Jonathan, Sheriff and the Maiduguri rally

Outstandingly vocal and forthcoming with assurances was two-term Borno State governor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, who went so far to pledge that President Jonathan should hold him responsible if he failed to deliver Borno to him and the PDP. According to him, he would make sure that the All Progressives Congress (APC), which is the […]

Outstandingly vocal and forthcoming with assurances was two-term Borno State governor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, who went so far to pledge that President Jonathan should hold him responsible if he failed to deliver Borno to him and the PDP. According to him, he would make sure that the All Progressives Congress (APC), which is the ruling party in Borno, got less than 30% in the February elections. President Jonathan and his crew must take this assurance with a pinch of salt; furthermore they ought to take proactive steps by reviewing their relationship with Sheriff if they really want to win even the mandatory 25% in Borno State.
Perhaps President Jonathan and his crew had forgotten that Sherriff is so close to him (Jonathan) that he (Sherrif) even as an opposition governor in the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) was asked to nominate someone for appointment as minister of state, he nominated his sister-in-law. In return, with all the powers at his disposal, all the money and influence as the governor of Borno State, he could not deliver the mandatory 25% for Goodluck Jonathan in the 2011 elections. The question begging for answer now is how can he do it now outside the protective arms of government, plus being bereft of the old ANPP structures? Unless President Jonathan and his crew satisfactorily answer this question, they should consider Borno State lost if Sheriff is allowed to be in charge of  Borno  PDP and Jonathan’s presidential campaign.
 Only recently, as Sheriff was defecting to PDP, he boasted that he was transplanting the soul of APC to PDP. He boasted that since he installed Governor Kashim Shettima, and surrounded him with his ‘boys’, once he decamped, the Shettime government would crumble. The National PDP was naturally expectant, believing that finally they had landed the big fish.
 But come D-Day, PDP suffered losses for welcoming Sheriff into the party: Out of the three senators representing Borno, PDP lost its two Senators to APC.
Out of ten members of the House of Representatives, two were already of PDP, while APC had eight. From APC’s eight, Sheriff was able to drag only three with him to PDP; five remained in APC.
From the 28-member House of Assembly, only five defected with Sheriff to PDP; and no APC  executive in any of the 27 local government areas,  except maybe one or two, went with Sheriff to PDP.
From Governor Shettima’s administration, only two out of 20 commissioners followed Sheriff to PDP.  His deputy for eight years, Alhaji Adamu Dibal, majority of the past and serving chairmen of LGAs and party chairmen chose to remain with Gov. Shettima in APC.
Before his defection, Sheriff had boasted that he was going to the PDP to bring  Borno State to the mainstream out from the opposition where it had been since the dawn of this dispensation in 1999.
To all intents and purposes, he appeared to be working to achieve this:  So far, PDP’s National Secretariat was willing to tag along. For instance, they have given him a considerable leeway in choosing the governorship candidate and other flag-bearers for the party in the coming elections. After Alhaji Gambo  Lawan emerged as the consensus candidate of all the PDP gubernatorial flag-bearers and ‘old’ PDP stakeholders,  Sheriff somehow personally intervened and, with the backing of PDP’s National Secretariat, replaced Gambo Lawan with  Alhaji Mohammed Imam.
 As a matter of fact, Sheriff was confined to the sidelines in APC, making him increasingly bitter, frustrated as the party refused to succumb to his wishes.
When the APC was formed, Sheriff did everything possible to take over the party in Borno when the state’s caretaker executives were to be formed. At one point, he came into Borno with a contingent to swear in a list of executives, but failed because Gov. Shettima prevailed.
After the caretaker committees were formed by Gov. Shettima, Sheriff did everything possible to make the APC National Committee to reject them; it didn’t work. During the state congress, Shettima’s camp emerged as the elected state executives, and at APC’s National Convention, Shettima determined Borno’s representatives and in the NEC. This again clearly established the fact that Sheriff had lost relevance in Borno politics; but unfortunately the PDP seems bent on rehabilitating him at its expense.
 In Borno PDP, there are political heavyweights, including the current leader of the party in the state, Mohammed Wakil, Minister of State for Power; Mohammed Kumalia, former Minority Leader; Ibrahim Bunu and Mohammed Abba Gane, both former ministers of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT; Shettima Mustapha, former Minister of Defence; Hajiya Inna Ciroma, Director-General Nigerian Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and Senator Sanusi Daggash, former Minister of Works; Alhaji Umar Kareto, PDP former National Treasurer and  the Borno National Assembly caucus who, if properly motivated and directed, could convincingly deliver President Jonathan in Borno. But to trust the fate of Borno PDP in a spent force like Sheriff would certainly spell disaster for the party.
Indeed, Sheriff’s action in replacing Lawan with Imam has brought him at loggerheads with the ‘old’ PDP stakeholders in Borno who had vehemently protested to President Jonathan and PDP NEC, and sworn never to cooperate with in any manner.
However, from all indications, the Abuja PDP appeared to be carried away by the past history of a man who used to be known as the ‘strongman’ of Borno politics.
This sobriquet came into use when  Sheriff,  in connivance with the then National Executive Council of the defunct All Peoples Party (APP) deprived late Alhaji Mala Kachalla of a second term ticket on APP’s  platform in the 2003 General Elections.
Kachalla ran on the defunct Action for Democracy (AD platform) but was defeated.
Having sacked Kachalla from APP, Sheriff imposed himself as the governorship candidate of the party.
Aliyu wrote from Maiduguri
 In second term, 2007 to 2011, he succeeded in turning Borno into a one-party state, and completely wrecked the opposition PDP there.  Sheriff’s short reign as the ‘strongman’ of Borno politics was terminated in 2011 when, as incumbent, he was defeated in the Borno Central Senatorial District election.
Sheriff’s deputy, Alhaji Adamu Dibal in a recent interview confirmed that indeed Sheriff was rejected at the polls and anybody he opposed, like Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, won their elections after they defected to the PDP from ANPP.
 In summary, all indications on ground show that Sheriff is bereft of any energy to deliver either himself for his senatorial ambition or to deliver President Jonathan for the February 14, presidential election.

Aliyu wrote from Maiduguri