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By Muhammad Akibu Dalhatu
While January 2022 drew to a close, Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal, was in a stakeholders’ meeting in the state capital, surrounded by an august body of men and women who sought to give him the moral imprimatur to vie for the presidency. The message was familiar but the basis was uncommon.
The call on Tambuwal to aspire to the highest political office in the country was based on what most people in Sokoto State and, indeed, Nigeria know and believe about the governor – his sterling records as Speaker of the House of Representatives, governor of Sokoto State and chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum. The exemplary leadership qualities displayed in these offices lent momentum to a growing clamour for Tambuwal to vie for President.
The Sokoto PDP stakeholders endorsed him to run for President in the next general election, and urged him to begin nationwide consultations. The central message of the PDP stakeholders was that Sokoto State and, certainly, Nigeria could not afford to lose or ignore a winning player in the selection of contestants for a critical political game.
Tambuwal has accepted the message of the PDP leaders, and he has embarked on a nationwide consultation to try to figure out how to approach the issue.
“I have listened to our party leaders, women and youths on the call that I should initiate and begin the process of consultation with a view to running and contesting for the President of Nigeria under the banner of our great party,” Tambuwal told the stakeholders during the meeting held at the PDP state secretariat in Sokoto on January 31, 2022.
In line with the ancient truth that charity begins from home, Tambuwal began his consultations from his home region, the North West. On the first leg of his nationwide consultations, February 1, the lawyer and graduate of Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto, visited Jigawa State, where he met with former Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, at his home in Birnin Kudu Local Government Area of the state.
Tambuwal was accompanied on the visit by former Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, Deputy Governor of Zamfara State, Mr. Mahdi Gusau, former Deputy Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Mukhtar Shagari, former Minister of Power, Bello Suleiman, and former chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bello Muhammad.
Others included former director, Counterterrorism, Office of the National Security Adviser, Gen. Sarkin-Yaki Bello, and Aminu Koko.
Tambuwal and his entourage were welcomed at Dutse International Airport by a large and joyous crowd led by Mustapha Sule Lamido, son of their host. The governor’s motorcade rode at a snail speed for about two hours in a journey that should take less than 30 minutes to Bamaina, Lamido’s town.
In Bamaina, Lamido said Tambuwal possessed the track record and national outlook needed to overcome Nigeria’s challenges, which had been worsened by a worrisome spate of ethnicity and religious division under President Muhammadu Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) government.
“Our son here is like me,” the former Jigawa State governor stated, regarding the Sokoto State governor. “We have similar and parallel positions in government. I have even held more sensitive positions than him.”
Lamido said he looked forward to seeing Tambuwal in the country’s highest political seat, saying he was eminently qualified to run for the highest office in the land.
Describing Tambuwal as a “pan-Nigerian that would be just,” who was needed to put the country back on the path of peace, progress, and harmony, Lamido said, “We can reach out to all Nigerians across the geographic and other divides in our bid to support him.
“This does not suggest that we are beggars hungry for power. Instead, we are worthy stakeholders with friends in many parts of the country who we can persuade to see reason with us in the realisation of the Nigerian project.”
Thanking Lamido for receiving Tambuwal and his entourage, former Governor Bafarawa said, “You are not just a former governor but a great political mobiliser who people still respect and follow, despite the fact that you have been out of office for almost seven years now.”
On Monday February 7, Tambuwal and his entourage were in Gusau, the Zamfara State capital, in continuation of his consultations. He was received by Zamfara State Deputy Governor, Mahdi Aliyu Gusau, as well as the state PDP leader, including the state chairman.
While sympathizing with the people of the state over the insecurity that had claimed many lives, Tambuwal stressed that it was imperative for leaders of PDP in the state to close ranks so as to take over power in 2023.
He expressed optimism that PDP would reclaim Nigeria and Zamfara State in the 2023 general election, stating that the rollback of the fortunes of the PDP in leading Nigeria and Zamfara State would soon be over.
“If we succeed in our bid, the country will witness a reversal of the current bad fortunes,” he said.
Deputy Governor Gusau, in his remarks, said he was solidly behind Governor Tambuwal’s presidential ambition and urged Tambuwal to carry the entire Zamfara PDP along in his quest to become President of Nigeria.
“There’s no turning in our determination to back him all the way,” Gusau said, while listing the sterling political credentials of Tambuwal.
The next day, Tambuwal’s consultative train berthed in Kebbi, where the Sokoto governor and his entourage were accorded a rousing welcome by the Kebbi State PDP leaders and members, including the deputy national publicity secretary of the PDP, Ibrahim Abdullahi; former Minister for Special Duties, Alhaji Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, SAN; former Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Ishaya Rinzi Bamaiyi (rtd); Gen. Sarkin-Yaki Bello; former General Officer Commanding, 8 Division, Sokoto, Gen. Aminu Bande; and former national women leader of the PDP, Hajiya Maryam Waziri.
In his remarks, Tambuwal said, “The PDP in Kebbi State is united.
The PDP in Kebbi State is compact and strong. I appeal to you to work together as a family to attract more members from the opposition because there is a lot of trouble in the other house.
“I know they will leave and come here. When they come, I implore you to be very magnanimous so that, when they come, you should be accommodating and carry everybody along, so that, together, God willing, we shall win the elections here in Kebbi State and in Nigeria, come 2023.”
Tambuwal also spoke on the state of the nation, lamenting that Nigeria was “on the verge of collapse as a result of insecurity, debilitating healthcare system, poverty, falling standard of education, corruption and other ills that have become the hallmark of the APC administration thus far.”
Welcoming the Sokoto governor, former acting national chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bello Halliru Muhammad, said Nigeria needs a competent, trustworthy and courageous leader like Tambuwal.
“Nigeria is in bad shape after years of (misrule) by President Muhammadu Buhari. The country has never been so divided along ethnic and religious affiliations like now. If a worthy person doesn’t take over, Nigeria risks breaking apart.”
The Kebbi State PDP chairman, Alhaji Bello Usman Suru, in his remarks, gave an unequivocal endorsement of Tambuwal for President and pledged the unalloyed support of Kebbi PDP.
Suru said: “Historically, we in Kebbi are one with the people of Sokoto. You don’t need to campaign here. All the state delegates, chairmen of local government wings and members of the executives in the state will vote for you.”
Last Thursday, Tambuwal was in Katsina, where he met PDP leaders and stakeholders as part of his consultations for the 2023 presidency.
At the Katsina State secretariat of the party, where he met with PDP elders and stakeholders, Tambuwal pleaded for unity among party members, adding that it would be easier to reclaim power from the ruling APC with a united front.
While pledging an all-inclusive government that would bring back hope to Nigerians, if elected President, Tambuwal said Nigeria had “never been this divided with several agitations and insecurity at a very alarming level.”
He, therefore, said reclaiming “power from the APC is a must to save the nation from the current decay.”
He also had a brief stopover in Kaduna, where he visited former governor of the state, Senator Ahmed Makarfi. During the visit, Tambuwal emphasized the need for unity in the party as a precondition for reclaiming power from the APC.
He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to follow the footsteps of former President Goodluck Jonathan by bequeathing free, fair and credible elections in 2023. He also counselled the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to conduct free, fair and credible elections.
Urging the INEC boss to leave a lasting legacy for himself, Tambuwal said, “As I said before, the head of the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has only one option. That option is to leave a lasting legacy. From my knowledge, he is from a very good family background.
“So, he needs to actually make sure that he does not soil that his family history and his own personal history by ensuring he conducts a free and fair election.”
The impressive retinue of leaders and supporters that accompanied Tambuwal and those that received him in the states he visited in the North West demonstrated the quality of endorsement he had secured at home so far.
But the call on him to contest for President has grown beyond the realm of his state and party into a broader national appeal. Many of those who had followed him in 2018, when he sought the PDP presidential ticket but lost to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, still desire to see him in the presidential seat. And many more have joined the train.
One thing remains sure, those calling on Tambuwal to contest are not selling the public an idea that is not based on verifiable truth, as is the wont of many politicians in the country. They have gone for the Sokoto State governor based on qualities everyone can see and feel.
•Dalhatu is a commissioner in Sokoto State
