2015: Will APC anoint Tambuwal as presidential candidate?

However, very recently, rumours had it that the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), might have resolved to endorse the  Tambuwal as  its presidential candidate in next year’ selection. As stated earlier, this is not the first time, his name is being associated with the presidency in next year because less than one year […]

However, very recently, rumours had it that the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), might have resolved to endorse the  Tambuwal as  its presidential candidate in next year’ selection.
As stated earlier, this is not the first time, his name is being associated with the presidency in next year because less than one year into his tenure as Speaker, many newspapers have been publishing articles associating him with the 2015 presidential election with many people both big and small making calls on the young and vibrant Tambuwal to garner the guts and run for the presidency next year. However, it was former military president General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd) who amplified these calls when he urged Tambuwal to seek for higher positions.
Indeed, it is a truism that those making the calls are not without genuine reason because it will be stating the obvious to say that Nigeria is in deep and serious crisis.
More than ever before, the largest black nation on earth is faced with multifarious and multifaceted challenges which many admit is threatening the foundation of its very existence as one, united and indivisible nation.
It is also a general con-sensus in Nigeria that the enormous socio-economic and political problems bedevilling the country are largely as a result of leadership failure. This failure is apparent at all levels right from the family up to the national which I strongly believe might have informed the
In the same vein, it is a general belief that the failure of successive leadership in Nigeria followed the faulty pattern of leadership recruitment over the years. We have seen in this country, where people who are never prepared to lead end up being the custodians of the destinies of millions of people at various levels of governance. The result is what we now have at our hands: insecurity, corruption, nepotism, crime, poverty, diseases etc.
For Tambuwal however, the reverse is the surely the case because if not for anything, he has been in the National Assembly since 1999 first as a legislative aide and in 2003 he came in as a lawmaker, principal officer and Speaker in 2011.
Therefore, if we are serious about the new order of things in this country, then we must as a matter of necessity and urgency make it a duty to begin to consider merit above all other things in choosing our leaders at all levels. We also must begin to identify potential leaders like Tambuwal in our mist and prop them up for our good as is done in many societies which we look up today as so called models.
As for the presidency in 2015, I strongly believe that Tambuwal would be a wise choice for the plum job based on merit and on no other platform than the APC.
Many believe that in the last two and half years Tambuwal has demonstrated an unequal ability, capacity and zeal that are required of any leader in steering the affairs of the Green chamber despite many obstacles in his way.
First, he will still be less than 50 years by the next general polls. This gives him great advantage as a young and energetic man to saddle the responsibility of the office of the President and even if he gets two terms he will still leave office without attaining 60 years of age.
Secondly, Tambuwal’s cosmopolitan nature and ability to reach out to people from all walks of life puts him well ahead of many others. His election on June 6th 2011 is a testimony to this where he galvanized both PDP and opposition MPs to vote for him.  
He also has been making history by attending church services in different denominations and donating millions of Naira for church buildings and missionary schools in Nigeria.
In one of such instances, when he visited the congregation from inside St. Cyprian’s Anglican Church, Koroma, Tai local government area of Rivers State, in 2012, the Speaker took time to explain to the Christian congregation that Islam is a religion that respects the sanctity of human life and places of worship and due deference to adherence of other faiths. He said that Prophet Muhammad placed high premium is his respect for churches and monasteries during his lifetime and enjoined his followers to do same. “In theory and orientation, Islam and Christianity are not antagonistic to each other,” Tambuwal said.
It is worthy of note that this kind of outreach is lacking in Nigeria of today and in fact, it is what brought us to where we are, no wonder in his remarks at the occasion, Bishop of Ogoni Diocese of Anglican Communion, Right Reverend Solomon Gberegbara, commended Tambuwal for addressing the congregation of his church, saying for the first time in his Episcopal life, he listened to a Muslim address his congregation in church. Reverend Gbere-gbara described Tambuwal as exceptional, and urged Nigerians to live in peace with one another for deve-lopment.
Now, while the call for new generation of leadership may not be totally out of place; it is very necessary that our next president should be somebody who though young, has the capacity to reach out to the old generation, somebody who respects the elders and who the elders can also trust. Tambuwal comfortably fits into that clime.
It is on record that, the House has had its own share of negative publicity in the last one year, scandal. However, unlike in the past where such allegations of high level corruption stems from the top, this time around, Tambuwal has been able to come out very clean and with his head up which is a testimony of his incorruptibility as a leader.
Therefore, if corruption is the bane of Nigeria’s development, if the APC is a party that is all out to bring sanity, social order, rule of law and corruption free Nigeria, then we truly need an incorruptible leader like Tambuwal as President in 2015 under its platform.

Pamzhi wrote from Federal Low Cost, Jos