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SENATE
President, Chief Ken Nnamani, has been reportedly tipped as the running
mate to former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd), for
the 2007 presidential race. General Babangida declared his intention to
contest the presidency in 2007 a few weeks back, and he was reported to
have stepped up his campaign, following the stopping of the tenure
elongation agenda by the National Assembly.
The decision to have Nnamani on the Babangida’s ticket was
reportedly taken by the Babangida political camp about three weeks ago
at a meeting which, unknown to the conveners, was taped. Nigerian
Tribune findings revealed that Nnamani accepted the offer in principle,
and this reportedly accounted for his decision to join forces with the
opposition to stop the incumbent president from getting an extension in
office.
Nnamani had, contrary to his earlier resolve,
allowed voice vote in stopping the constitution amendment bill from
scaling the second reading. The deal was said to have been finally
sealed shortly after the Senate dumped the bill, at another meeting,
which was also reportedly taped.
It was revealed that
it was at the second meeting that the group decided to dump the
South-South geopolitical zone in the zoning of the first three top
positions at the federal level. The reasoning at the meeting, according
to a source who is in possession of the records of the meetings, was
that the South-South, despite its agitation for the presidency, would
not pose any problems for the camp in executing its strategies for the
presidency.
It will be recalled that the South-South
geopolitical zone is the only zone in the country that has not produced
the nation’s leader. Apart from taking the vice-presidency position
beyond the zone, the Nigerian Tribune learnt that the Babangida camp
had also zoned the Senate Presidency beyond the zone.
All
calls made to Nnamani’s spokespersons, Austin Adamu and Reginald
Okochi, went into their phones’ voice-mail box, and as at press time,
there had been no feedback from them. When Max Gbanite, the
spokesperson of Project Nigeria, the umbrella campaign group of
Babangida, was contacted, the response from his phone showed that he
was out of service area of the provider he uses.
One
of his associates told the Nigerian Tribune that he might have gone
abroad. However, Babangida might be playing a double game with his
choice of vice-president, because there are indications that he might
have promised another ex-Senate President the plum job. The former
Senate President had reportedly met in Abuja with emissaries sent by
Babangida, but a source could not say whether the former Senate
President accepted to run with him. | 
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Posted by Robot| 21.05.2006 18:13