By Abdu Labaran Malumfashi & Yusuf Ozi-Usman

General Muhammadu BuhariIndications have emerged that the political North may have decided to close ranks in a bid to ensure that the presidency remains in the region for the next four years after the presidential election next year, in fulfilment of the principle of power sharing agreement between North and South.
Accordingly, two former military leaders of Nigeria, General Muhammadu Buhari and General Ibrahim Babangida as well as former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and General Aliyu Gusau, who is presently the National Security Adviser, are togather talking with a view to presenting a concensus candidate for the 2011 presidential election.
General Babangida dropped this hint Thursday when he spoke to Hausa services of  the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Voive of America (VOA), Radio France, and others in his Minna country home. A correspondent of one of the Broadcasting Organizations made the recording of the interview available to Peoples Daily Weekend at the State House in Abuja yesterday.
The development is coming on the heels of the expected declaration of President Goodluck Jonathan for the presidential contest on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the possibility of him becoming the party’s flag bearer.
According to General Babangida, some prominent and respected Nigerians have recently met him in his house and went to individual houses of Buhari, Atiku and Gusau to appeal to them to come together and present one of them as presidential candidate for the 2011 presidential contest.
The former military president who did not give details as regard the political party under which they will present a common presidential candidate in the event that President Jonathan eventually get the PDP ticket, said: “the four of us in particular are talking to ourselves now.”
General Babangida and Atiku have separately declared their intention to contest the 2011 presidential poll on the platform of PDP, while Buhari, though yet to publicly declare his presidential ambition, will likely emerge as the presidential flag bearer of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) while Gusau is still serving the government as Chief Security Officer.
“Just yesterday night, I assured those prominent and respected members of the Nigerian society who came to me that, the four of us are certainly going to take the challenge of working together for the common good of all Nigerians.”
He gave assurance that they are not taking anything for granted in their quest to make sure that the presidency remains in the North for the next four years.
Meanwhile, Peoples Daily Weekend has learnt that a 12-man committee of eminent Nothern elders has been raised on Wednesday and charged with the responsibility of comming up with a concensus aspirant who would vie for and, hopefully, fly the flag of the PDP during the 2011 pesidential election.
According to our information, the 12-man committee, which is expected to be joined by three Northern PDP governors as members, has former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon as Chairman and former Minister of Finance, Alhaji Adamu Chiroma as coordinator. Other members include former Head of state General AbdulSalami Ababakar, Former Inspector General of Police, Muhammadu Dikko Yusuf, former Kaduna State Governor, Alhaji Lawal Kaita, Chief Solomon Lar, Alhaji Bello Kirfi, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, Alhaji Sule Katagum and former Senate President Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, among others.
Already, an emmissary has been detailed to meet the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum (NGF) and Niger State Governor, Dr. Babangida Aliyu to nominate three of his colleagues who would join the committee to bring its number to 15.
The decision to set up the committee, Peoples Daily Weekend learnt, was in response to the growing agitation, believed to be sponsored from the Presidency, for President Jonathan to contest the elections in contravention of the extant power sharing arrangement of the ruling PDP. This position is strengthened by the perceived move by the leadership of the PDP to manouvre the party’s ticket for the presiden’s easy access.
It is understood that the committee will invite all the Northern PDP presidential aspirants to a meeting in Kaduna where they are expected to be seriously interrogated with a view to pruning down their number to an only aspirant who would go to the party’s primary election as the sole representative of the North. The meeting with the aspirants is scheduled in two weeks time.
Already, there are signals from General Babangida and Alhaji Atiku indicative of their preparedness to reach a concensus. Babangida is said to have a plan ‘B’ to fall back on in the event he is not able to clinch the PDP ticket for the presidential election. The plan, according to available information, is for the former military ruler to throw his weight behind an aspirant whose aspiration is yet only wispered among a very tight group of northern politicians. The ‘dark horse’ is someone with an excellent political pedigree, who has held a senior office in the nation’s leadership hierachy and several ministerial appointments.

Bunch of no hopers.

Old cargoes struggling to be relevant again

Gang of thieves joining forces to destroy the country more,while ordinary nigerians are moping like zombies.They have nothing to offer but thuggery and backwardness.

For nigeria to move forward,the present crop of nigerian politicians must be taken out of the picture by crook or by nook.

This nonsensical name-calling is politically worthless. The members of the 12-man group mentioned in the post must be taken seriously if the historical accounts of Nigeria mean anything to anybody. I am surprise that the name of Solomon Lar appeared as one of the members since his name has been invoked as one of idiotic and senseless voices that are willing deny the northern region of Nigeria its conventionally agreed merit of governance.

Is dis all about Country or region?Shameless ATIKU who as VP could not fix the road from Gombe to Yola his state capital only for Jonathan to help him with that,NONSENSE!Gowon shd stay outta dis.I am a northerner bt region is not an issue we shd be lookin at Country.

debeginin:

Is dis all about Country or region?Shameless ATIKU who as VP could not fix the road from Gombe to Yola his state capital only for Jonathan to help him with that,NONSENSE!Gowon shd stay outta dis.I am a northerner bt region is not an issue we shd be lookin at Country.

Damn!

they have teamed up to fail

These four can only join forces if you pass a law that will prevent 3 out of the 4 not to contest. Then they may happily queue up behind the fourth man.

But so long as they still all have a chance to contest. They will never agree on anything.

Besides, Buhari will not step down for anybody because he thinks he is the holiest man qualified for the office.
IBB will never back Buhari because he considers Buhari narrow minded bigot
Buhari will never back IBB because that will puncture his claim to sanctity
Atiku Abubakar belongs to no political party and hence his support of lack of it means nothing to anyone right now.
Gusau Nobody can quite work out where his loyalty lies!!!! The man is a chameleon.

So once again this is clearly a made up story!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very funny indeed.  Manny, Moe and Jack, the three evil mechanics, have predictably joined their doomed and wasted efforts together, to the delight of swarming professional jesters who will dance around them, ululating hollow songs of bogus praise in exchange for small flea-bites off the rapidly dwindling stacks of stolen public money embezzled from national treasuries by those three murderous career felons.