BY HENRY UMORU
THE National Executive Committee, NEC, of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, September, 18, at its 66 the meeting, adopted President Goodluck Jonathan as the party’s sole presidential candidate to be ratified at the December 6 National Convention ahead of the 2015 election.
According to the NEC, the move thereby closed the gates against any other presidential aspirant. The PDP organ argued that this became imperative because no serious party would change a winning team like Jonathan’s which “has performed with its transformation agenda and has also changed the face and ensured the well-being of Nigerians”.
Preparatory to the NEC meeting, governors elected on the platform of the PDP, members of the National Assembly, the party’s Board of Trustees, BoT; National Caucus and the state Chairmen had announced their endorsement of the president.
Governor of Niger State and Chairman, Northern States Governors’ Forum, NSGF, Muazu Babangida Aliyu, at the meeting, spoke on behalf of the PDP governors; a former Deputy National Chairman of the party and member of the party’s Board of Trustees, Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun, spoke on behalf of the BoT; President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, who doubles as Chairman of the National Assembly, spoke for the National Assembly and Ambassador Justina Eze spoke for the PDP women.
Soon after they spoke, a former Acting National Chairman of the PDP and erstwhile Minister of Defence, Dr. Haliru Mohammed Bello, moved a motion to give the endorsement legal backing.
A former governor of old Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo, seconded the motion
Soon after the secondment, the PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, put the motion to vote and members of NEC unanimously adopted the president’s endorsement.
A Presidential Declaration Committee with Haliru Bello as Chairman was immediately raised.
After the inauguration of the committee, Mohammed disclosed that the president would formally declare to Nigerians that he was presenting himself for re- election, November 11.
He said, ”The president gave us the task to organize the modality for creating a platform for him to meet Nigerians and announce his response to the various calls for him to come out and declare his interest in the presidential election. The date that is fixed is Tuesday, November 11. On that day, there will be a forum for the president to meet Nigerians to announce his decision.”
Preparatory to the declaration, Jonathan stormed the Wadata Plaza, PDP National Secretariat, penultimate Thursday, where he was presented the Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms by the party’s National Organising Secretary to enable him contest the election.
By picking the forms, the stage is now set for the man, Mohammed, to formally present the president to Nigerians and the world, on Tuesday.
After the PDP’s victory in the 1999 elections, President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed Mohammed as a Commissioner for the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).
He was appointed Minister of Communications in June 2001 in a minor cabinet reshuffle at a time government was planning to privatise Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), replacing Mohammed Arzika, a post he held till May 2003.
When he left as Minister of Communications in 2003, he returned to the administration of the PDP as National Vice Chairman for the North-west comprising the seven states of Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, Jigawa and Zamfara.
In March 2008, he was elected the Deputy National Chairman of the party to former National Chairman, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor. In January 2011, he emerged the PDP’s seventh National Chairman, but in acting capacity when Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo stepped down from the position of Chairman of the PDP.
After he emerged the acting National Chairman of the PDP, Mohammed championed the interpretation of the controversial zoning system of the ruling party to favour Jonathan.
At the PDP primaries of Thursday, January 13, 2011, he played a key role by saving the PDP from what could have rubbished the party if he had not assumed the position of Acting Chairman because Nwodo had stepped down in compliance with a court order. Before he came up, Nwodo was already preparing to speak and introduce Jonathan as the party’s candidate. The party knew the implication of such an action and immediately asked Mohammed to take charge.
Soon after the 2011 election, Mohammed was made the Chairman of a 20-member Board of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC). He was later made the Minister of Defence.
The compensation with the appointment to head a key ministry was interpreted against the backdrop that the PDP zoning formula was somehow jettisoned under the watch of Mohammed as party Chairman thus failing to re-elect another northerner in the 2011 presidential election, after the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua.
Later, Mohammed was removed as Defense Minister.
Now, he is heading a sensitive Presidential Declaration Committee with nine sub-committees.
He is the man that will, on Tuesday, present Jonathan as the presidential candidate of the PDP to Nigerians.