The safety of the Vice President’s job was assured by the decision of President Goodluck Jonathan to stick with his deputy whom he considered “very loyal,” in spite of pressures mounted by some important stakeholders in the polity to drop Sambo, and replace him with another person who “has political clout to win the votes of the north”.
Among replacements suggested by those who have put President Jonathan under pressure to replace his running mate, names like those of Katsina State Governor, Shehu Shema and Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido featuring prominently, our correspondent learnt.
The controversy surrounding the plan peaked about a month ago when the PDP National Executive Committee (NEC) announced the adoption of President Jonathan as its sole candidate for the 2015 election without mentioning the Vice President as his automatic running mate.
Series of comments by highly placed party stalwarts who at various times insisted that President Jonathan will determine his own running mate, emboldened those who wanted Sambo out of the presidency, to intensified efforts to influence their preferred choice as his replacement.
The silence of President Jonathan on the fate of his Vice also did not do Sambo any good, in what many took to mean that the president was actually buying into the send- Sambo-packing project.
However, Sunday Independent can authoritatively reveal that the President has finally settled for his current Vice against all odds, according to a highly placed and dependable presidency source, who confided in this newspaper on Friday.
President Jonathan, it was also learnt, decided to shun the entreaties made on him to dump Sambo because he has absolute confidence in him, even as Jonathan, the source added, was not convinced about the political liability toga Sambo’s traducers were trying to hang on his neck.
“I can confirm to you that the Vice President will surely contest 2015 with President Goodluck Jonathan. Though, some persons didn’t want the VP to return in 2015, but that project has failed.
“I’m not sure you are aware of the amount of pressure mounted on the President to drop the VP, even at a point I as a stakeholder was almost believing the news of the political liability they ascribed to the VP, but as the president has seen things for himself and has made his decision, which in this case, is that he wants to prosecute 2015 election with Vice President Sambo as his running mate, I think the issue will die down now while the party as a whole can go ahead with its plan for the campaign for the 2015 election.
“I know you might have some doubts about this piece of information, but I tell you witj all confidence that when the president makes his declaration on November 11, he will make the clarification and you will see the truth in what I just told you,” the source said in proving his information to the Sunday Independent reporter.