2015: TAMBUWAL IN SECRET MEETINGS WITH NORTHERN ELDERS…BAD NEWS FOR GEJ AND PDP?

Aminu Tambuwal

As the 2015 political activities take the centre stage all over the country, there are strong indications that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, may dump the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the opposition party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), following the pressure being mounted on him by the opposition to pitch his tent with them.

Analysts said for some time now, the body language of the number four citizen has not only suggested that he may dumb PDP for APC to build a virile, strong, united, and prosperous party.

Investigations also revealed that barring any last minutes change of plans, Tambuwal will contest the 2015 Presidential elections under the banner of APC.

According to sources close to Sunday Independent , the Speaker has been secretly meeting with top politicians from the North and has set up the Tambuwal Presidential Project, (TPP), whose membership, it was gathered, is drawn from top politicians in the North, members of the National Assembly, as well as APC chieftains, who are not disposed to General Mohammadu Buhari’s presidential ambition.

Tambuwal, regarded as the “new entrant into the political scene in the Northern politics”, is seen as the most acceptable among Northern politicians, who desperately yearn for power to return to the North in 2015.

Tambuwal’s choice as a presidential material, according to inside sources, is to represent the loud call for the return of power to the North in 2015.

Sunday Independent learnt authoritatively that those in the North who are following the emerging politics, are of the opinion that Tambuwal, coming from Sokoto State, a key North Western state of the country, would be in better position to slug it out with President Goodluck Jonathan in the event that the President emerged the PDP presidential candidate.

Already, top echelons of APC, who are not particularly comfortable with Buhari running for the Presidency on the party’s platform, are currently said to be holding clandestine meetings to convince the Speaker to join the party and contest the Presidential ticket of the party.

It would be recalled that Governor Aliyu Wammako of Sokoto State recently decamped to APC.

However, Tambuwal cannot leave the PDP now, as he would forfeit his seat in the National Assembly under the new electoral law.

Although, he has not acceded to the APC’s overtures yet, his close associates said his body language is encouraging, but that as a politician, he has to calculate well before deciding on what to do.

Some APC chieftains are also said to have started to mount pressure on Buhari, urging him to drop any idea of contesting the 2015 presidential election.

An APC member of the House of Representatives, who pleaded anonymity, said majority of the members are in support of Tambuwal’s presidential ambition and are already working round the clock to sell the idea to other Nigerians

“We have gone far with the Tambuwal Presidential Project (TPP); we have reached virtually all nooks and cranny of this country to seek support of major stakeholders within and outside the APC.

“We are very comfortable with the response we have received so far. Nigeria and Nigerians would get a better deal if and when we translate the TPP into reality In-Sha Allah”.

“Nigerians must also recall that the emergence of Tambuwal as Speaker was not the making of PDP. Rather, we, the now APC, made it happen and ever since, the Speaker is carrying everybody along, irrespective of ethnicity, tribe or religion, some rare quality of a good leader must possess”, the federal lawmaker, who hails from the North, revealed.

“Tambuwal, as a choice, will attract many more legislators in the Lower House beyond the ruling party’s imagination. He is a rallying point, whose politics cuts across parties and tribes”, the source declared.

In his reaction, Rotimi Makinde, representing Ife Federal Federal Constituency and Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Human Rights, said the Speaker is rated as an asset to the nation and a presidential material to the core, if only the APC leadership will be magnanimous enough to accommodate him as the party’s presidential standard bearer. According Makinde, “I have no doubt that the change we all clamour for at the centre would come to fruition.

“Tambuwal’s leadership in the House has the uncovering of corruption and rot in different sectors of our national life.

“No other leader of the House in the history of Nigeria has ever taken such courageous steps to expose the cankerworms of corruption plaguing our nation”, Makinde declared.

“The choice of Aminu Tambuwal will turn the fortunes of our party around for good. He is well educated, an astute and erudite lawyer, very eloquent and charismatic. I wish him best of luck in his political journey, APC can’t wait to have him as one of us”.

Some APC notable leaders such as Buhari and former Lagos governor, Bola Tinubu, among others, had described Tambuwal as a son to be respected and reverred as leader in APC.

When contacted on phone, a constitutional lawyer and chieftain of PDP, Sani Noah, said that Tambuwal has being a PDP member in principle, adding that from his body language, the society would have known that the Speaker has been in opposition.