Patience Jonathan is reportedly set to to install her favourites as governors in at least three states, Bauchi, Bayelsa and Rivers in the forthcoming 2015 elections.
Sources confided in a national daily that the first lady was working to ensure that the governorship candidate of the PDP in Rivers state emerged from one of the riverine local government areas of the state, possibly Okrika.
“She has withdrawn her initial support for the bid of supervising minister of education Mr Nyesom Wike to succeed Amaechi at Brick House, Port Harcourt in 2015. But you know this is politics; much as she might want to have her kinsman as governor, some persons have also reminded her that an Okrika man, Ada George, had been governor before. So, in the alternative, she might go for the executive director of finance and administration of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr Henry Ogiri, who is also from the riverine but not Kalabari or Okrika but Abua/Odual,” the source said.
It was gathered that the plot had leaked to Wike, who was said to have been jolted and livid that he had been dumped after he was used to fight his kinsman and benefactor, Governor Amaechi.
It was obvious that the powers that be had sent the signal to Wike, as an ex-militant commander and a kinsman of the first lady, Chief Tom Ateke, indicated interest in the governorship election. Findings showed that although Tom Ateke was not the choice of the first lady, he was being drafted to fly the kite and gauge opinions of the stakeholders in the state.
In Bayelsa, findings showed that the wife of the president has positioned the special assistant (domestic matters) in the presidency, Dr Waripomowei Dudafa, to succeed Governor Seriake Dickson in the 2016 election in the state, a development that has been generating suppressed ripples in the home state of President Jonathan.
In Bauchi, although there is no incumbent seeking re-election, Mrs Jonathan’s desire to crown a serving minister as the next governor of Bauchi State might clash with the interest of Governor Isa Yuguda. Findings showed that the first lady had scheduled the said minister to take over from Yuguga in 2015 by securing the nod of relevant stakeholders in the state in favour of her choice.