Sambo and Osinbajo
sambo and osinbajo
The choice of the running mate for the Peoples
Democratic Party’s presidential candidate,
President Goodluck Jonathan, and the All
Progressives Congress’s candidate, Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), may influence voting
in the 2015 presidential election, writes LEKE
BAIYEWU
The two biggest political parties in Nigeria — the
ruling Peoples Democratic Party and the
opposition, All Progressives Congress — have
presented their candidates for the 2015
presidential election. They are President
Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP and a former
Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)
of the APC. The battle for the number one office
in the country is between these two.
While a presidential aspirant emerges the
candidate of a political party by winning a
primary election, the vice-presidential candidate
is selected or appointed as a running mate by
either the candidate, the party or by a consensus
reached by both.
According to political analysts, the choice of a
running mate in an election should be strategic.
The personality, background, affiliations and
political clout of the aspirants are considered
before the candidate is chosen. The analysts
believe that in a political clime like Nigeria,
parties will consider the tribe or ethnic
nationality, education and career, religion and
political antecedents of the running mate. These,
they say, are factors that will get more votes for
the presidential or governorship candidate.
The PDP and President Jonathan had announced
Vice-President Namadi Sambo as his running
mate for the 2015 presidential election after his
declaration as the flag bearer of the PDP during
the party’s national convention held in Abuja
between December 10 and 11, this year.
On the other hand, the APC and Buhari on
Wednesday announced Prof. Yemi Osinbajo as
the presidential running mate of the party.
The geographical presentation of the presidential
and vice-presidential candidates of both the PDP
and the APC is the South-South (Jonathan)/
North-West (Sambo) versus North-West
(Buhari)/South-West (Osinbajo).
It took the APC five days, after Buhari had
emerged as the presidential candidate, to choose
his running mate. The party had held its national
convention and presidential primary election
between December 10 and 11, where Buhari, who
beat a former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar;
Governor of Kano State, Rabi’u Kwankwaso;
Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha; and
newspaper publisher, Sam Nda-Isaiah, to the
ticket.
Unlike the PDP, where Jonathan announced his
running mate at the event, the APC did not do so
until last Wednesday.
Records have shown that Jonathan won
massively in the southern part of the country,
while Buhari won massively in the northern part
in the 2011 presidential election. This was
despite the fact that Jonathan’s running mate
was from the North, while Buhari’s running mate
was from the South.
This must have been the reason why observers
of the process that led to the emergence of
Osinbajo as Buhari’s running mate said the APC
— a conglomerate of the opposition parties that
contested against Jonathan in the last election
— was very careful about the selection of its
vice-presidential candidate.
Contestants on the APC list were Governors of
Lagos, Babatunde Fashola; Edo, Adams
Oshiomhole; Rivers, Rotimi Amaechi; Imo,
Rochas Okorocha. Others were Bola Tinubu and
a former Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi.
Political experts, who had weighed the options
as well as the political clout of the aspirants,
had looked away from Osinbajo.
The ticket PDP is presenting is Christian-Muslim,
and according to analysts, the APC must have
considered the fact that the current political
atmosphere in the country would not allow a
single religious ticket. This factor, it was learnt,
worked against some of the aspirants, despite
their popularity and clout.
Again, the APC was said to have considered its
areas of strength and weakness in the country
vote-wise. While Buhari is said to be popular in
the North, Jonathan has a strong grip on the
South-South and the South-East. This
presumption was said to have thrown Amaechi
and Oshiomhole up as top contenders.
Political pundits have however described the
choice of Osinbajo as a step to secure the votes
in the South-West, which is the most populous
zone in the South and second most populous in
the country, according the 2006 national census
figures.
Also, the APC is said to be eyeing votes from
members of The Redeemed Christian Church of
God, said to be the biggest Pentecostal church in
Nigeria, through Osinbajo, a leader of the church.
Another factor considered by the APC, according
to analysts, is that Buhari is seen as a symbol of
transparency and accountability and he needed a
new blood in the system, with an unquestionable
record, as his running mate.
While the leader of the party, Tinubu, claimed
that Buhari nominated him for the job but he
turned down the offer, observers of Osinbajo’s
emergence as the running mate have described
him as Tinubu’s eye in Buhari’s cabinet, should
the APC eventually win.
The Executive Director, African Centre for
Leadership, Strategy and Development, Dr. Otive
Igbuzor, in his analysis, described the office of
the vice-president as a very important position.
According to him, two factors should determine a
running mate — ability to garner more votes and
the competence to perform in that position.
He said, “First, when anybody is going for
elections, the first thing is to win. One of the
first considerations for a running mate is
somebody who can get you some votes that will
enable you to win. That is why, historically,
people don’t choose running mates from the
regions where they come from. Whether we like it
or not, politics in Africa is still influenced to a
large extent by ethnic consideration.
“As citizens, we should tell candidates (and
parties) to look beyond votes because we also
want to look at competence. A running mate, as
we have seen in the case of Umaru Yar’Adua and
Goodluck Jonathan, will automatically step into
the shoes of the president if there is any
challenge. A running mate must be competent to
be able to assume the substantive position in
case anything happens.”
Sambo, 60, was born in Zaria, Kaduna State. He
had all his education in the state. He bagged a
Bachelor of Science in Architecture (1976) and a
master’s degree in Architecture (1978) from the
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
As a National Youth Service Corps member, he
served with the Oyo State Ministry of Works and
Housing between 1978 and 1979.
When Bauchi State was created in 1976, Sambo
was said to be among the first set of architects
that designed various offices and staff housing
schemes for government officials. It was said,
also, that he supervised the upgrading of Yankari
Games Reserve Holiday Resort and the Bauchi
State Urban Development Board, which
developed the master plan of Bauchi town and
other cities in the state.
In 1986, Sambo was appointed Commissioner for
Agriculture by the Kaduna State Government
where he executed the World Bank-assisted
Kaduna Agricultural Development Project, which
helped to transform the state into a major food
basket of the nation.
He was later redeployed to the Kaduna State
Ministry of Works, Transport and Housing in
1988, where he completed the Kaduna
Metropolitan Water Supply Scheme; the World
Bank-assisted First Multi-State Water Supply
Project; and initiated the Kaduna State 99 Towns
Electricity Project, which connected over 70
towns to the national grid.
After leaving the service of the Kaduna State
Government in 1990, he consulted for the World
Bank, as well as Federal and State Governments.
He also served in different capacities in the
private sector, both as an employee and
employer.
Sambo was elected the Executive Governor of
Kaduna State in 2007. He became the Vice-
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in
2010, after Jonathan, the then Vice-President,
was sworn in as President to succeed the late
Umaru Yar’Adua.
Sambo contested as the running mate of
Jonathan in the 2011 presidential election, which
they won. He had been chosen again as
Jonathan’s running mate in the 2015 election.
Buhari’s running mate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has
been described as being more of a technocrat
and religious leader than a politician. Although
he was in government and held public offices for
some time, he is still regarded as a green
greenhorn in politics. However, he has influential
people around him.
Osinbajo, 57, is said to be a close associate of
Tinubu, who is widely regarded as a kingmaker
in APC.
The eminent lawyer is a senior pastor of the
RCCG. He is the ‘Pastor in Charge’ of Olive Tree
House of Prayer for All Nations, Banana Island,
Lagos branch of the church. He is also said to
be very close to the General Overseer of the
RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adeboye. He is also the
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the
Redeemer’s University, an institution owned by
the RCCG.
A Professor of Law, Osinbajo, is a Senior
Advocate of Nigeria. He was a Special Adviser to
Bola Ajibola, the Attorney-General of the
Federation between 1988 and 1992. He was the
Head of the Department of Public Law at the
University of Lagos between 1997 and 1999. He
was later appointed Attorney-General and
Commissioner for Justice of Lagos State
between 1999 and 2007 under Tinubu’s
administration. He supervises the commercial
litigation arm of the SimmonsCooper Partners,
where he is a Senior Partner.
Osinbajo graduated from the University of Lagos
in 1978, where he studied Law. He began his law
practice at the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 1979.
He had his master’s degree from the London
School of Economics and Political Science in
1980. He is a member of the International Bar
Association and the British Institute of
International and Comparative Law. He also
served in the Nigerian Body of Benchers, as well
as the Council for Legal Education of Nigeria. He
has more than 31 years of litigation experience.
Osinbajo is a co-founder and member of Board
of the Convention on Business Integrity and
Justice Research Institute Ltd. He and his wife,
Oludolapo — a granddaughter of the late Youba
leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo — co-founded the
Orderly Society Trust, a group that promotes
Christian ethics and orderliness in 2007.
Coincidentally, Osinbajo is the second lawyer-
pastor to be chosen as Buhari’s running mate.
Founder of the Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor
Tunde Bakare, also a lawyer, was the retired
general’s running mate in 2011 presidential
election on the platform of the Congress for
Progressive Change.
Both Sambo and Osinbajo are expected to add
electoral value to their bosses at the 2015 polls.
In his submission, a professor in the Department
of Political Science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka,
Emmanuel Onyebuchi, pointed out that the
decision by the APC to choose Buhari’s running
mate from the South-West was strategic.
“It took them (APC) that much of time because
they must have done some political arithmetic.
Buhari, coming from the North, would not have
chosen his vice from the North. Choosing a vice-
presidential candidate from the South-East
would not have been a wise political decision,
considering the fact that the geopolitical zone is
more than 90 per cent for Jonathan.
“Even though Amaechi from the South-South is a
strong member of the APC, the question is how
much votes will he be able to get for Buhari. The
essence of choosing a running mate is to choose
from an area where you are likely to muster
enough political support in terms of voting. It
would not have been politically wise to choose
him.
“The option he had was to choose from the
South-West, believing that he is going to get the
needed votes in the election.”
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