Isa Umar Gusau
3 November 2008
Maiduguri — In February this year, Borno State governor, Ali Modu Sheriff of the ANPP told visiting President Umaru Musa Yar'adua before a mammoth crowd in Maiduguri, prior to the ruling of the court which upheld Yar'aua's election that "the people of the state (ANPP supporters) will vote for the president in his future political endeavours."
Recently, Nigeria's first lady, Hajiya Turai Yar'adua was in the state to launch her campaign on Women Coalition Against HIV/AIDS and she was received with elaborate fanfare. Though the visit wasn't a political one, some observers believe Sheriff may finally gain unimpeded access to Aso Rock.
Call him whatever name, one thing is certain; governor Sheriff is a 'smart' politician who works ahead of time to beat his opponents or get what he wishes to get. Sometimes, he stops at very few limits to attain his targets. Sheriff was able to penetrate the late general Sani Abacha with whom he was said to have enjoyed very close relationship while the dark goggled general ruled from 1993 to 1998. Under the Abacha era, Sheriff, it was said, was one of those whom the late head of state confided in; hence he gained considerable access to Aso Rock even when many faced severe restrictions.
Under General Abdul-salami Abubakar who took over soon after Abacha died in 1998, Sheriff apparently went slowly, perhaps since the government promised it would be there only for a short while to usher in a democratic regime after long military rule. In any case, the period was for political permutations so as to form or associate with political parties ahead of the proposed 1999 general elections. In 1999, governor Sheriff was elected into the senate to represent Borno Central. Again, with his rare political tactics, he became the senate minority leader.
While he was minority leader, Sheriff wrestled the then governor of his state, late Mala Kachalla. He outshined Kachalla, forced him out of the ruling All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) to the Action Congress, took control of the party structure until he emerged governorship candidate, and finally won the 2003 elections.
Sheriff's next goal was to break the jinx in Borno State ahead of the 2007 elections, to emerge the first ever to be re-elected as governor in the state's political history and to achieve that he apparently needed the support of the president, Olusegun Oba-sanjo who was already serving a second term in office. Thus, Governor Sheriff began plotting.
In 2005, he was reported by the media to have told some state house correspondents that there was no vacancy in Aso Rock in 2007, suggesting to many that he was among those that made early declarations in support of Obasanjo's ill fated bid for third term in office. There were pressures from some close associates of Sheriff to come out and deny the report, but the governor never did. With that single shot, the governor appeared to have received Obsanjo's blessing to join the camp of loyalists, who wished Mr President well.
Still in the same year, Sheriff had another opportunity to prove his unshaken loyalty for the president, which he displayed even while he had to sacrifice his tie with the family of his late benefactor, General Abacha.
A narration from competent source had it that "the late former head of state's widow, Hajiya Maryam Sani Abacha was on her way to Maiduguri for a condolence visit and she needed government's courtesies like accommodation, feeding and some kind of small convoy as a former first lady. While she was approaching Maduguri, governor Sheriff, who knew she was on her way, decided to seek clearance from Obasanjo before according her any state treatment. Obsanjo, in his typical vengeance told Sheriff not to accord the former first lady any courtesy from government because the federal government reached some agreements with her (Maryam Abacha) and she didn't fulfill her own part of the agreement. So, the governor passed the information to Maryam through a government official but the former first lady insisted she was still coming to Maiduguri and she did but made her private arrangement with family friends until she finished her condolence visit."
That scenario, apparently added to Sheriff's high rising profile before Obasanjo. The former president had never failed to tell those who cared to listen that Sheriff was actually PDP man in spirit even though physically carrying ANPP card. For instance in 2005, Obasanjo had said, in his characteristic joke, in Damasak, Mobbar local government area of Bono State, when he visited to commission a power project donated by the Japanese government, that Sheriff was a PDP man. Soon after his utterance, he was said to have turned and looked straight into the governor's eyes, apparently to clear any doubts.
In 1996, there came the heated debate that surrounded Obasanjo's third term bid. Though his party, the ANPP took a position against the tenure elongation agenda, Sheriff never opposed it, at least not in the public. Perhaps his firmness earned Maiduguri, (which was just coming out of a bloody religious turmoil over the Denish blasphemous cartoon) the hosting right for the north east public hearing on constitutional amendment, which was evidently staged to manipulate public views to reflect support for the aborted third term bid.
Obasanjo didn't succeed to rule the country beyond 2007 but then governor Sheriff attained his target of being the first to be re-elected governor in Borno's political history. The PDP stakeholders in the state mounted considerable pressures on Sheriff, including having his name contained in EFCC's controversial list of indicted candidates and also stopping Obasanjo from a state visit to Maiduguri to commission Sheriff's projects which the governor desperately wanted. But Obasanjo only sold a dummy to the Borno PDP because not only did INEC adopted Sheriff as governorship candidate, the PDP alleged that the for-mer president actually gave his support to Sheriff and deceived his party members.
Clearly, governor Sheriff's exploit paid him after all and soon after Obasanjo's exit, President Yar'adua seemingly became the governor's next target. Some yet to be identified politicians who apparently anticipated Sheriff's moves towards Aso Rock made a fast move to distance the president from the governor. Series of articles in newspapers, apparently planted, showcased that Sheriff was working to sponsor former Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF), Ambassador Babagana Kingibe to emerge PDP's presidential candidate in the event that Yar'adua's election was quashed by the tribunal. The articles sent so much panic around Sheriff. Quickly, the governor refuted the claims. Speaking through his director of Press, Usman Chiroma, Sheriff said he at no time showed any support in someone taking over Yar'adua's seat. The gover-nor's media team issued press releases while their boss was said to have rea-ched out on phone to the SGF's office to claim innocence since the article also implied that the governor was out to cause bad blood between the former SGF and the president.
That development appeared to have slowed down Sheriff until the issue of the Government of National Unity (GNU) came up. Sheriff, it was gathered, was key factor to the ANPP's decision to join the GNU but he tactically distanced himself publicly, leaving former governor of Zamfara State, Ahmed Sani Yerima to do the 'dirty work'.
But an opportunity came, that governor Sheriff couldn't afford to lose, so he could lay another foundation for a renewed romance with Aso rock. The moment was when President Yar'adua visited Maiduguri on 21st February, 2008 on the invitation of Sheriff, to commission the same projects Obasanjo failed to commission. While making his speech, the governor declared his political loyalty and that of the entire ANPP in the state for Yar'adua. Where politicians use the word 'support', Sheriff categorically said the people of Borno "will vote for President Yar'adua" in any of his future endeavours.
Also in his effort to secure access to the president, Sheriff allegedly gave "tremendous support to the Adamawa PDP" during the re-run governorship elections early this year. Associates of Sheriff however absolved the governor of assisting any political party order than the ANPP.
Recently, there was another opportunity for Sheriff to move close to the Yar'adua. The first lady Hajia Turai Yar'adua was in Maiduguri, and day and night the governor organized befitting reception for the first lady, apparently taking into consideration popular opinion that Turai is the 'power behind the thrown'.
With Kingibe's exit, the coast appeares clear for the Borno governor to move a step further and win Yar'adua's confidence. Already, there are media reports indicating that Sheriff is currently making frantic efforts to have his younger brother, Mala Sheriff, nominated as minister, in the on-going cabinet re-shuffle, to take Borno's slot under the GNU arrangement. This has however been denied by ANPP leaders in the state.
There are some who think Sheriff wants to get close to Yar'adua as he may eventually declare for the PDP given the unpredictable nature of life after immunity. However the same rumour about his decamping to the PDP was speculated prior to 2007 but the governor never left the ANPP.
But whatever intention he might have, one thing seems clear from his antecedents as well as his talks about voting for Yar'adua, that governor Sheriff wants to establish closer ties with the current president as it was between him, Abacha and Obasanjo: but will Yar'adua accept him
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