Yar’Adua plots 2nd term
•It’s immoral – Musa, David-West, Ikedife, Adebayo
•Atiku, Kalu as alternatives
By Funke Egbemode, Willy Eya & Olusola Balogun
Sunday, February 15, 2009


While most Nigerians are wrapped up in their confusing bottom lines and balance sheets that simply won’t add up, political speculators and juggernauts are already holding nocturnal meetings to facilitate the return of President Umar Yar’Adua to Aso Rock in 2011. High-tech permutations and manipulations are in top gear to ensure the sitting President sails smoothly back into the saddle.

The NPA, Anenih angle
According to highly placed sources, one of such smart moves is the appointment of Chief Tony Anenih as the Chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). NPA is arguably the richest government agency in Nigeria. It is believed to be an octopus money machine, with intractable accounting system.
The NPA, in time past, had been used by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to oil its electioneering process. The cash cow operates in a maze that has confounded even the finest of auditing agencies.
Its immediate past chairman, Chief Olabode George, is standing trial for a cocktail of charges that has opened a can of worms. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is prosecuting the PDP chieftain, whose members on every court day turn the Lagos High Court premises into carnival ground.

It is believed that the chair of NPA is strictly for high-ranking party members who can deliver the goods.
“The NPA chairman has an unwritten mandate to source and provide funds for the PDP and that is why Chief Tony Anenih got the job. The way the parastatal works, it is difficult to prove a case of corrupt enrichment against the chairman, but we all know that the NPA is the party’s cash cow. It is the unofficial fund raising body,” our source confirmed.

Sunday Sun also learnt that between now an August, all kinds of groups will spring up to call on Yar’Adua to run for another four years. Funding will come from NPA’s voodoo accounting maze.
The choice of Anenih, a former PDP Board of Trustees (BOT) chairman, is not also unconnected with the disconnect between him and immediate President Olusegun Obasanjo, for whom he was Mr Fix-It for eight years. The current battle for the soul and spirit of the acclaimed biggest party in Africa has pitted the two powerful men against each other and split the party.

A house divided against itself
Party members loyal to the former president are hatching plans to unseat the PDP chairman, Sir Vincent Ogbulafor, using a weapon called ‘internal democracy’ in the running of the party.
But the Yar’Adua men are not sitting on their hands. They are also burning their candles at both ends to ensure that the new bond between the former president and his erstwhile deputy, Atiku Abubakar, comes to nothing.

The game plan is to drive a wedge between the two once most powerful Nigerians, recruit Atiku and leave Obasanjo in the cold.
“The Ota meeting has actually exposed the split in the party. Baba is not as powerless as a lot of people think and that is why Yar’Adua’s men are not taking anything for granted. They are moving from zone to zone to recruit support for this second term bid. They are especially looking at the stronghold of the former President. They are also looking outside the party and considering getting stalwarts of opposition parties to join the PDP, anything to shore up the political base of the President.”
One of the politicians Yar’Adua’s men have actively courted is former Zamfara governor, Ahmed Sani Yerima.

Governors for second term
Furthermore, a list of nine amendments to the PDP constitution ratified and submitted by the Governors’ Forum is angling for automatic second term tickets for the President and all first-term governors.
The amendment to Article 9.2 (iv) reads: “ The party shall issue automatic tickets to any first term serving president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and all first term serving governors who have expressed interest to re-contest for a second term without going through the party.”
The current chairman of PDP did not emerge through a democratic process and pro-Obasanjo elements are planning to start an advocacy that would weaken the base of Yar’Adua. From the outside, the PDP looks like a monolithic party that can actually bulldoze its way into realizing its dream of ruling Nigeria for another 60 years but insiders confirmed that there are in fact five factions in the ruling party.

“There are five factions in the PDP - Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Adamu Ciroma, Atiku and IBB groups. Though IBB claims he is not in PDP, he is a member of G-21, and G-21 is in PDP. And IBB is not a fan of Ogbulafor, the sitting party chairman The Ciroma group is made up of the old conservatives and (the defunct) NPN (National Party of Nigeria) elements. So PDP is not a one-house affair. It is a divided house and all that an adversary needs is the ability to locate an opportunistic chink in the armour of the party,” revealed our source.

Atiku, Kalu as strong alternatives to Yar’Adua
The two strongest contenders are former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Orji Uzor Kalu, chairman Board of Trustees of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) and former Abia State governor.
If the new elements in PDP will not listen to Anenih, if Atiku returns to PDP and IBB and Obasanjo’s elements succeed in ousting Ogbulafor, the former VP becomes an issue. And Sunday Sun findings reveal that the North sees Atiku as a veritable replacement in case Yar’Adua decides not to seek a second term.

In addition, in the face of a public uproar against the president seeking re-election and general perception that he has not given a good account of himself in his first term, an Atiku Presidency becomes an issue.
Orji Uzor Kalu was the first to blow the whistle on Obasanjo’s third term bid, a bid he fought courageously to a standstill. He is believed to have lost more to that fight than any Nigerian: an oil block, N4.5bn worth of shares in Hallmark Bank, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) licence for a new bank for which he had acquired property and recruited staff.


Kalu is believed to have tremendous international connection, uncommon courage and his party, PPA, has two states, Abia and Imo. PPA is seeking to merge with APGA, a factionalised one-party state with a shaky hold on Anambra. Plans are also under way to play for former Anambra State Governor, Chris Ngige, in the event that the alliance does not work.
In all, the intrigues, tricks and horse-trading that will shape who gets the nation’s number one seat in 2011 will cut across party lines and spring unusual surprises. Neither the PDP old war horses nor the new voices are ready to give an inch, a situation that may provide the chink in the ruling party’s armour that the opposition has been waiting for.

Immoral plot
Some prominent Nigerians have, however, reacted angrily to attempts by a segment of the political class to hand Yar’Adua a second term in office. In one words, they described the plot as immoral.
Speaking exclusively to Sunday Sun, the former governor of the old Western Region, General Adeyinka Adebayo; National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Victor Umeh; former Petroleum Minister, Prof Tam David-West; immediate past president of the Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Dr Dozie Ikedife; erstwhile Oyo State governor, Alhaji Lam Adesina; and Second Republic governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa as well as former Deputy Speaker, Oyo State House of Assembly, Niyi Akintola (SAN), all said the move was also ill-timed and unmeritorious.

Adebayo, who said he would not want to be drawn into the propriety or otherwise of the president preparing for a second term, however pointed out that any failure ascribed to Yar’Adua should be shared by his party.
According to him, “it depends on his party, but the country belongs to everybody and he is free to aspire to any position he wants. I think he has done his best. His best might not be enough but that is debatable. It will be difficult for me to say that he does not deserve a second term because I am a statesman and won’t be expected to say things like that. But I think his party carries a lot of the blame for all this criticism. They picked him and they have a manifesto, which I believe he is trying to implement. If people say he doesn’t deserve a second term, then it means his party does not also deserve a second term presidency.”

David-West, on his part, knocks proponents of such a proposal as enemies of the president.
His words: “Anybody who is telling Yar’Adua to go for a second term is his enemy. He has a terrible health condition and has been limping throughout his first tenure. So far he has no credential for a second term. He should rather pray that he completes his first term in office.

“I will advise him never, never to think of a second term. He has not performed well. He has practically failed and that is why the country is in a state of suspended animation. He too should analyze that based on his health condition and how he came to power. He was imposed on Nigerians by (former President Olusegun) Obasanjo. But if anybody thinks that 2011 will be like 2007, such person will be joking.”
Balarabe Musa, who is chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), urged Nigerians to be alert to the antics of the PDP.

“The PDP is a desperate party; there is nothing it cannot do. Nigerians should think of removing the PDP and Yar’Adua for us to make progress as a country. The talk of Yar’Adua going for another term should not arise because it is obvious it is not the wish of Nigerians for him to continue beyond 2011.
‘‘Yar’Adua is worse than the PDP because he was not elected but imposed on us by the court and not through the votes of the people. He is like a military man that shot his way to power. We are all praying for his reign to end after the first term,” he said.

Lam Adesina spoke in similar vein. According to him, those pushing the idea are insulting the sensibility of Nigerians, who he said are unhappy with Yar’Adua’s performance as president.
“I really don’t know what parameters they will use in telling us that he deserves a second term. We are anxiously waiting for them to tell us what he has done that they are asking him to continue.
“This is a man they should ordinarily advise to go and look after his health but all they are scheming is another term for him. We will wait and see what they will tell us qualified him for another term,” the Action Congress chieftain noted.

Dozie Ikedife was also not convinced that Yar’Adua deserves a second term. He noted that until recently, the president was battling to legitimize his election.
“He had a lot of distractions because of that. Now that he has settled down, let us see what he will be able to do. I need to say it is his performance that will determine whether he is qualified for a second term, but he has not been convincing.”

For legal luminary, Niyi Akintola, the PDP could scheme all they want but he believes the choice ultimately lies with Nigerians to decide whether they want Yar’Adua or not.
Like other respondents, the APGA leader, Victor Umeh, pooh-poohed the proposal, saying the president was yet to make a success of the task before him.
He said those planning for a new term for Yar’Adua were simply mischievous because the country was yet to record any significant achievement since he came to power.

Umeh added that the problems on the desk of the president have enveloped him and Nigerians should be allowed to wait till 2011 to determine whether he deserves a second term or not.
“I don’t understand where those asking for new term got their facts from,” he said.
According to Umeh, the president was yet to touch the electoral reform, which he said was very critical to Nigeria’s democracy, while the National Assembly was yet to review the 1999 Constitution.