Sambo’s symbolic submission of Jonathan’s forms

One of the hottest debated issues in the nation’s political arena in the past couple of months pertains to who would be President Goodluck Jonathan’s running mate in the forthcoming presidential contest. Normally, such an issue wouldn’t have cropped up, as it should have been taken for granted that his long-serving deputy, Mohammed Namadi Sambo, would be the president’s running mate.
After all, neither Sambo nor his principal has done or said anything to indicate that their relationship was no longer cordial. On the contrary, the duo have been projecting the picture of a harmonious working relationship ever since fate brought them together six years ago.
But despite all that, speculations had continued to swirt to the effect that Mr. President would dump Sambo ahead of the February 2015 presidential poll. According to this school of thought, Jonathan has been purportedly considering some possible alternative persons, including certain state governors from the Northern axis, as Sambo’s replacement.
The guessing game heightened last week after Jonathan formally entered the forthcoming race with his public declaration at the Eagle Square in Abuja. Apparently, the prophets of doom had expected him to unveil his running mate that day. Never mind the fact that none of the other governorship or presidential aspirants who had declared their intentions before Jonathan (and after him) had presented their running mates.
What normally happens is that an aspirant for any such political office must wait until he has been formally elected or selected by his political party as its candidate before unveiling his running mate. Regardless of whether you were a sitting president or governor or whatever, this process must be observed to the letter.
Last Friday, Jonathan and Sambo quashed virtually all the speculations even without uttering any word. This they did by allowing their actions to speak for them eloquently. In what some political commentators have described as a move pregnant with meaning, Sambo submitted his principal’s Expression of Interest and Nomination form as an aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Analysts are of the opinion that with this significant move, Jonathan has effectively and stylishly rubbished speculations that he might spurn Sambo for another running mate. Accompanied by Senate President David Mark and a number of principal officials of the National Assembly as well as members of the president’s cabinet, Sambo delivered the forms to the PDP chief, Adamu Mu’azu at the party’s Wadata Plaza headquarters in Abuja.
Not unexpectedly, the vice president showered encomiums on his boss for the great work he has been doing since he mounted the saddle in 2010.
According to Sambo, Jonathan has, through his sterling stewardship, moved Nigeria forward. The president has not only improved the economy “making it the best in Africa and 26th in the world,” but has transformed the country in several areas of human endeavour.
Sambo implied, needless to say, that with such a track record of performance and industry, Jonathan deserves to be given a second chance. After all, it is said that the reward for doing something well is to be given more work. If the president and commander-in-chief has done pretty well since he mounted following demise of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua – and particularly since he won the 2011 presidential election – the least he deserved is to be considered for a second term.
Those who saw and heard the country’s number two citizen that day were not surprised in the least. Rather, they were aware that is the essential Mohammed Namadi Sambo: Loyal, faithful and self–sacrificing for the common cause. Indeed ever since he moved from Sir Kashim Ibrahim House in Kaduna to Aso Rock in 2010 as Jonathan’s deputy, Sambo has been the quintessential vice president.
Incidentally, Jonathan himself had played a similar role during his era as the then President Yar’adua’s deputy. Unassuming, humble, loyal and veritably faithful to the common cause, the then vice president stuck to his principal through thick and thin. Even in the dark days of the Yar’adua presidency when uncertainty pervaded the land at the peak of Yar’adua’s terminal illness, no trace of inordinate ambition or desperation was shown by the man destined to be Yar’adua’s successor.
By way of contrast, during the then President Olusegun Obasanjo era, a not-so-cordial relationship reigned between him and his deputy. So much so that by the end of that administration’s tenure the duo were barely on speaking terms.
To the credit of the present administration, the president and his deputy have been working together seamlessly as a winning team right from the beginning. This team work spirit was demonstrated at Wadata Plaza last weekend when Sambo submitted Jonathan’s forms. And it is likely to be demonstrated again in the coming weeks and months as the battle for the 2015 general elections heightens.