Those who want Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo ‘s job\u00a0 should be\u00a0 very happy with the current crisis in the PDP.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Reason being that,\u00a0 he has\u00a0 been\u00a0 in the back seat as regards resolving the\u00a0 crisis, despite the fact that the major players in the crisis are governors from the north, the region\u00a0 where\u00a0 he\u00a0 is supposed\u00a0 to be\u00a0 the\u00a0 number one political leader.\u00a0 And\u00a0 it is a common practice in Nigerian politics, that such crises\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 involving\u00a0 major players from a particular region of Nigeria\u00a0 are\u00a0 most times\u00a0 tackled by\u00a0 a political stalwart from the region\u00a0 who is holding the most senior national political position.<\/p>\n
When Atiku Abubakar and Goodluck Jonathan were vice presidents,\u00a0 they played such roles. Atiku was instrumental in dousing the heat\u00a0 when\u00a0 speaker Ghalli Na ‘Abba ‘s leadership of\u00a0 the\u00a0 House of Representatives attempted to impeach former president Olusegun Obasanjo.<\/p>\n
Similarly, the then vice president Goodluck Jonathan was\u00a0 Yar ‘Adua ‘s point-man in\u00a0 stemming\u00a0 the tide of\u00a0 the Niger Delta crisis and he (Jonathan) perfectly achieved the expected results.<\/p>\n
In the present Nigerian political scenario; Vice President Sambo\u00a0 is-or should be-the primary representative of\u00a0 the entire northern block in the Jonathan administration, and the north is his primary constituency. As a sitting vice president, he should have been that most needed point-man for President Goodluck Jonathan in the north, thus he should have been instrumental in appeasing the aggrieved PDP governors from the north.\u00a0 Rather,\u00a0 President Jonathan\u00a0 has seen himself being\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 preoccupied with negotiating with people he does\u00a0 not\u00a0 even understand their language.\u00a0 Why is Namadi Sambo not playing that very important political role?<\/p>\n
Before becoming the governor of Kaduna state, Namadi Sambo was not among Kaduna state ‘s thorough-breed first-rate politicians.\u00a0 His then boss; Senator Ahmed Makarfi made him the governor in an attempt to sideline Suleiman Hunkuyi and\u00a0 Yusuf\u00a0 Hamisu\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mai Rago.With the current situation of things, vice president\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sambo\u00a0 appears to still be\u00a0 living inside the shell of Kaduna politics.<\/p>\n
A\u00a0 mere look at his close political aides attests\u00a0 to this. It seems\u00a0 VP\u00a0 Sambo is not a natural aggressive politician in terms\u00a0 of building vast contacts and influence.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This has resulted in his inability to establish the necessary political structure in the north.\u00a0 Furthermore,\u00a0 Sambo always\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 tries to play safe as well as be politically moderate to avoid any collision with his boss, but the Nigerian politics sometimes requires a calculated adventurism. Moreover, some Governors in the north see Namadi Sambo as their equal or even see him as a junior when it comes\u00a0 to the art of politicking.<\/p>\n
Political pundits and indeed Namadi ‘s boss, President Jonathan must have been expecting the vice president to be at the forefront in resolving\u00a0 the\u00a0 current crisis in the PDP, even before it escalated into\u00a0 its\u00a0 present market square\u00a0 fight status. The impression in the polity is suggesting that Namadi has not\u00a0 made\u00a0 any calculated political move to pacify the governors and convince them that they are doing more harm to him than to Jonathan. Even if he had done something, it\u00a0 has not yielded\u00a0 any\u00a0 tangible\u00a0 results.<\/p>\n
Well, it is not late for vice president Mohammed Namadi Sambo to do a reality-check on how strong he is in terms of influence and\u00a0 connections\u00a0 in each state\u00a0 of\u00a0 the north. He should reach out and build a strong political base in each state in the north. He should create for himself\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a political charisma like that of Atiku Abubakar- connect not only to the top ladder politicians\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 but those at the bottom – this can be done via strong connection with the traditional class, experienced politicians and those holding political power including\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 establishing\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 people through government patronage. His boss, President Jonathan is an easy going politician- he would give him some good space to play such politicking.<\/p>\n
Coming back to the current crisis in the PDP, vice president Sambo should make a calculated and silent move to reach the aggrieved governors for a win-win solution.\u00a0 He could utilize the elderly personality of\u00a0 Governor\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Murtala Nyako,\u00a0 being\u00a0 a\u00a0 former military governor and Chief of Naval\u00a0 Staff.\u00a0 Governor\u00a0 Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso- could also be useful\u00a0 due to his vast political experience and influence. Vice President Sambo should see the current crisis in the PDP as a\u00a0 real\u00a0 challenge\u00a0 to\u00a0 his political career and he must stand up to it, except he wants\u00a0 to be\u00a0 continually seen as\u00a0 a political liability to President Jonathan indeed.<\/p>\n
Zayyad I. Muhammad writes from Jimeta, Adamawa State, zaymohd@yahoo.com, 08036070980. He blogs at www.zayyaddp.blogspot.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Those who want Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo ‘s job\u00a0 should be\u00a0 very happy with the current crisis in the PDP.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Reason being that,\u00a0 he has\u00a0 been\u00a0 in the back…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n