Race for PDP chair heats up

The decision to crown a new chairman for the ruling party may not be taken until March next year, yet the race seems to have already taken off in earnest. Last week’s resolution of the national caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to zone the position of national chairman to the North-east opened up the field for aspirants to emerge from virtually all corners of the six states in the zone.

From Gombe State alone there are at least four politicians reported to be angling for the position. They are PDP national publicity secretary Rufai Ahmed Alkali, former Power and Steel minister Murtala Aliyu, former FCT minister Aliyu Modibbo Umar and Governor Muhammad Danjuma Goje. Also named among potential candidates for the job are former Bauchi State governor Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu, Ambassador Hassan Adamu from Adamawa State and former minister of Agriculture Adamu Maina Waziri from Yobe State

More names are likely to come up given that the PDP national convention for the selection of a new national leadership is not due until March next year. Pundits believe that more than anything else, the Presidency connection factor is likely to determine who gets the job. Closely following this as a potential determinant is the influence of the PDP state governors, who more or less installed the former national chairman Vincent Ogbulafor in 2008.

Below we profile some of the contenders.

Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu

He was governor of Bauchi State from May 1999 to May 2007, and a strong member of the ruling party. Mu’azu attended the School of Basic Studies at the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Quantity Surveying. From 1980 to 1983, Mu’azu worked as a Quantity Surveyor/Project Manager in the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Social Welfare, Youth, Sports and Culture in Kano State. He returned to his alma mater in 1983 and received a Master of Science degree in Construction Management. He served as property manager of the Bauchi State Investment and Property Development Company before attending Birmingham University in the United Kingdom for another master’s degree in Construction Economics.

Between 1984 and 1987, he was chairman of the Federal Polytechnic Idah and chairman of the Benue-Plateau Construction Company in Jos from 1986 to 1990. He was also a member of the Bauchi State Scholarship Board during this period. Between 1987 and 1997, he served in a number of capacities including director of the Nigeria Ports Authority and a member of the Bauchi State Rural Development Council. Mu’azu ran for a Senate seat in the 2007 election but was defeated.

Malam Murtala Aliyu

Since he left public service as minister of state for Power and Steel in late 2002, Malam Murtala Aliyu has not held any top government position. He ran for governor of Gombe State in 2003, and also attempted to seek PDP’s nomination for the 2011 election but dropped out before the primaries. Born in April 1960, Aliyu was in the cabinet of then President Olusegun Obasanjo and left in late 2002 to seek nomination as PDP governorship candidate. The former minister, who is a Fellow of the Nigeria Institute of Quantity Surveyors (FNIQS), is aspiring to be PDP chairman to bring in what associates called “youthful disposition” into the workings of the ruling party. Aliyu has a Bachelor’s Degree in Quantity Survey and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.

He has worked with the Afri-Projects Consortium for many years.

Ambassador Hassan Adamu

Adamu is a household name in Nigeria politics. He is one of the first top Northern politicians to declare support for the presidential ambition of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. He was an ambassador and a former minister of Commerce. Adamu is at present the chairman of the board of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).

Aliyu Modibbo Umar

Dr. Aliyu Modibbo parades a rich resume, having served as minister three times since 2003, and also as a special assistant to the president during the Obasanjo era. He was Minister of State for Power and Steel from January to May 2003, Minister of Commerce from July

2006 to July 2007, and FCT Minister until October 2008.

He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, a Master’s Degree in African Studies and a Ph.D in Comparative Education from the University of California, Los Angeles, United States. Umar was a reporter for the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), and worked in the United States between 1986 and 1992. He was a lecturer at the University of Abuja before moving to work in the presidency in the late 1990s.

Rufai Ahmed Alkali

This incumbent PDP National Publicity Secretary served as Gombe State commissioner of Agriculture and Water Resources, and Commissioner of Education and Youth Development under two different military administrations in 1997 and 1998. In 2003, he was appointed Commissioner for Higher Education and Special Duties. Four years later he was Commissioner of Information, a position he held up to the tail end of 2007. Alkali was elected the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP in March 2008. Professor Alkali attended the Bayero University, Kano where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science in 1981.

He served as Graduate Assistant at the University of Maiduguri before proceeding to the University of Reading, England for a Ph.D in Political Economy. He held various positions at the Nigerian Defence Academy as Senior Lecturer, Head of Department and Professor of Political Science.

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