PDP: How IBB Was Forced Out-- (He Should STAY OUT)!

[I Love Nigeria]

PDP: How IBB Was Forced Out
• The 3 options Obasanjo gave him
From Tunde Rahman, Sufuyan Ojeifo and Oke Epia in Abuja, 12.11.2006
Culled from ThisDay-on-the-web

and is expected to claim his right to remain as Vice-President even if he decamps from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

There were strong indications yesterday that former military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, who resigned his membership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the weekend was forced to quit the party by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Apart from demanding a letter of resignation from Babangida after the former infantry general chose to leave, Obasanjo was said to have dispatched a presidential jet to Minna to fetch the written communication.

Babangida, according to THISDAY checks, had sought from the President a waiver from today's screening of PDP presidential aspirants by the Presidential Screening Comm-ittee headed by Chief Bayo Akinola, a request that was turned down.

Instead of a presidential waiver, according to impecable sources, Obasanjo at a meeting between the duo last Thursday presented Babangida with three options that were like Hobson’s choice.

The three options Obasanjo gave Babangida were: one, to join the queue of other presidential aspirants and be screened; two, to remain in the party as a chieftain and forget any presidential ambition he may habour; and three, to take an alternative platform.

It was gathered that Babangida rejected the first option apparently unsure of what the outcome would be in a season when many aspirants are being disqualified without any reason given. He was also said that having decided to seek the presidency, he could not at this point chicken out, prefering instead to run regardless of what the outcome would be.

Not wanting to take chances, Babangida was said to have settled for option three, citing the need to provide leadership and a platform for his followers who are desirous of his return to power in 2007.

It was learnt that Obasanjo, who in the course of the meeting had tried to be conciliatory without shifting grounds, agreed to Babangida’s decision to seek the presidency on the platform of another party outside the PDP.

The meeting was said to have lasted three hours after which Babangida decided to tender his letter of resignation from the PDP to Obasanjo who goes by the official title of 'leader of the party' rather than to the PDP National Chairman, Senator Ahmadu Ali.

It was gathered that the presidential jet sent to Minna on Saturday to pick up Babangida’s letter of resignation from the PDP touched down at 2.30 p.m. and departed at 4.35 p.m.

Babangida, it was further gathered, did not disclose the platform on which he has decided to run to Obasanjo when the president tried to lead him on by asking jocularly whether he (IBB) was going to contest on the platform of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP).

It would be recalled that Babangida had a few weeks ago, led a mammoth crowd of supporters to the national secretariat of the PDP where he obtained his expression of interest and nomination forms of the party.

His entry into the race had set off fresh calculations within the rank of the party just as new alignments and re-alignments were introduced into the contest for the PDP ticket. He however, returned his forms through proxies last week.

THISDAY learnt that between Thursday and yesterday, Babangida had launched into a series of consultative meetings with his close associates to perfect the new road map to his 2007 presidential contest.

There were clear indications that he may have decided to prosecute his presidential ambition on the platform of the NDP under the chairmanship of Second Republic Minister of State for Transport, Alhaji Aliyu Habu-Fari.

He was said to have held a two-hour meeting with the NDP Chairman at his Hilltop Mansion yesterday as part of the new arrangements to give political direction to his supporters.

In confirmation of his readiness to go the whole hog in respect of the presidential election, Babangida had told THISDAY in an exclusive interview in August this year that he would rather lose the presidential election than chicken out of it.

The President is believed to be indisposed to the 2007 aspiration of Babangida and had relayed his position to the latter even before he collected and returned the nomination forms of the PDP.

A terse communication issued by the General to his key campaign arrowheads, which THISDAY scooped, indicated that Babangida quit because of what he considers a moral dilemma in contesting for the PDP ticket with some of those whom he considers his subordinates. ILN asks: He is not by any chance ARROGANT is he?

By this development, Babangida may use the occasion of a planned press conference on Wednesday to announce his withdrawal from the PDP race even as he and most of his supporters are not likely to be at the PDP national convention this Saturday.

PDP: Uncertainty over IBB's membership
By Emmanuel Aziken & Rotimi Ajayi
Posted to the Web: Monday, December 11, 2006
Culled from Vanguard-on-the-web


*As Atiku announces party platform this week

ABUJA—AS the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) begins the screening of its presidential aspirants today, uncertainties are still surrounding the continued membership of the party by General Ibrahim Babangida.

Vice President Atiku Abubakar who has been ruled out of seeking the party’s ticket is due to announce later this week the party on whose platform he hopes to actualise his ambition, while there are indications that northern political leaders may have narrowed their presidential choice to three.

Although sources close to the Babangida camp denied that he had left the PDP, they would not rule out his possibility of changing camps depending on what happens at Saturday’s national convention where he is expected to be a frontline contestant.

“He has not resigned. But by Saturday, we’ll know where we are going,” a source close to him told Vanguard yesterday.
General Babangida himself is scheduled to address a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday

Atiku on platform

However, Vice-President Atiku will later this week make a pronouncement on his political affiliation ahead of the 2007 general elections and is expected to claim his right to remain as Vice-President even if he decamps from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
His expected pronouncement follows his success in quashing his suspension from the PDP in the court. He is thus within the week expected to indicate the platform he would use to accomplish his presidential ambition.

Against the background of last weekend court’s victory, Vanguard gathered that there were contemplations within and outside the Atiku camp of the possibility of seeking a compromise for the Vice-President within the PDP.

However, a source within the Atiku camp played down the idea, saying the stage had been passed for any possible reconciliation between the Vice-President and his enemies within the party. “We have gone past that stage and the PDP is now a rotten party, but the point has been made with the court victory,” one source within the Atiku Campaign Organisation said yesterday.

The campaign spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu, told Vanguard that the Vice-President would reveal his political affiliation this week. “The Vice-President will give an indication of the direction he is going within the week, but so far he is consulting,” Shehu said last night. He did not give an indication of the forum or method the Vice-President would adopt in revealing his political affiliation ahead of the PDP presidential primaries holding at the end of the week.

North narrows choice

Meanwhile, there are indications that the political leaders from the northern part of the country have narrowed down the number of aspirants from the region to three.
These are Governor Adamu Abdullahi (Nasarawa), Governor Umar Musa Yar’Adua (Katsina), and former National Security Adviser, General Aliyu Gusau.
The streamlining of the aspirants from the North to three was informed by the determination of the region to clinch the 2007 Presidency, sources said.

It was learnt that the northern political leaders met in Abuja, weekend, and resolved that every support from the area should be channelled into ensuring that only these three aspirants are supported at Saturday’s national convention of the PDP.

It was gathered that meetings preceding the streamlining of the aspirants were coordinated by a prominent serving Minister from the North. Following the weekend meeting, it was learnt that both Governors Adamu and Yar’Adua have been reaching out to their colleagues in other parts of the country to solicit their understanding.

[DaBishop]

The first shall be last is in the good book.

[Abraxas]

Hi, folks!

General Ibrahim Gbadamosi BABANGIDA's role model, General Augusto PINOCHET of Chile, died yesterday at the ripe old age of 91 years, from a massive heart attack following repeated episodes of strokes, cough, craw-craw, cholera, and gonnorhea.

Let us all join hands and pray that IBB enjoys the same fate as Pinochet in his old age (in the mighty name of Je-e-e-e-e-e-e-sus!)

Muchas gracias.

Don Juan Carlos ABRAXAS (III)
(His Eminence, Sheikh Sadiq d'Fcuk of Sakkwato Caliphate, Dafur & Dubai Emirates)

[I Love Nigeria]

IBB: I Withdraw for Gusau, Yar`Adua
• Obasanjo commends him for loyalty
By Kola Ologbondiyan in Lagos, Sufuyan Ojeifo and Oke Epia in Abuja, 12.12.2006 http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.p...ter_friendly=1

Former Military President, General Ibrahim Bada-masi Babangida (IBB), has said the moral dilemma of standing for the Peoples Democratic (PDP) presidential primary election against Katsina State governor, Alhaji Umaru Yar'Adua, as well as the former National Security Adviser (NSA), General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, accounts for his decision to opt out of the race.


His letter sent to President Olusegun Obasanjo became public knowledge on a day PDP decided to grade its presidential aspirants in the course of the screening exercise.
Babangida, who stated this in a two-page letter, dated December 9, and addressed to Obasanjo, however, promised to explore other options in advancing his commitment to democracy and the nation.


Obasanjo has since acknowledged the receipt of Baba-ngida's letter and commended the former military ruler's "character of loyalty to a cause and to friends, dead or alive".


But Babangida, who in the letter revealed that he had been wrestling with the dilemma of having to face Yar' Adua and Gusau at the PDP presidential primaries, said he later came to the decision of withdrawing from the race.


"Those who know me know my relationship with the Yar’Adua family.
"The Patriarch, Alhaji Musa Yar’ Adua, took me as his adopted son with his son, the late General Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua and instilled in the late Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua and me that nothing should be done by either of us that would give the impression that there is a strain in our relationship.


“To me, this extends to his younger brother, Alhaji Umar Yar’Adua, who I take as my younger brother. Whenever I see him, I see the late Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua and I am always reminded of what his late father told us about our relationship.”


Recalling that Yar’Adua visited him as soon as he collected the PDP nomination form to solicit his support as an elder brother, Babangida said he "freely gave" the governor his support.


"I still stand by that (Support). What this means is that I will not be in competition with him. This is what he would expect from his late elder brother, Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua”.
On Gusau, Babangida said the bond of friendship between him and Obasanjo's erstwhile NSA will be 40 years by next March, stressing that, "it will be 40 years of close, intense, harmonious relationship extending to our immediate and extended families.


"He, too, came to me to ask for my support as soon as he collected his form even though he knew I had already collected mine. Out of abiding mutual loyalty, he knew when I said, ‘you have my support’, that I wanted it to be so.


“So, on personal moral grounds, I would rather allow these two gentlemen to continue with their ambition in the PDP. I value many years of harmonious relationships and no amount of attraction of politics will make me subject that harmonious relationship to unnecessary and avoidable strain,” he submitted.


In a swift acknowledgement of IBB's letter, also dated September 9, Obasanjo expressed "surprise and pleasure" over the decision taken by Babangida.


Expressing understanding and appreciation for the former military president dilemma of "having to give your support to two close people at the same time for the same office," the president said "this is even easier handled than having to compete with both of them at the same time."


Obasanjo, in his two-page letter, also said: "Knowing you (IBB) as I have known you over the years, this decision of yours, which must be appreciated and commended by all well-meaning friends of yours and those who might not be so friendly, is a clear indication of your good-naturedness and your character of loyalty to a cause and to friends, dead or alive.


“This is one attribute I have found to be quite uncommon in some quarters within the political arena in these days. It therefore must be applauded by one and all whenever and wherever it is found. I so applaud you! Together with other elder statesmen, you can join hands to continue to build as a non-partisan contributor."


Describing the decision of IBB to withdraw for him and Yar' Adua as "commendable", Gusau who spoke with THISDAY last night, added that there was no other way through which Babangida could have shown his loyalty to friends. "I thank him for doing this for me and the late Yar' Adua," he said.


Meanwhile, PDP has listed and allocated percentage scores to eight criteria to guide the screening of its presidential aspirants ahead of the primary this Saturday.


On the list of criteria meant at grading the aspirants are, integrity (15 per cent); patriotism (10 per cent); ethno-neutrality (10 per cent); commitment to the rule of law (10 per cent); transparency (10 per cent); and tolerance (5 per cent). Others are knowledge and awareness of development in the country (10 per cent) and any leadership quality (15 per cent).


These amounted to a total of 85 per cent, but the party was silent on how the remaining 15 per cent would be determined to achieve a total of 100 per cent.


Reeling out these criteria yesterday while inaugurating the presidential screening committee of the party, National Chairman, Senator Ahmadu Ali, said the screening exercise was “designed to ensure that the best amongst all of us emerge as potential candidates in order to maximize electoral prospects.”


Ali urged the committee headed by Chief Bayo Akinola to be guided by the party’s list of desirable qualities released by the National Executive Committee (NEC).


He said the PDP owes a duty “to present before the electorate men and women of integrity with unblemished reputations. We owe Nigerians a duty to present before them people of unquestionable patriotism and the requisite strength of character to steer our country on the path of the successes and reforms embarked upon by the current administration of President Olusegun Obas-anjo.”


The national chairman who formally announced the withdrawal of Babangida from the race, assured all contestants for the party’s ticket that “the appeal for a reduction in number is not in any way meant to tilt the tide in favour of any candidate or to create a disadvantage for any of them, but to encourage consensus-building and unity of purpose.”


Observing that the committee had also developed a set of criteria to assist in its work, Ali urged the members to be firm and “deliver fair and just verdicts to the satisfaction of all.”

[No Smoking]

Meanwhile, PDP has listed and allocated percentage scores to eight criteria to guide the screening of its presidential aspirants ahead of the primary this Saturday.

On the list of criteria meant at grading the aspirants are, integrity (15 per cent); patriotism (10 per cent); ethno-neutrality (10 per cent); commitment to the rule of law (10 per cent); transparency (10 per cent); and tolerance (5 per cent). Others are knowledge and awareness of development in the country (10 per cent) and any leadership quality (15 per cent).

These amounted to a total of 85 per cent, but the party was silent on how the remaining 15 per cent would be determined to achieve a total of 100 per cent.

Na wa O!! Such low per centages assigned to heavy pieces of democratic values. Shikena. Will it be written or oral tests to determine "knowledge and awareness"??