Vice President Namadi Sambo and Professor Yemi Osinbajo have been chosen as running mates to the PDP and APC presidential candidates, respectively, but what are the vice presidential candidates bringing to the table? Vincent Obia tries to find out It has been a busy fortnight for the two main political parties – Peoples Democratic Party and All Progressives Congress. First, they went through the tension of choosing their presidential candidates for next year’s general election, incidentally, on the same day. Then, the candidates faced their first major political assignment: picking suitable running mates. President Goodluck Jonathan, the PDP candidate, retained Vice President Namadi Sambo as running mate, while General Muhammadu Buhari of APC chose Professor Yemi Osinbajo. For Jonathan, picking a running mate had seemed a fairly seamless task. Yet, it was not entirely without uncertainties. Speculations About Sambo Right from the day of the 66th National Executive Committee meeting of PDP on September 18, when the party’s governors and Board of Trustees passed separate resolutions endorsing Jonathan as the sole presidential contestant of the party, attention had shifted to the question of his running mate. Rumours were rife that Jonathan was going to drop Sambo from the re-election ticket. The grounds for the widespread speculation about Sambo were not far-fetched. He was perceived to lack the political clout to rein back growing opposition to Jonathan in the North or even his native Kaduna State. That notion has survived since 2010, when Jonathan became president and chose Sambo as vice president following the death of the then president, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. The notion was reinforced by the outcome of the 2011 presidential election, where Jonathan lost in many of the key states of the North, including Sambo’s Kaduna State. But in a pointer to his nomination again as vice presidential candidate, Sambo on November 14 submitted Jonathan’s presidential nomination forms to the PDP national secretariat in Abuja. The vice president said at that symbolic occasion, “Our president has moved the country forward by transforming it economically. It is, therefore, with great humility that I’m presenting to you these forms.” Then laying all speculations to rest, on December 11, Jonathan announced Sambo as PDP’s vice presidential candidate. “I want to announce that the vice president, Namadi Sambo, a loyal and tested partner, will be my running mate and vice presidential candidate once again,” the president said, after his own ratification by all the 2,812 delegates to the PDP national convention in Abuja. The Value of Loyalty Sambo’s loyalty to Jonathan since both men mounted the presidential seat is widely acclaimed. This loyalty seems to be the most important strength the vice president is bringing to the table, as the PDP candidates try to win the support of the electorate for another term. Sambo, 60, was governor of Kaduna State before he was chosen for the post of vice president. An architect by training, his relationship with his principal has been devoid of the rancour and muscle-flexing that seem to be standard fair among the country’s chief executives at the federal and state levels. The vice president has seemed to concentrate on the more professional, less political, and less controversial aspects of the administration, refusing to allow any political ambitions to come between him and the president. His management of what has become the traditional portfolio of the vice president’s office since the Fourth Republic, the National Council on Privatisation, has been characterised by loyalty, diligence, and reliability. The Bureau of Public Enterprises, which is under the general supervision of NCP, oversees the privatisation programme of the administration. Under Sambo, NCP performed yeoman service in completing the privatisation of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, paying severance benefits to 20, 304 PHCN workers, amounting to nearly N120 billion, and reinventing the will to conclude the sale of the country’s refineries. Serious effort has also been made to privatise the moribund Nigeria Telecommunications Limited. Last year, the federal government appointed liquidators for NITEL and its sister company, Mobile Telecommunications. Jonathan has tended to see Sambo as a very reliable partner in the task of governance. There were allegations that the resignation in 2012 of Professor Bath Nnaji as Minister of Power and Steel was at the behest of Sambo. Competition Besides the value of Sambo’s loyalty, the president, who is the national leader of PDP, and other party stakeholders might also have reasoned that replacing Sambo could create a sense of competition with potential deleterious consequences for the party at the polls next year. That competition for the office of vice president was almost becoming obvious when it seemed Jonathan was minded to change his running mate. Osinbajo: A Whole New Ball Game The coming of Osinbajo, the APC vice presidential candidate, happened under a different set of circumstances. Soon after the emergence of Buhari as APC’s presidential candidate, the party went into a season of intense politicking – and of course, controversy – over the choice of his running mate. A number of issues made the selections of Buhari’s running mate hot for the party. There was the burden of how to ensure the selection of an appropriate vice presidential candidate that would complement – rather than complicate – the Buhari candidacy, without undermining an alleged pledge to concede to APC national leader and former governor of Lagos State, Ashiwaju Bola Tinubu, the right to nominate Buhari’s running mate. Buhari was said to have conceded the right to nominate his running mate to Tinubu after winning the APC presidential ticket on December 11. That was a gesture of appreciation to the former governor for his alleged role in influencing the bloc votes, especially from the South-west, that helped Buhari to win the presidential primary held in Lagos. Name Recognition But when Osinbajo’s name first came up as possible APC vice presidential candidate, it was opposed by many traditional politicians in the party who felt he was not a known name in political circles. He had served as Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos State throughout Tinubu’s eight years as governor of the state, 1999-2007. Interestingly, his brother, Akin, was Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Ogun State from 2003 to 2007. It was the first and only time in the country that blood brothers were known to have held the post of commissioner in different states at the same time. But Osinbajo had occupied himself with apostolic and intellectual activities since he left the government in 2007, although, he remained a trusted member of the Tinubu political structure. Even Buhari himself was said to have initially opposed the choice of Osinbajo. This was on the grounds that his selection of Pastor Tunde Bakare as running mate in 2011, when the former Head of State ran on the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, did very little to fetch him the votes of the country’s Christian population. Buhari was to later change his mind – and so did many others who had opposed Osinbajo’s nomination. So what has changed between 2011 and 2015? New Opportunities Osinbajo belongs to the Tinubu political structure, a crucial tool in Buhari’s presidential quest – unlike Bakare, who did not really have any robust machinery with which to canvass support for the then CPC candidate. Osinbajo’s pastoral job in the Redeemed Christian Church of God, which has, arguably, the largest congregation in Africa, may also prove very useful for the Buhari campaign. Besides, Osinbajo is a thoroughbred technocrat who fits into an increasingly popular sentiment among Nigerians that professionals – rather than traditional politicians – should take up greater roles in government and politics to guarantee the transformational leadership that the country craves so badly. Osinbajo is seen as someone who would focus on the more intellectual and technical aspects of the administration and keep out of ambitions that may rock the boat. He certainly brings to the APC presidential ticket whole new opportunities that the party can leverage for a more vigorous outing at next year’s general election. Buhari said on Wednesday in Abuja, during the formal presentation of Osinbajo as his running mate, “To assist me in this great task of securing Nigeria’s future, I have chosen a man of unimpeachable integrity, an excellent professional, a man of faith, a devoted family man, and a role model to our fellow countrymen and women… “The vice presidential candidate is a friend of the less-privileged, compassionate and zealous in service, a man of uncommon humility, a loyal, dependable, and selfless patriot.” In a brief acceptance speech, Osinbajo said, “There can be no other president, leader and commander that can lead that common sense revolution which Nigeria urgently needs than Geneneral Muhammadu Buhari. I will proudly serve this country with him.” Towards 2015 But pundits say Osinbajo will have to prove that he would not be a marionette remotely controlled by Tinubu. Sambo, too, will have to prove that he can deliver the votes this time in a region where a security nightmare occasioned by Boko Haram insurgency appears to be eroding the president’s popularity. The two vice presidential candidates have their work cut out. Only time can tell how far they will perform.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 11:04:41 +0000
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