubernatorial position in 2015 to the southern senatorial district of the state. The acting governor who was accompanied by the state PDP chairman, Victor Bala, told the PDP leadership that in 2011, an agreement was reached by stakeholders in the state chapter of party to zone the governorship position to the southern zone in 2015. He argued that the northern zone has occupied the office for 10 years while the central zone where the incumbent governor hails from would have served eight years in power by 2015. The acting governor posited that the people of the state are anxious to see that the 2011 agreement on zoning is implemented. Political analysts believe that with this clamour, the former acting governor, Garba Umar who has indicated interest to run for the seat but hails from the northern zone of the state, might be zoned out. Consequently, Umar paid a counter visit to the national leadership, insisting that all aspirants must be given a level-playing field. However, the PDP national chairman, Adamu Mu’azu requested that a copy of the minutes of the meeting where the decision was taken to zone the seat to Southern Taraba be forwarded to NWC for prompt action. In our report shortly after the ministers resigned their appointments, we had clearly pointed out that the “taste of the pudding is in the eating”, and warned that they should look well before they leap. Looking at the allure associated with the office of governor in Nigeria, the dream to grab at the position is always very strong. While some of the ex-ministers had heavily relied on the sweeping powers President Jonathan and the National Working Committee of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had given the state governors to pick their successors, and had thought that the governors of their states would favour them since they were coming from the President’s cabinet, a few others may have over rated themselves and exaggerated their popularity in their states. With the serial defeat of the former ministers, it is now obvious that their popularity at the federal level does not translate to home-based support after all. From Bauchi to Delta, Ebonyi, Benue, Abia, Lagos, Nasarawa and Yobe States, the delegates spoke with one voice: “We don’t need Abuja-based politicians”. In Nasarawa State, Yusuf Agabi polled 214 votes to defeat Maku (161 votes); likewise Ebonyi State, the state deputy governor, David Umahi polled 541 votes to clinch the ticket. For Chukwu, a professor of medicine who put up a sterling performance on his beat while the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) threat lasted in Nigeria, it was a fatal ambition. Chukwu, who relied on Martins Elechi’s supposedly absolute powers to cause the pendulum of success to swing in his favour, discovered very late that he was holding the wrong end of the stick. He has just been taught ‘Politics 101’ in a state that has remained largely unheard of, and has remained in the backwaters in the league of progressive states, since Elechi mounted the power stool in 2007. Chukwu, alongside supporters and associates of Elechi, had boycotted the primaries. Besides, Chukwu is hunted by claims that he lacks the political clout to lead the state. Findings revealed that the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ebonyi State refused to conduct primaries with a view to receiving Elechi, Chukwu and their supporters to its fold if they wish to decamp from PDP. With the exception of Nyesom Wike, who managed to scale the hurdle, through the alleged instrumentality of the Aso Rock, eight others are currently licking the wounds of their ignominious defeat. One is yet to know his fate. It would be recalled that despite the fierce agitation from some segments of the PDP in the party against fielding Wike, the powers that be in Abuja facilitated his landslide victory. For Musiliu Obanikoro in Lagos State, it was a different kettle of fish. Before the gubernatorial primaries last Monday, some members of the party’s leadership had mounted pressure on the former minister to jettison his ambition. Some even went to press, saying he was unelectable and a very bad product difficult to sell. Before the exercise, there were rumours that Obanikoro had stepped down; this he refuted, saying, “Nobody can persuade me to step down. I resigned the coveted office as minister of state for Defence… We are going to participate and see this to a logical end.” At the end of the day, he lost to Jimi Agbaje, a legal practitioner. In Nasarawa State also, the gubernatorial ambition of Labaran Maku, who resigned his position as minister of information and national orientation, was a still birth. The adage that “there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies in politics but permanent interest” came to the fore in Abia State, as the aspiration of Wogu who left the federal cabinet on account of the assurances given to him by Governor Theodore Orji to hand over the ticket of the party to him, was dashed by the governor, as he reneged on his promise and rooted for Okezie Ikpeazu who polled 487 votes, as against Wogu’s 33. Observers wondered the assurances given to Wogu by Governor Orji that boosted his confidence that he would win the governorship in Abia. A pundit said that except on appointment, the likes of Wogu do not wear the ring of shrewd politicians that can withstand the wheeling and dealing that are synonymous with the game. Analysts also wondered how the former Labour minister with dreamy eyes thought himself formidable enough to contest the governorship seeing that his performance on his beat did not “wow” anybody. “I think it is only in Nigeria that people don’t consider their past performance(s) before aspiring to higher responsibility. For instance, what leadership pedigree has Wogu to aspire to the post of governorship of a state? Time has come for us to begin to look at the people we choose as governors. Such posts should not just be for anybody,” an analyst said. A pundit had said at the time of their resignation that a shocker awaited all of them except Wike who is said to have always grandiloquently referred to his connection in Aso Rock. Speaking after the Monday primaries that saw the defeat of the aspirants, the pundit again spoke with BDSUNDAY. “I told you beforehand that it was going to be largely a pipe dream”, he said, emphasing that all the affected ministers were neophytes in the business of partisan politics in the country. “I have always told people that there is a marked difference between standing for an election, winning that election and mere political appointment. Anybody can be appointed by the President out of political exigency. Of course, they will talk and make television appearances, dominate news holes in newspapers, but that does not necessarily make them popular. Yes, they control large sums of easy money which they waste on frivolity, but the question is, do they have any structure that can guarantee them electoral success if they compete with others. You find out that with all the money at their disposal, all manner of people will flock around them and they will mistake such people as loyalists. But the truth is that those people flock around them to get their own share of the national loot. As soon as they do that, they go and vote those they may consider as ‘lesser devils’. “That’s exactly why the so-called super ministers crashed out. By the way, it is Abuja that recognises them as super ministers not their people because they hardly know them until now they needed their votes to be governor.” Reacting on its Facebook page on the matter, the ruling party argued that the fact that most of President Jonathan’s former key ministers and allies lost governorship primary elections in their respective states attest to Mr. President’s resolve to allow the wishes of the people to prevail. A political analyst, Malachi Uzendu, attributed the loss of most ministers in their states to lack of trust between them and home-based politicians. To him, the governors were too powerful, hence installed their loyalists in elective positions. This, he said, was why Jonathan specifically described his endorsement by PDP governors at the party’s 66th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting as ‘Atomic bomb’. “All the home-based politicians see Abuja politicians as interlopers; they see Abuja-based politicians as people who reap where they did not sow, and as politicians who are not on ground. And so, these things are borne out of envy, not because what they are saying is correct. “Another factor that also militates against Abuja-based politicians is that governors have their line-up and because of the fact that there is no political party that has ever conducted a credible party primary, what happens is that the governor’s line-up is allowed to survive. The reason being that those who are contesting for the presidency (especially for the ruling party), believe that it is the governors who will determine their fate. And because they don’t allow credible ward congresses, everything that happens, happens at the beck and call of the governor and so their candidates win at all levels. “I can tell you today that if they allow credible party primaries to hold from the ward to national level, most of those people that you find at the state Houses of Assembly, National Assembly and various government houses, will not emerge because they are not popular. Most of them came in through imposition”.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 07:35:52 +0000