Nigeria Content Online

In order to secure
the support of former president Ibrahim Babangida for his second term
bid, Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State has reportedly
promised to help Mohammed, the former president’s son, to succeed him
in 2015, NEXT has learnt.

Mr Aliyu, who is a
cousin of Mr Babangida has also contacted Mohammed’s two sisters, Aisha
Shinkafi who is married to the governor of Zamfara State, and Halima,
the last child, to seek their support for his re-election. Aminu
Babangida who is the second son is said to be largely unavailable
because he mostly lives abroad.

Sources say
although the former military President has not made any public comments
in support of Mr Aliyu’s candidacy, Mohammed’s siblings have began in
various ways to campaign for the incumbent who is the PDP candidate in
tomorrow’s election.

Halima is
reportedly more excited by the idea of her brother becoming the state
governor in four year’s time and has taken the matter to heart,
campaigning a little more vigorously for Mr Aliyu’s reelection. On the
eve of the gubernatorial election yesterday, she met with some opinion
leaders in Zone C, which is overwhelmingly a CPC stronghold, to
convince them of the merits of voting back the governor.

Our source said she
made the argument that it is better for the incumbent to get a second
term than allowing anyone else from another zone to win the polls which
might deny the zone their chance for another eight years.

Our turn

The governor has
been eager to reverse the tide of opposition against the PDP in the
zone. The first non PDP senator in the state emerged from the zone
during the parliamentary election, and the people voted en masse for
Muhammadu Buhari two Saturdays ago.

Mrs Shinkafi has also made phone calls to many opinion moulders, urging them to support Mr Aliyu’s bid.

The Babangida
children have for the most part lived in Minna, but their father’s
birthplace is Wushishi which falls under zone C. According to the PDP
zoning arrangement in the state, the zone is billed to produce the next
governor of the state after the tenure of the incumbent who hails from
zone B.

Sources say
Mohammed has since gone to Wushishi to acquire a PDP membership card so
that he would be well placed to launch his campaign from there at the
appropriate time.

Uneasy friendship

The governor who
assumed office in 2007 has had an uneasy relationship with retired
General Babangida whom he had on more than one occasion traduced in the
media. He once suggested that Mr Babangida’s tenure as president
contributed to the backwardness of the north.

The governor has
never shown the former president the kind of fawning adoration he got
from the previous governor of the state, Abdullahi Abdulkhadir Kure,
who treated the Babangidas like royalty. Unlike Mr. Kure who got the
job partly as a result of the support of Mr Babangida, Mr Aliyu, a
lifelong bureaucrat owed his position to the patronage of Olusegun
Obasanjo who was then Nigeria’s president.

Mr. Babangida had
preferred another candidate, Muhammadu Gunna, who won a controversial
PDP governorship primary but couldn’t contest in the election because
he was under investigation by the EFCC for money laundering.

The overtures

However, as the
governorship election approached the governor’s popularity waned, no
thanks to a series of unkept promises and the Buhari phenomenon which
engulfed most of the north. His confidence of winning the polls
nosedived when in two successive elections he lost in his polling unit.

Since then, the
governor has sent emissaries to all those with whom he has had a
falling out. About a week ago, he sent delegates to meet with the
former governor, Mr Kure, to ask for his forgiveness. The emissaries
reportedly quoted copiously from the Quran to convince the former
governor on the vitues of forgiveness.

A source who was
at the uphill mansion of the former president two months ago, said
Akeem Afebua who is Mr Babangida’s spokesperson had walked in to ask
Mr. Mohammed when he intends to begin his campaigns.

According to this
source, Mr Mohammed had chuckled, but another friend from the INEC
office who was there said, “we are making preparations. We already have
a warehouse of campaign material.’’

When NEXT contacted Mr Afegbua, he denied that there is such a deal.

“You must know that
the governor and the General are cousins. And in what way has Mohammed
campaigned for the governor? Has he said anything publicly?’’

Reminded of the comment he made on the day he came to visit, Mr. Afegbua said: “I was just joking.’’