11 Governors Bent on Imposing Candidate For 2015 PDP Primaries (4)-

Abiola Ajimobi/Oyo State  & Garba Umar/Taraba State

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It is no longer news that the just concluded PDP Delegate Elections left a stalemate in many states across Nigeria and as the race towards 2015 gathers momentum, many incumbent governors are either running for Senate or trying to impose favoured politicians to succeed.

It is now an open secret that 11 governors today have caused battles as they attempt to dictate who steps into one political office or not. Here is a window to what is going on in these states.
(7) Abiola Ajimobi/Oyo State

Abiola Ajimobi, is rated as one of the high performing governors in the South West having embarked on massive infrastructure development, particularly road construction.

The All Progressive Congress governor, who is on the last lap of his first term is seeking re-election for another term. But there are strong indications that he may be a victim of stomach infrastructure as he is said neglected the material needs of the people, not only within his party but also the state.

Apart from that, he also has a formidable opposition massed against him. Not a few believe that his emergence as governor in 2011 was because of the crisis in the state PDP - which was then the ruling party - a development that made some of the notable PDP politicians who lost in the power game to the then Governor Alao Akala to work for Ajimobi in the general election.

Some of them have come out to announce that they regretted supporting Ajimobi against their party.

Also, Akala, who is a grassroots politician and one that is believed to have played politics of stomach infrastructure, apart from also embarking on infrastructure development during his tenure as governor is back in the race. The ongoing effort to reconcile Akala and Senator Rasheed Ladoja, a former governor and influential politician in the state is also a threat to Ajimobi's re-election bid.

(8) Garba Umar/Taraba State

Garba Umar, emerged as acting governor of Taraba following the plane crash involving Governor Danbaba Suntai.

The crash occurred less than a month after Umar was appointed deputy governor by Suntai after the impeachment of the former deputy governor, Sani Abubakar Danladi.

Though Suntai survived the crash, he suffered injuries that have made it impossible for him to be physically in charge of the state affairs. But Taraba, like Kaduna, nurses a delicate balance between Muslims and Christians. Suntai is a Christian while Umar is a Muslim.

For several months, Umar could not govern the state officially in acting capacity as loyalists of Governor Suntai ensured he continued to govern the state as deputy governor. His emergence as acting governor followed nationwide outcry after it emerged that Suntai was indeed incapable of physically governing the state. That same Suntai's camp which prevented him for several months from becoming acting governor and which has fiercely opposed every move to subject Suntai's health status to scrutiny is lurking around the corner against his bid to be elected governor.

Meanwhile, even though he may secure the party's ticket, he has the camps of his former boss to contend with (Which are quite formidable) and the delicate fault lines of religion and ethnicity that have been shaping the politics of the state over the years. These are the demons lurking ahead.