Why I Rejected Saraki, Mohammed As Northern Leaders’ Consensus Candidates – Tambuwal

Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal, has declared the choice of former Senate President, Mr Bukola Saraki and Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, as northern consensus presidential candidates for the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, as a manipulated arrangement which does not reflect the true situation of things

Speaking in a telephone interview with THE WHISTLER on Saturday, Mr Nicholas Msheliza, the Director of Organization and Mobilization for the Tambuwal Campaign Organisation, TCO, insisted that the process that produced both Saraki and Muhammed was premeditated.

This paper called to find out why the TCO rejected the decision of the Northern Elders who announced Saraki and Mohammed as the choice of the elders for the PDP presidential ticket.

The Ango Abdullahi-led elders had issued a communique on Friday to explain the process they adopted to screen out Tambuwal and Mohammed Hayatu-Deen from among the four aspirants of the PDP and settled for Saraki and Muhammed.

But justifying TCO’s rejection if the elders’ position, Msheliza maintained that such a decision must be all encompassing and not selective to make it the consensus.

He doubled down on the statement issued by the TCO on Friday and insisted that the Saraki-led group of four aspirants could not arrive at a consensus.

The statement issued on Friday by the TCO said, “The correct situation is that the team met on Wednesday 20th April, 2022, at Bauchi Governor’s lodge in Abuja and had a review meeting; and, unanimously agreed that the consensus arrangement was not working.

“The team further agreed that Sen. Saraki should come up with a draft statement on how to communicate this decision to the Nigerian public. This was the last time that members of the team sat and mutually agreed on anything. The proposed meeting to review and vet the statement scheduled for 10 pm of the same day was aborted unilaterally by Sen. Saraki via a WhatsApp message.”

Further it noted that, “On Thursday, 21st, 2022, same Sen Saraki circulated yet another WhatsApp message suggesting that members of the team should head to Minna for a meeting on Friday, Gov. Tambuwal reached other members of the team and informed them that he stands by the decision of the team that the initiative is not working.

“This is the reason Gov. Tambuwal was absent at today’s (Friday) meeting in Minna. As a result therefore, the outcome of the Minna meeting has no consequence or any implication on the aspiration of Gov. Tambuwal, who had earlier on informed his colleagues of maintaining their agreed position that the initiative has collapsed.

“Members of the public should be reminded that what was canvassed for was a consensus candidate and not consensus candidates.”

It insisted that Tambuwal had submitted his Presidential nomination forms and that since the quest for a consensus candidate had clearly collapsed, the governor will go ahead and face screening and contest the PDP presidential primaries.

TCO said the decision of the governor to contest “is in consonance with his acclaimed outlook as a pan-Nigerian candidate, with pedigree of national service as the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, life member of the Body of Benchers and now in his second and final term as Governor of Sokoto state.”

Msheliza, on Saturday, insisted that Tambuwal was not bound by the decision of the Northern Elders as the governor had already denounced the consensus arrangement and demanded it be called off.

He accused Saraki of running a one-man show as he continued to fix appointments for meetings despite apparent collapse of the group.

“When he (Tambuwal) saw that this was not working, he said, ‘see, I am not going to be part of the process.’

“They ( Saraki and co) still went and did what they did. Ok, when they went there, they were only two, where was Mohammed Hayatu-Deen?

“He (Tambuwal) is the leading person for now, so we are not scared of anything.

“The issue is this: consensus, consensus; is it among four friends? You can’t even say it’s consensus or northern consensus because Atiku was not part of it and he’s running.

“So, if you say Atiku is running and you said it’s northern consensus then you are not right and he (Tambuwal) is not part of it. So, they individually, are looking for national consensus within the party,” he insisted.