2015: LAMIDO, AMAECHI POSTERS FLOOD KADUNA

Barely 24 hours after the grand finale of the reconciliation meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the race for the 2015 presidential elections heightened as the  campaign posters of Governors Sule Lamido and Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi of Jigawa and Rivers states respectively flooded Kaduna state yesterday.

The unsigned posters depicted the picture of Lamido as a presidential candidate of the PDP and  Amaechi as his running mate in the 2015 general elections.

The posters adorned strategic places within the Kaduna metropolis, particularly the Doka central area, just as other posters depicted only the picture of Lamido as the PDP presidential candidate in the 2015 general elections.

The posters are believed within  political circles to have sent jitters down the spine of President Goodluck Jonathan as well as Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo, who hails from Kaduna state and was governor of the state before ascending to his present position of number two citizen in June 2010.

The duo of Jonathan and Sambo are believed to be warming up to continue flying the flag of the party in the coming dispensation in spite of allegations by some northern state governors and leaders of the PDP that Jonathan had signed a single term agreement between 2011 and 2015. The presidency has since denied signing such an agreement.

The imbroglio in the party over positions and agreements, especially over interests in the North, came to the fore last Saturday when the national chairman of the PDP and the  party’s National Working Committee’s reconciliation tour of the North-west zone in Kaduna was boycotted by Lamido and his Sokoto and Kano counterparts, Alhaji Aliyu Wamakko and Engineer Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso respectively.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, and many northern legislators also shunned the Kaduna meeting.

The absence of the governors at the meeting aimed at reconciling aggrieved parties was made more evident as they were not represented by their deputies or  secretaries to state government, thereby giving an indication that all was not well within the party.

The arrival of the posters barely two days after the scantily attended meeting may be a statement by the proponents of the Lamido/Amaechi ticket ahead of 2015  that the political pendulum is swinging too fast for an accurate reading of what lies ahead or if the status quo can be retained.

Source: Blueprint