2023: Children of top politicians jostle to step into parents’ shoes

As the race for the 2023 general elections gathers momentum, children of some governors and former governors have declared to run for various political offices, Daily Trust on Sunday reports. While some of them are seeking governorship positions, others are eyeing House of Representatives seats on the platforms of the political parties their parents belong. […]

As the race for the 2023 general elections gathers momentum, children of some governors and former governors have declared to run for various political offices, Daily Trust on Sunday reports.

While some of them are seeking governorship positions, others are eyeing House of Representatives seats on the platforms of the political parties their parents belong.

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Among those whose children have declared so far are the Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, ex-Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido, ex- Sokoto State governor, Attahiru Bafarawa and ex-Bauchi State governor, Adamu Muazu.

While some have argued that the children of such politicians have the right and are qualified to run for those offices as citizens of the country, others have expressed divergent views, saying the governors and former governors are bankrolling and pushing their sons into political offices in order to continue to feed fat on public treasury.

Some analysts are of the views that some of the children of these politicians are political neophytes and greenhorns who lack the necessary experience for the offices they are aspiring to occupy but rather leveraging on the political influences and financial war chests of their parents to manouvre their ways into plum political offices.

Lamido’s son eyes Jigawa governorship

In Jigawa State, son of a former governor of the state and stalwart of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Sule Lamido, is pushing to occupy the governorship seat. 

Mustapha Sule Lamido has already picked a governorship nomination form to enable him pursue his ambition on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

In a statement made available to journalists, one of his aides, Mansur Ahmed, said a one-time minister of state for foreign affairs, Dr Nuruddeen Muhammad led a large delegation of supporters to Wadata House, the national headquarters of the PDP to purchase the governorship nomination and expression of interest form for Lamido.

Bafarawa’s son, Sagir, in guber race in Sokoto

The Sokoto State Commissioner for Environment, Alhaji Sagir Bafarawa recently declared his intention to vie for the governorship ticket of the PDP.

The commissioner, who is a son of a former governor of Sokoto, Attahiru Bafarawa, announced this at a meeting with members of the PDP executive committee in the state.

He said. “Party is the supreme in politics; that necessitated my meeting with the leaders to receive their blessings.

“However, the leadership of the party has endorsed my aspiration and I want to assure the people that if by God’s grace I succeed, I will continue from where Governor Aminu Tambuwal stopped.

“As a commissioner in the present administration, I have learnt a lot of experience from the leadership of Governor Tambuwal. Therefore, I will continue in that direction if eventually elected the governor of Sokoto State.”

In his remark, the PDP chairman in the state, Alhaji Bello Goronyo, commended Bafarawa for consulting the party’s leadership on his governorship ambition.

He said: “This is a great honour and good development to the part;, as such, we have blessed his aspiration and given him our mandate to declare his intention.”

Adamu Mu’azu’s son joins Bauchi guber race

Son of  a former Bauchi governor, Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu , has indicated interest to contest the 2023 governorship election on the PDP platform.

Ahmed Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu Jnr, who bears same name as his father, has already purchased the PDP nomination form. And he has started establishing his campaign structure. 

The director-general of his campaign organisation,  Dr Kabiru Garba Ilelah, said his principal’s desire to be in the contest is to create employment opportunities, accord priority to health care, education, agriculture , security, rural transformation and industrialisation in the state.

He said the young Muazu was not contesting against the incumbent governor, Senator Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir, who is seeking the office of the president.

He said it was time for a generational shift in the state so that youths would take up leadership positions and demonstrate their capacity in governance. 

The young Mu’azu, an indigene of Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of the state, was born on February 27,1985. He attended the Air Force Comprehensive School, Ibadan. He also graduated from the University of Buckingham, United Kingdom with a bachelor’s degree in Business Studies. He also obtained a master’s degree in Finance from the University of Leicester, United Kingdom.

Pam Jonah Jang joins Reps race in Plateau

Pam Jonah Jang, son of ex-Plateau governor, Jonah Jang, has joined the list of politicians contesting in the Jos South/Jos East federal constituency election in 2023.

He was presented with the nomination form purchased from the PDP by a committee of friends. 

While presenting the form to the young Jang at a ceremony held in Tamarald Hotel, Jos, Dr Dagwom D Toang said, “We fished him out because we want quality representation for people of our constituency in 2023.

“We have done our survey on Mr Pam Jang and seen he has the leadership qualities to represent us at the National Assembly. That is why we purchased the form for him so that he will not have any excuse to turn down the offer.”

El-Rufai’s son, Bello, eyes Reps seat

Bello, son of the governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has joined the race to become a member of the House of Representatives in 2023.

Bello’s campaign posters on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) surfaced online recently.

It could be recalled that Bello was appointed as senior legislative aide to Senator Uba Sani in 2019.

On the heels of Bello’s ambition, the current member representing Kaduna North, Hon Samaila Suleiman has decamped to the opposition PDP.

Democracy must not be turned into monarchy – CISLAC

Reacting, the executive director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, expressed concerns over the trend, warning that politicians should not turn democracy into monarchy.

He said a situation where governors and former governors were pushing their children who may not have the necessary political experience and capacity to occupy political offices, could end up breeding incompetence and mediocrity in governance.  

“This trend of politicians who are still in office or have left office trying to keep their family members in governance, some of them, their children and relatives who are not even known to be in the political cycle but just to secure political favours and also lay their hold on the treasury, is worrisome.

“They are now ensuring that without popular support from the electorate, they can use their influence to install their relatives. This is not really a good development because it is not on the basis of popular support or democratic credentials, competence or experience in their political or social life.

“While we are not disputing the fact that Nigerians, irrespective of their relationship with individuals, are qualified to contest for political offices, but when it is done for the interest of just pushing family members to sustain political interests, sustain the opportunity of manipulating the public treasury and continue to exercise impunity, then it becomes worrisome.

“I think politicians need to tread with caution as this will be tantamount to abusing the democratic rights of other Nigerians who, because they don’t have godfathers who have amassed such much money to pay to political parties or even electoral and security officials, they are denied participation. This is not really good because it is going to distance people from coming into politics as the same people will continue to manipulate and hijack the political processes,” he said.

He continued, “This is why we will continue to find ourselves in bad governance because they lack the experience to manage public affairs. Managing public affairs is not a hereditary thing; it is about putting in people with integrity, competence and proven record of service and advocating social justice including ensuring that people are known for demanding accountability.

“If people don’t have these qualities and the only credential is that one’s father is or was a minister, a governor or political head, I think that is not fair to Nigerians because recycling is tantamount to hijacking the process.

“It is important that politicians tread with caution and respect the sensibilities of Nigerians. At the same time, we are not denying the fact that these individuals have the right, but there should be morality in this because once you are a governor, you have tremendous influence and may likely abuse the process. That is why we need to exercise some caution.

“We will come to a situation where we would have monarchy and not democracy; and this will affect political participation. We must not turn democracy to monarchy, where only family members will continuously inherit political power as it happens in the traditional institution. We don’t want that to happen. It will cripple integrity, competence and patriotic zeal in governance,” he said.