As plans for the 2019
general elections are underway, high-level stakeholders have moved to throw
their weights behind three aspirants from the northwest to vie for presidency.
The top politicians
gathering the support of these northern elders and leaders include the governor
of Sokoto state, Aminu Tambuwal, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso and a former minister
of special duties, Turaki Tanimu.
Vanguard reports that
support of the elders have began to lean towards Tanimu, although Tambuwal and
Kwankwanso have been in the radar for sometime.
Also, it was gathered
that some generals including former president Olusegun Obasanjo and several
emirs have stuck their necks for Senator Kwankwaso emergence's as president in
2019.
A source said:
"Obasanjo has been briefed on him, but he is holding back." Also, an
associate of the former president said: “Even the manner of his (Tanimu’s)
entry into the contest inspires suggestions of some high-level influence
pushing his candidacy."
However, a northern
based politician in the Tanimu campaign team said there is a repeat of
political pattern in Tanimu's possible emergence.
The politician said it
was clear that Shehu Shagari’s original aspiration was to be a senator, but the
principalities were able to nudge him towards the presidency.
But a source said that
Obasanjo's determination for the former Kano state governor is based on the
long-running political association between the former president and Kwankwaso
who also served as a minister in the Obasanjo administration between 2003 and
2007.
The source said:
“Kwankwanso is someone like Buhari, a northern irredentist who will appeal to
the same political base as Buhari and that is one reason counting for
him."
“We know him, and the worst of him is not worse than Buhari; he is
well educated, and going into the presidency we can be better prepared to get
our agreements with him better than those who burnt their fingers with Buhari,”
a politician from the southern region of the country said.
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