By Haruna Salami
Supporters of Nigerian Vice-President Namadi Sambo stormed the venue of the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP North West zone, in their hundreds on Saturday urging the participants to support the ambition of the vice-president for the 2015 presidential polls.
The group, which calls itself “Namadi Project”, came to the venue in two separate branded buses carrying posters bearing the Vice-President’s picture and his purported achievement both in Kaduna as governor and currently as the Vice-President.
Leader of the group, Aminu Mohammed, told sharpedgenews.com that the group was at the meeting to drum up support for the ambition of the Vice President to contest the 2015 presidential poll, revealing since 2015 is the turn of the North, VP Sambo was in a better position to clinch the job, vowing that they will not relax until their goal is achieved.
Strong indications emerged Saturday at the Kaduna meeting that Vice President Namadi Sambo was warming up to take a shot at the Presidency should President Goodluck Jonathan jettison the ambition of going for second term.
Sambo’s political supporters who thronged the venue of the PDP North West Zonal meeting in Kaduna displayed large bulk of pamphlets reading, “The Promise”, “Namadi Project,” containing projects and promises of the Jonathan/Sambo administration, focusing on the areas that Sambo is playing crucial roles like power generation, resuscitation of railway lines and others.
The Vice-President is bent on taking over from his Boss in 2015 following the agitation by some influential Northern power brokers and “Namadi Project” is working towards the realization of the number two citizen’s ambition.
According to a source, current political permutations in the country favor Sambo, especially following indication that Jonathan is bent on his single-term tenure project and the belief in many quarters that the North might only support the project if the President would not be the pioneer beneficiary.
In attendance at the crucial Kaduna PDP meeting were four Governors: Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa of Kaduna, Usman Dakangari of Kebbi, Musa Kwankwaso of Kano, and Ibrahim Shema of Katsina, while Jigawa and Sokoto states sent in their deputy governors respectively.
Others in attendance included the former PDP National Chairman, who is now the Defence Minister, Mohammed Haliru Bello, former Speaker, House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Na’aba, former and current ministers from the zone, senators, House of Representative members, among others.
The impressive turn out of prominent stakeholders at the meeting, the first after the April general elections was very strategic for Vice-President Sambo’s 2015 presidential ambition who is believed to be ready to spend undisclosed large sums of money to help him push his ambition through.