Why Gov Aliyu made Nasko guber candidate

He said all the aspirants had noted that the incumbent governor was fully committed to anointing his former chief of staff, Mohammed Umar Nasko, as his successor. He said, being the eldest among the aspirants, he fears for the party’s performance in the coming general election, considering the manner the governor is committing resources on […]

He said all the aspirants had noted that the incumbent governor was fully committed to anointing his former chief of staff, Mohammed Umar Nasko, as his successor. He said, being the eldest among the aspirants, he fears for the party’s performance in the coming general election, considering the manner the governor is committing resources on his chosen candidate, despite his ‘unpopularity’.
On whether he withdrew from the race because he was settled by the government, Nuhu Aliyu said he has a hard earned reputation to protect and as such nobody can bribe him.
“I have 35 years of meritorious service in Nigeria Police Force and retired as DIG (and spent) 12 years in the Senate. You can see, I have not just built a name for myself over a day and for that reason I must protect it jealously. So nobody can settle me and if anybody attempts to do so, the whole world will know about it,” he said.
The PDP’s governorship pri-mary election, held on December 8 in Minna, the state capital, produced the former chief of staff and Governor Aliyu’s anointed candidate, Mohammed Umar Nasko, as the winner with 908 votes. Announcing the result, the returning officer, Jibril Martins Kuye, said Engineer Hannafi Sarkin Sudan got 57 votes and Deputy Governor Ahmed Musa Ibeto secured 34 votes. Engineer Mustapha Bello and Saleh Darangi scored 11 votes each while both Garba Dukku and former Military Governor of Kano State Aminu Isa Kontagora got no vote.
Speaking after his election, Nasko said that in every election there must be a winner and a loser. He then called on those who lost to join hands with him to ensure the party’s victory in the general election.
However, five of the aspirants rejected the result, describing the whole election as a charade. Deputy Governor Musa Ibeto, former Minister of Commerce Engineer Mustapha Bello, Garba Dukku, Saleh Darangi and Peter Gana collectively rejected the result at a joint press briefing in Minna shortly after the result was announced.
Speaking on behalf of the group, Engineer Bello said ridiculous figures were just allocated to the contenders by the committee handling the election. He said they are not only rejecting the result but also condemning the entire process.  “We have all rejected the result and we are going to write formally to the party for their necessary action,” he said.
The former minister accused Governor Aliyu of flouting the election regulations to rig the poll in favour of his candidate. “The governor was the first person to cast his vote; the governor went to the delegate of his favoured candidate and handed over his ballot paper to that agent to fill it for him on his behalf, before he went and cast his ballot. If you talk of open-secret, it is no longer secret because someone has written on your behalf,” he said.
He pointed out that the guide-lines say if you can’t read or write or both, then you should give it to someone to fill it for you, who would then give it back to you to go and cast. “We all know that our state governor can read and write,” he added.
He said immediately after the governor’s vote was cast, delegates from the first local government area on the voting arrangement, Agaie, lined up in front of the table of the favoured candidate and kept giving him their ballot papers to fill for them.
“So I tried to object on the floor of the Congress and it occurred to the electoral panel that there was need for them to stand up and explain. But then the explanation, to my surprise, further supported what was started,” he said.
“The question we kept asking was each time a local government was called, the delegates went to the same table. We had about four other agents of other candidates; none of them felt that, oh there is a long queue, let me leave that queue and go to the next agent to help me fill it. So, there was certainly something, a sinister plan that they foolishly thought we were stupid, we will not understand.
“Of course, at a point, I had wanted to walk out, but I felt that I should sit and watch to the end. And now, when the last local government was called, and that was Wushishi, I felt that they have consummated a plan and they have hatched it and it is being implemented, according to what was designed,” he added.
He said the ‘allocation of figures’ was done to ridicule the aspirants because, according to him, there was no way they could be in politics for these number of years and get the votes given to them. He said they have formally rejected the result and their agents had not signed the result sheet.
“And we intend to carry this forward by submitting a written presentation on what we observed on the floor of the proceedings of the primaries and then to enable the party to do something,” he said, adding “we shall continue to work for the party but we will never allow this level of irresponsibility to continue in the party”.
However, the state leadership of the party has dismissed the aspirants’ allegations and accused them of making inflammatory comments. The Publicity Secretary Alhaji Hassan Muhammad Saba described the “primaries as flawless and a reflection of the wish of the people”.He warned “the losers” to desist from making “inflammatory comment that could discredit” the party.
“Our great party also frowned at the press conference addressed by some of those that participated in the election saying they are crying wolf where none (exists),” he said.  “Governor Aliyu who was a contestant for the Zone B senatorial seat in the just concluded primaries said those who emerged victorious in the primaries were subjected to popularity and administrative competence test while party rules were observed in the full glare of all stakeholders.
“The party therefore rubbished the position of the aggrieved contestants over his allowing an agent to write for him. He maintained it is legal and consistent with party regulation for him to do so, adding that there is no provision in the party constitution that makes it mandatory for him to write by himself before voting.
“For those who lost out in the last primaries, I call on you to join hands with the party candidates to ensure PDP win all elective positions in Niger State in 2015. We must not allow selfish interest to erode our sense of deductive reasoning as team players and true democrats,” he continued. “We further condemn the position of the gubernatorial primary losers, intimating that some of them were not in the race to win but to stir up sentiments with the hope of causing crisis in the party and among political allies in the state.” He said the protest of the aggrieved aspirants “is a desperate move to discredit the process”.
However, Engineer Hannafi Sarkin Sudan who came second in the election is now challenging the election in court.
Critics of the election say Gover-nor Aliyu’s determination to make his former aide his successor was a ploy to retain influence in the Government House even after leaving office in 2015. Umar Nasko is seen by many as a young and inexperienced politician who the critics say is likely to rely on his former boss to govern, if he eventually wins the governorship election.