Mega coalition: Disregard Shekarau, he is an APC mole in PDP – Calculate
• Says ex-gov’s opposition against Atiku’s movement inspired primarily by jealousy
In this interview with newsmen, Adamawa renowned politician, Alhaji Umar Bello Jada also known as Calculate has dismissed the position of former governor of Kano State, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau which posited that the mega coalition being galvanized by former vice president Atiku Abubakar lacks the muscle to defeat president Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a hoax taken too far.
Calculate who levelled Shekarau as a wolve in sheep’s clothing noted that the ex-governor’s position was dictated by jealousy, mediocrity and vengeance. He accused Shekarau of hiding under saintly demeanor to perpetrate all sort of devious political shenanigans.
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Calculate noted that Shekarau who has recently became a political orphan is now working clandestinely to reinvent himself through the League of Northern Democrats (LND) to silently root for the office of the vice president under Bola Ahmed Tinubu come 2027, noting that such blind ambition is responsible for his skewed utterances against Atiku and the coalition of democrats he is leading to defeat president Bola Ahmed Tinubu come 2027.
Excerpts:
Recently, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, the former governor of Kano State has dismissed the renewed mega coalition being championed by the former vice president Atiku Abubakar, saying that it lacked the muscle to present any potent threat to president Bola Ahmed Tinubu come 2027 what is your take on this looking at the fact that Shekarau is also a PDP slawart?
Shekarau is one politician who has over the years succeeded in deceiving the people to believe he has some measure of credibility hiding under superficial and dubious posture of piety. He has over the years hide under a saintly gamut to perpetrate all sorts of political shenanigans. But it is glaring that karma has finally caught up with him as he is now a political orphan trying to gain some relevance. The most pathetic thing is that he thinks the only way he could relaunch his waning political capital is to serve as APC mole in PDP and do its bidding hook line and sinker.
After a long time in political oblivion and hiatus, Shekarau is now in the political wilderness with no patronage, followership and goodwill. Like I said, he want to use underhand tactics to relaunch himself into political reckoning at all costs by doing the bidding of the APC government even if it is against the North, a region that has been so kind to him.
I’ll simply summarize Shekarau’s new move as a subtle way for a political comeback through the backdoor because he knows Ganduje will block him if he attempts to come back through APC. He cannot also come through the new mega platform being championed by Atiku because he knows if he come to the coalition, he has to succumb to more potent forces like El-Rufai. Shekarau, a man who is obsessed with the thinking that leadership is his birthright cannot accept to play a second fiddle under the overwhelming influence of strong forces like El-Rufai and the likes.
He also detested the former vice president with passion because of a perceived wrong meted to him by Atiku. He is also innately jealous of Atiku’s rising political profile and the fact that he will lose out completely in the political equation should someone especially a nother like Atiku defeats president Bola Ahmed Tinubu come 2027. In order to be on the safe side, he decided to remain in PDP but work clandestinely for APC so as to benefit from the reward system of the party come 2027.
This informed the formation of the League of Northern Democrats (LND), a pressure group on whose crest he is secretly lobbying to become the running mate of Tinubu in 2027 as plot to ditch Kashim Shettima and replace him with someone from the North West thickens.
So I’m not in anyway surprised by the machinations of Shekarau against the new coalition. It is because of vested interests and because he is aware that when it comes to merit, he cannot contest for a place in the mega coalition because of the array of political heavyweights within its fold. Unlike other politicians like Kwankwaso, El-Rufai and Sule Lamido who have loyal supporters, strong support base and huge followership across the length and breath of the North, Shekarau’s politics is still confined to the boundaries of Kano State. So it is not surprising to know that in his characteristics narcissistic manner, he is lurking in the recess of underserved credibility to seek for unmerited political office in a rather hypocritical and sordid manner.
Should Atiku decides to remain in PDP and nurture the coalition from there what chances does he have in making any substantial headway?
To be frank with you and without any hedging, I would say PDP is now a dead party. In their bid to prevent Atiku from getting the party’s ticket, the party honchos have pulverized the party irreversibly. Let me tell you Waziri Adamawa will remain the last man standing and from wherever he stands, he commands the respect of all opposition elements. He is the most vibrant face of opposition in Nigeria now and will remain so in a long time to come. Atiku is the only force that can give president Tinubu a run for his money and conveniently defeat him in any election. So while the PDP goons are working to sabotage the party, they inadvertently killed it. But I will say it is double whammy for them because while they have lost the party for good, it is very glaring that Atiku’s political profile has been waxing from strength to strength and he will surely make it despite their aggression.
Leadership is a trait which Atiku has been innately imbued with. That is why the more they tried to eclipse him the more he gains public sympathy and support. It is in this regard that I will always say the PDP and APC will be dead before 2027 as a result of the Atiku phenomenon. I want you to write this down. Such personality makes Atiku the best vice president of Nigeria in history. Since his sojourn, no vice president has ever made any impact like him as all the VPs are mainly relegated to errand boys.
The vice president I thought will break the jinx is the current vice president, Kashim Shettima because of his exposure, education pedigree rich political resume and his wide network across Nigeria’s political firmament. But going by development, he is the most ill treated and the most relegated vice president. It is an open secret that the presidency is shopping for his replacement which is the reason individuals with huge political ambition like Shekarau are gearing up to substitute him.
What is your position on the recent emergency rule in Rivers State?
The whole thing was contrived and executed in bad faith. It shows you the level of infidelity of the president towards electoral democracy in Nigeria. If Tinubu who has earned a solid reputation over the years as a champion of democracy, and yet he is running the state with blithe disregard for democratic norms, then you know Nigeria’s democracy is in serious danger. More so, it is the height of double standards for a man who expressed unreserved anger when democratic governments in our neighborhood were truncated to be the architect and enabler of a civilian coup in one of Nigeria’s states.
But this speaks volumes about the intention of the Tinubu led administration to make Nigeria a one party state. If you look at developments in Kano and Rivers States two of the most dominant states in Nigeria, you will know that the events in the states were orchestrated by the federal government and didn’t happen by accident.
I heard from the grapevine that contrary to the underlying belief that the Rivers State political imbroglio is between Fubara and Wike, the actual situation on ground is that the rigmarole is directly between the president and Fubara.
Because of the relevance of Rivers State, the president has been working to ensure the defection of Fubara into the APC. But for the political expediency of self preservation, the governor knows too well that his people will jettison him if he stages that lethal political journey. So he has remained put and the president has remained ever aggressive in his pursuit of Fubara’s defection into APC leading to the upheavals the state has witnessed recently, including withdrawal of its legitimate federal allocation. The president also knows too well that the impeachment proceedings against Fubara will never see the light of the day constitutionally and any forceful removal of the governor will lead to unsavory consequences.
So a president with vast powers like Tinubu if he so wished would have tamed the political upheaval in the state, but instead of doing that he used his powers negatively by invoking an emergency rule and used it to suspend democratic institutions. I learnt that the resort to the emergency rule was an escape strategy for the president to force Fubara to leave PDP within the next six months. That also entails the partisan role being played by the judiciary in the Rivers State saga.
