Posted by By Chuks Ehirim, Abuja on
President Olusegun Obasanjo's plot to stay in power well beyond 2007 when his second tenure expires is becoming very obvious by the day, especially as his search for a highly respected northerner who would contest election as his running mate, gets hotter.
President Olusegun Obasanjo's plot to stay in power well beyond 2007 when his second tenure expires is becoming very obvious by the day, especially as his search for a highly respected northerner who would contest election as his running mate, gets hotter.
The president, who is having a running battle with his current vice, in spite of all denials, is said to have concluded all arrangements to mount the soap box in 2007, with the governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Ahmed Sani Yerima.
The final deal between the two men was said to have been struck on December 23, 2004, when Obasanjo invited Governor Sani to a meeting in Ota.
The Zamfara governor has also began an elaborate preparation for the presidential race, with his posters adorning strategic cities in the North, South-west and South-east geo-political zones.
Obasanjo is said to have settled for the Zamfara State governor because of his (the governor's) popularity rating in the far North where he blazed a trail as the initiator of the Sharia programme as a major policy of governance of his state. Though that policy almost threatened the corporate existence of Nigeria, Obasanjo refused to challenge it in court.
The president is said be a great friend and admirer of the governor whose popularity he (Obasanjo) wishes to benefit from in 2007. It was this calculation, Sunday Independent gathered, that informed a policy summersault recently, by the governor.
The Zamfara State government had recently introduced a discriminatory policy in school fees which saw non indigenes paying far higher fees than pupils from the state, in public schools. The policy was later cancelled last month, after the Ota meeting the governor had with Obasanjo.
A highly placed presidency source confirmed that the policy which raised school fees payable by non indigenes in the state to N25,000.00, was cancelled because of Obasanjo's intervention. 'The dismantling of that policy was also made public during a courtesy call on the governor in Gusau, by leaders of Yoruba community in the state. The president had a hand in that policy summersault", said the source.
He disclosed that President Obasanjo had feared that the policy could diminish the governor's popularity rating in the North and therefore impact negatively on his 2007 permutations.