Former Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Mohammed Abba-Aji, was the first political office holder in the last administration to publicly announce President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to contest the April 2011 presidential election. He went ahead to lead a coalition of support groups that championed the President’s cause, to the consternation of some powerful northern interests. Abba-Aji has now joined those seeking to take control of the ruling party next February. The President’s support may prove decisive at the February convention. Assistant Editor GBADE OGUNWALE reports
As the national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) draws nearer, aspirants to the various positions in the party’s national executive committee have been mapping out strategies and tactics. They are spreading their tentacles far and near with a view to garnering enough support for their aspirations.
The aspirants have been campaigning at relevant quarters, selling themselves to prominent party members ahead of the contest. But one candidate who may stir President Goodluck Jonathan’s conscience is former Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Mohammed Abba Aji who is contesting the national chairmanship of the party with nine other aspirants.
Shortly before the PDP presidential nomination for the April 2011 election, bitter disagreement and internal wrangling rocked the PDP over zoning and the eligibility or otherwise of Jonathan to seek the party’s presidential ticket. In the heat of the acrimony that pitched the President against some pro-north chieftains of the PDP, Abba Aji stuck out his neck and announced to the world that Jonathan would seek the party’s presidential nomination.
He stuck out his neck further into the fray when he came up with Friends of Democracy, a support group that started the campaign for Jonathan’s candidature. In a matter of weeks, many other support groups emerged from the horizon, trumpeting the Jonathan’s cause. At the last count, no fewer than 200 of such groups with various nomenclatures had joined the campaign.
To avoid working at cross purposes, the group led by Abba Aji brought all the other support groups under the umbrella of Friends of Democracy. As coordinator of what had metamorphosed into a coalition of support groups at the time, Abba Aji started a nationwide Jonathan-for-President campaign long before the party could put a campaign machinery in place. With strong media presence, the coalition had already planted Jonathan’s presidential ambition in the public realm. This made the President’s September 18, 2010 declaration at the Eagle Square a mere formality as millions of Nigerians had already caught the “Goodluck” bug. It was after Jonathan had clinched the party’s ticket that the presidential election campaign committee of the PDP took over the task.
Asked if he was expecting a role reversal between him and President Jonathan now that he is seeking to become the party national chairman, Abba reeled philosophical. According to him, his decision to initiate the campaign for the President was borne out of his personal conviction that Jonathan was the best of all the aspirants that indicated interest in the plum job. “So it is a matter of conviction. Nothing stops the President from giving me his support if he is convinced that I am the best material for the job. But he is not under any obligation to do so if he does not believe that I deserve it. My involvement in the Friends of Democracy that started the campaign for the President was informed by my conviction that he was the best man for the job. I did not do it for him as an individual but I did it for the party. I did it for the Nigerian people and I did it for the country. So for me, it was a national assignment and not loyalty to an individual. This is what many people don’t understand and I think it is necessary to make this clarification”, Abba Aji stated.
When it was put to him that despite plunging headlong into championing the Jonathan campaign, Abba Aji said that should not be an issue. According to him, all the people that the President appointed into one public office or the other are qualified to be so appointed and that there can only be one person for any given appointment. “More so there are many others who worked hard in various capacities for the President’s success at the election. So it is not right for anybody to make an issue out of that. I know the President to be a rational person and I believe he is doing the right thing under the circumstances”. The former Adviser said he would rather focus on his plans for the PDP if he is elected to lead the party rather than dwelling on who got what appointment or who didn’t get what. ”On my part, I am offering myself for scrutiny in a process that is entirely the prerogative of PDP members and stakeholders. I am however, humbly presenting to them my nearly forty years of public service at state and federal levels, out of which I have served for twenty-one years in top positions (as Executive Secretary of Health Management Board; Director of Finance and Supplies of Governor’s Office; Director – General (Permanent Secretary) at the state level; Managing Director of NSITF; Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and until last June, Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters. I have also served as member of the Borno State PDP Executive Committee; Member of Borno State PDP Caucus, and Member of the PDP National Caucus for many years. I have also successfully carried out party assignments. As Chairman of the 2008 PDP North Central Zonal Congress, I conducted the congress that produced the National Secretary who is the current Acting Chairman of our great party”. There is no doubt that whoever is going to lead the party in the nearest future is going to inherit myriads of problems, notably how to reconcile the various factions thrown up past disagreements within the party. But Abba Aji described reconciliation as an easy task for any focused leader.
According to the Borno State-born politician, political reconciliation is not a difficult task where there is sincerity of purpose. “Indeed, it is made easy by the fact that all intra party political offences are pardonable. So I will adopt the good old conventional procedure of bringing warring factions together, putting the disputed issues on the table, and discussing them sincerely. It is very much like patching up old friendships. Soon they will even forget that I had anything to do with their being back together. This in turn, will be sustained by the level playing field which I intend to ensure in the party”. The PDP has been saddled with the problem of indiscipline among members an ugly trend the party has been battling unsuccessfully to overcome over the years. This may also present a serious challenge for the next crop of executives of the party. How is he going to ensure discipline in the party if he gets elected as chairman? “I think we have a good measure of discipline in the PDP. In addition to party Standing Committees on Discipline, we also have at all levels and chapters of the party, very senior and experienced persons whose duty it is to promptly check acts of indiscipline whenever and whenever they rear their ugly heads. If I am given the chance, we will design measures to curb indiscipline particularly during election campaigns and I will enjoin my colleagues in all other political parties to do the same,” he said.
One issue he attempted to brush aside was the absence of internal democracy which has led to friction among the various leaders of the party at both the state and the national levels. He retorted: “There has been more internal democracy in the PDP than in all other political parties put together even before the current Electoral Act made it mandatory requirement for all parties. It is a fact that PDP is the only political party whose congresses and conventions are conducted under the watchful eyes of national and international audience. I will, nonetheless, greatly improve on internal democracy through the pursuit of my level playing field and reconciliation agenda”.
Abba Aji will be contesting the chairmanship slot with other bigwigs from the North East geopolitical zone to which the position has been zoned. There are three contestants from Adamawa State. They are Dr. Hassan Adamu, Alhaji BamangaTukur and Professor Jibrin Aminu. There is also Ambassador Idris Waziri from Taraba State, former Bauchi State Governor, Adamu Mu‘azu and his counterpart from Gombe, Alhai Danjuma Goje.
There are three other aspirants from Borno where Abba Aji hailed from. They are Alhaji Shettima Mustafa, Alhaji Gambo Lawan and Alhaji Ibrahim Bunu. How does he rate his chances in view of the intimidating political credentials of many of the aspirants? Abba Aji said: “My honest view is that every one of us in the race is sufficiently qualified to be the next national chairman of the party.
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PDP chair: Leaders, aspirants wait on Jonathan