Contrary to the belief that former President Olusegun Obasanjo personally hand-picked late President Umaru Yar'Adua as his successor, a United States diplomatic cable obtained by Wikileaks and made available exclusively to NEXT, has detailed how a group of governors led by Bukola Saraki, the Kwara State governor, worked behind the scene to pressure Mr. Obasanjo into anointing the former Katsina State governor as his replacement.

No other person than Mr. Saraki himself gave the account of the political intrigues that threw up the late president to a former US Consul General, Brian Browne.

In a dispatch to Washington on November 28, 2005, Mr. Browne detailed a conversation he had with Mr. Saraki on October 29, 2005, during which the Kwara State governor disclosed the intrigues involved in searching for a successor for Mr. Obasanjo.

The cable revealed that Mr. Saraki and his colleagues had settled for Mr. Yar'Adua in 2005, long before Mr. Obasanjo's third term bid collapsed in the National Assembly and one clear year before Mr. Yar'Adua joined the race.

During his chat with the diplomat, Mr. Saraki identified the three options before Mr. Obasanjo as it concerned the 2007 elections. He said the options were for Mr. Obasanjo to continue in office through the duration of an extended second term, reconciling with and supporting the Vice President (Atiku Abubakar) as his successor and identifying an acceptable compromise successor candidate from among the governors of the time.

Yar'Adua as compromise

Mr. Saraki confided in the Consul General that prior to the 2007 presidential elections, majority of the PDP governors were "meeting constantly in large and small packs to reach consensus on a compromise candidate acceptable to the President."

In their consultations, Mr. Saraki disclosed that the governors agreed that in fulfilment of the deal reached by the leaders of the party in 2003, the presidency should move to the northern region. The governors, as a means to get the reluctant Mr. Obasanjo to accept their proposal, decided to lace the idea with the incentive that such an action would place him in a high pedestal as he would be "the first elected Nigerian civilian chief executive to hand over to another elected civilian".

Mr. Saraki said his camp then considered some northern governors (Abdullahi Adamu of Nasarawa, Adamu Muazu of Bauchi, Ahmed Makarfi of Kaduna, and Umaru Yar'Adua of Katsina) as possible replacements for Mr. Obasanjo. Of all those considered, the governor said, Mr. Yar'Adua was the most attractive.

Mr Saraki liked Mr. Muazu, but questioned whether he had sufficient scope to handle the presidency. He described Mr. Adamu as a poor administrator and someone too much in Mr. Obasanjo's pocket.

Mr. Saraki said Mr Makarfi was an able political strategist who was doing a good job of positioning himself as a dark horse. Mr Makarfi was an intelligent and a good governor, the Kwara governor said.

But overall, Mr. Saraki and his clique preferred Mr. Yar'Adua whom he described as the truly intriguing prospect. "Yar'Adua is quiet, has received good reviews for his performance in office, and he would likely continue Obasanjo's economic reform programs, but with a more humane approach," he said.

Apart from the quiet mien and perhaps his performance as governor of Katsina State, by choosing him ahead of other contending governors from the north, the PDP governors hoped to score some political points for Mr. Obasanjo against his estranged deputy, Abubakar Atiku.

The Kwara state governor explained to Mr. Browne that as the younger brother to Shehu Yar'Adua, the founder of the Peoples Front of Nigeria (PFN) which transformed into the Peoples' Democratic Movement (PDM) under the control of Mr. Atiku, if Mr. Yar'Adua was chosen to succeed Mr. Obasanjo, this might lead to a split in the ranks of the powerful and influential PDM.

"Atiku could lose a significant chunk of his rank-and-file support. The resultant diminution of Atiku's political base by the ascendancy of Yar'Adua would be a consideration Obasanjo would find highly attractive because it would also make it difficult for Atiku to leave the PDP to join forces with another group," Mr Saraki said.

He told the American that these arguments were placed before Mr. Obasanjo while his camp continued to press until the former president buckled.

However, Billy Adedamola, Special Assistant to Mr. Saraki, in a telephone conversation with NEXT described any insinuation that his boss suggested the late president to Mr. Obasanjo as ridiculous.

"Obasanjo is an independent minded person", he said. "Obasanjo has given a detailed account of how he settled for Yar'Adua even when he was aware of his illness. Obasanjo has never said that anybody imposed or introduced Yar'Adua to him. Obasanjo has had a long relationship with the Yar'Adua family even before Bukola knew anything about politics. So, Bukola is not the kind of person that will introduce any member of the Yar'Adua family to Obasanjo."

Tenure extension

Of the three paths available to Mr. Obasanjo to choose from, Mr. Saraki told Mr. Browne the one the former president was most willing to follow was that which would enable him to extend his tenure in office.

The governor's disclosure is contrary to Mr. Obasanjo's oft-repeated claim that he never sought tenure extension.

This plan hatched by the president, the governor explained, involved a constitutional amendment "establishing a single presidential term of six years, with the term extension effective immediately".

If this plan had sailed through, it would automatically have added two more years to Mr. Obasanjo's tenure.

Mr. Saraki explained that the process of constitutional amendment was too arduous, lined with many unyielding opponents and fraught with uncertainties and that he therefore doubted whether Mr. Obasanjo would be able to garner the required support across the country to effect such an amendment.

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