President Goodluck Jonathan Monday visited the the Akran of Badagry, De-Wheno Aholu Menutoyi in continuation of his unannounced visit to top Royal Fathers in All Progressives Congress (APC) controlled states.
Analysts believe this courtesy visits are part of deft political moves the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) intend using to cripple the APC and close the gap the opposition seems to have gained in recent weeks.
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The new manoeuvring embarked upon by the President is two-pronged. It involves extensive consultations with leading traditional rulers especially in APC-controlled states and setting of parallel structures in states where the PDP structure is controlled by a governor of doubtful loyalty as the case with Jigawa and Niger states.
Both approaches appeal to the grassroots people who in the estimation of the President constitute the bulk of the electorate.
Y
esterday, the President intensified his lobby of the royal fathers with a visit to the Akran of Badagry, De-Wheno Aholu Menutoyi.
The President arrived at the palace of the monarch in Badagry at about 10.35 a.m. and was received by the Akran and his Chiefs in Council.
His discussion with the Akran was in private. In the same manner, his discussions with the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, and Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade last Friday was also away from the prying eyes of politicians and newsmen alike.
The President’s visit to the Emir of Kano Ado Bayero in Kano was more ceremonial with expressions from the host and guest in favour of peace and unity of the country.
In the views of former Minister for the Federal Capital Territory, Alhaji Abba Gana, Jonathan as the President of Nigeria should necessarily relate with all stakeholders including traditional rulers who are much respected by the people and who can also play important constitutional roles as in Great Britain, Denmark and some other countries of the world.
These natural rulers relate perpetually with the common people and have a lot of information at their disposal, Abba Gana opined.
Former State Chapter of the PDP in Ogun State, Chief Joju Fadairo added that the move to obtain the support of the traditional chiefs and the people in their domains were better executed through conciliatory efforts.
“I can only tell you if Jonathan is moving about, there is nothing wrong in people trying to reconcile with other people. If he is doing that, I think he is doing it, so that PDP will have a stronghold in the South West. His move is a good one if he is trying to reconcile the people.”
The conciliatory nature of Jonathan’s visit to Ado Bayero is underscored by the presence of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi during the visit. Sanusi’s input to Jonathan’s administration has hitherto been inflammatory and inciting of the common people.
Granted that the President need to interact with a broad spectrum of the society, including businessmen and the academia, the present hobnobbing with traditional rulers may be a precursor to Jonathan’s declaration of his second term bid, observes Olorunnimbe Mamora, who represented Lagos East in the Senate from 2003 to 2011.
“I align myself with the view that the President chose to visit traditional rulers to get support for his second term bid, I want to believe that the visit is more political than any other thing, and of course it is just preparatory to his formal declaration to run for second term. And you cannot stop him from running. He is the President of the country. He is at liberty to visit anybody he so wishes to visit. I will always like to believe that, that visit is political and it is only preparatory to his formal declaration. You see time is running fast and he needs to declare his intention. I want to believe it is part of the consultation effort.
“But if his thinking is to penetrate the South West, it will give him an uphill task because APC is not giving anything to chances, because it in control and it its very strong hold, and what is expected of the party is to concentrate that hold,” said Senator Mamora.
It has also been suggested that the lobby of royal fathers may have dual purposes. Apart from the scheme to silence the opposition by obtaining the strategic support from traditional institutions, it may also have been designed to seek the backing and counsel of the royal fathers for the proposed national conference.
This suggestion was made by the National Chairman of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Chief Ralphs Nwosu, who opined that there is nothing extraordinary about the visits.
“Moreover, the President may have seen the urgent need to pay private visits to these traditional rulers particularly now that the national conference is coming up, to personally brief them on the modalities of the conference and also seek their advice,” Nwosu said.
Before the decamping of five PDP governors to APC, the establishment group within the PDP had already commenced creating parallel party structures in their state to wrest control of the party from the governors.
Now that these governors are no longer in the PDP, the parallel structure set up by the mainstream group is now the caucus in those state chapters.
As such, the structures of the PDP in Sokoto, Rivers, Kwara, Kano and Adamawa are firmly in the grip of Jonathan and his supporters. Remarkably, Jonathan has placed these structures in the hands of reliable political figures, most of them former governors or governorship hopefuls, recent defectors from the APC to the PDP.
Already, former governors of Sokoto and Kano, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa and Ibrahim Shekarau have abandoned the APC for PDP and are expected to be arrowheads of Jonathan’s campaigns in Sokoto and Kano. The same applies to Mohammed Belgore in Kwara who has also dumped the APC for PDP.
There are more heavyweight political defectors in APC-controlled Imo State where former governor, Achike Udenwa and Chief Mike Ahamba (SAN) have thrown away their brooms to pick up the PDP umbrella.
One of Jonathan’s pillars of support in Imo PDP, however, Navy Captain Emmanuel Iheanacho (rtd) has moved to another pro-Jonathan platform, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) on whose platform he declared he will be contesting the governorship of the state in 2015.
Another former governor, this time in Rotimi Amaechi’s Rivers State, Chief Celestine Omehia (SAN) has returned to PDP from his APGA sojourn and he is expected to lead the pack against Amaechi’s APC.
In Niger State, where the governor’s loyalty to Jonathan re-election is not assured, a parallel PDP structure controlled by former Information Minister, Professor Jerry Gana is in place. Governor Babangida Aliyu has an uphill task nominating a successor of his own choice.
Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State also has to contend with a parallel PDP structure in his state which at this very moment is being put in place.
Part of the President’s strategy includes nominating would-be ministers to satisfy certain strategic interests.
Already, ministers who were adjudged loyal to rebel PDP governors as Amaechi and Lamido have been withdrawn from cabinet. Otherwise tendencies from their states may have been favoured this time around.