The usual bounce in Lamido’s gait and his bolstered confidence were all missing from the picture of the governor as he was singularly recognised and requested to stand up, by the Niger State Governor, Babangida Aliyu, at the party’s NEC meeting where the President was adopted as the party’s sole Presidential candidate. Lamido, who is known to be very vocal and noted for his knack for activism, could not find his voice at the occasion. He only raised his hands in complete surrender and gave Jonathan the thumbs-up sign in support of the intricately woven political compromise and horse-trading that gave rise to the President’s adoption as the party’s sole candidate. The governor did not oppose the adoption.

Lamido had stayed away from the meeting of the PDP Governors which preceded the NEC meeting where the President was adopted but was said to have been courted by his Niger State counterpart and Northern Governors Forum chairman, Babangida Aliyu, who is known to enjoy his confidence. Party sources attribute the Jigawa governor’s acceptance of the party’s decision on President Jonathan’s sole candidacy to Aliyu, who reportedly told Lamido that President Jonathan had accepted to abide by all the commitments he made to Jigawa people during his first outing in 2011.

Governor Aliyu is said to have convinced Lamido that commitments had been extracted from the President over some of the issues which the Jigawa governor was complainig about. Top on the list of the commitments said to have been extracted from the President for Lamido is the refund of the sum of N15 billion which Lamido claimed he expended by to build the Dutse International Airport, a project which Jonathan’s presidency promised to undertake but failed.

Others include the immediate construction of the Auyo Irrigation Project, which was started by the Shagari Administration but later abandoned, as well as the construction of a major road in the state to connect the state-owned university at Kafin Hausa, as a means of appeasing the governor and his people.

On the outside, Lamido’s capitulation and abandonment of his presidential ambition, at least on the platform of the PDP, appear to have been motivated by the commitment said to have been extracted from the President to fulfil his 2011 promises to Jigawa State which the President declined to execute after receiving the Jigawa people’s vote. This is plausible. However, the yet-to-be concluded investigation by the Department of State Service, DSS, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, into the circumstances surrounding a N10 billion found in the accounts of companies belonging to the governor’s family, which sources alleged was traced to the Jigawa State treasury, may have come handy in muscling out Lamido in the 2015 election manoeuverings.

Lamido’s sons, Aminu, a 2010 graduate of Mass communication of Bayero University, Kano and Mustapha, an alumni of the University of Abuja, were arrested in furtherance of the investigation which the anti-graft agency commenced in December 2012 when Aminu Lamido was arrested at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport en route Cairo;, Egypt, for failing to declare the $50,000 he had on him.

He was prosecuted and convicted by a federal high court in Kano while the anti-graft agency continued with investigations to unravel how Aminu came by the money. The investigations uncovered a web of money laundering where billions of naira were reportedly laundered from Jigawa government treasury into the accounts of companies run by the Jigawa governor and his two sons.

Findings by the operatives of the EFCC indicate that an estimated N10 billion was transferred from Jigawa government accounts into accounts of some companies in which the governor and his children have interests, begining in 2007 when the governor assumed office. The companies were listed as Bamaina Aluminium Ltd, Bamaina Holdings Ltd, Bamaina Company Nigeria Ltd, Rawda Integrated Services Ltd, Speeds International Ltd and Saby Integrated Nigeria Ltd.