Obasanjo Confesses He Forced Sule Lamido On Jigawa People

Baba as most people will call him on Wednesday congratulated himself for selecting Sule Lamido to be the governor of Jigawa state stressing that his choice has paid off.

Mr Obasanjo, speaking as a guest at the Jigawa State Economic Summit, said Governor Lamido has shown by his achievements in office that he was the right person to lead the state.

He said, “You people of Jigawa, once again, I congratulate you and I congratulate myself; because if you can say, yes, Obasanjo forced this one (Governor Lamido) on us, it is a good forcing.

“It comes to one thing that you will say, you can help anybody to find a job but you cannot help anybody to do the job. In this case, we found a job for Sule Lamido. Sule Lamido was ready, willing, able and competent to do the job.”

The relationship between Mr Obasanjo and Governor Lamido dates as far back as 1999 when the former President appointed the governor; Foreign Minister causing friction with the governor’s patron Abubakar Rimi who had been turned down as Obasanjo’s Vice-Presidential partner and was lobbying for the Foreign Minister job.

In May 2003, after the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) had lost the elections in Jigawa State, Governor Lamido claimed that the polls had been rigged in favour of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP).

In August 2006 it was reported that the North West zone of the PDP had rejected Mr Lamido as the candidate for the 2007 governorship election.

However, in April 2007, Lamido contested and won the governorship election in Jigawa State.