2015: OBJ, IBB, PDP govs to float new party

Obasanjo & Babangida

The seeming cold war between former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, and the Presidency appears to have taken a new twist as he and former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, as well as some sitting governors on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have perfected plans to float a new political party ahead of the 2015 elections.
In the plot, driven mostly by some serving and former governors from the Northern part of the country, Obasanjo is expected to make a statement in mid-2013, stating reasons for power to return to the North in 2015. Also in the know of this plot are two serving governors from the South-South and about 10 former governors; three from the South-West and two of whom are in the current Senate, as well as not less than 30 serving senators on the platform of the PDP. This development is coming on the heels of a private meeting between the two former military leaders a few weeks ago in which both issued a statement on the current state of insecurity in the country, particularly in the Northern part, just as Obasanjo had denied media reports that he was propping Jigawa governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, and his Rivers counterpart, Rotimi Amaechi, for president and vice president respectively in 2015. A source close to the two Generals told Sunday Tribune that the thrust of the meeting of the duo was mainly on the 2015 presidential election, even as both weighed the possible consequences of any desire by President Goodluck Jonathan to seek re-election in 2015. The president has neither denied nor confirmed that he would, again, take a shot at the nation's number one position in 2015. All the same, the PDP spoke through its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, that it would rather wait to confirm the move, describing Sunday Tribune's inquisition as 'speculative'. "We have issued a statement on the alliances the media have been reporting all along; we remain unperturbed because the people elected us and when the time comes, the same people will decide our fate. No amount of gang up will be looked at as important. "On the unconfirmed reports of possible formation of a break away party from the PDP, let us wait until that happens; we will wait to confirm such stories than react now", Metuh told Sunday Tribune on the telephone. Nonetheless, our source said, "all things being equal, the situation will unveil itself by mid 2013." "Whatever we think about these two men (OBJ and IBB), they are politicians who will continue to give direction and good counsel to the people of this country, their shortcomings notwithstanding, because no one is faultless. "I can confirm to you in confidence that when they met, the issue of the 2015 presidential race was in the front burner vis-a-vis the possible implications the rumoured ambition of the current president will have on the nation. "As men who had fought once to keep this nation together, they owe it a duty to give proper direction at all times. But you know, this is politics; the office of the president is like god. So, they equally believe and are not oblivious of the fact that a lot can happen under a president. "So, the issue about the next presidential election is being looked into from different angles that will engender unity and cohesion in the country. If need be, a new political party, a veritable platform, will emerge by mid-2013 to provide the needed vehicle for that national unity and cohesion I am talking about; and by the time someone like OBJ speaks at that point, the nation will know better," he said. Sunday Tribune learnt that one of the grouses of former President Obasanjo is the sudden loss of political relevance to the Senator Bola Tinubu-led Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the South-West, apart from the fact that the zone is the less patronised in the present dispensation under Jonathan.