2017 Those Who Shaped Samuel Ajayi
Ali Modu Sheriff
Former factional National Chairman of PDP
The Spoiler Who Lost the Plot
For the greater part of 2017, it was as if the opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP, was destined for the grave and a certain Ali Modu Sheriff, former governor of Borno State, would serve as the undertaker. Sheriff had emerged as a factional national chairman of the party slugging it out with the former Governor of Kaduna State, Mohammed Makarfi, who had the support of governors on the party’s platform. All efforts for Sheriff to step down did not work. In fact, many believed, and rightly so, that he was a mole of the ruling APC in the PDP sent to perpetually keep the party in crisis.
It took the pronouncement of the Supreme Court for Sheriff to be eased out and a new life breathed to the party. Since then, he has hardly been heard or seen in public. If there was one politician who played the role of a spoiler in 2017, it was Ali Modu Sheriff.
Senator Dino Melaye Kogi West Senatorial District A fighter on Many Fronts
Senator Dino Melaye has a history of controversy. It seems it is his second nature and 2017, he did not fail to court controversy throughout the year. Earlier in the year, Melaye had shot a ‘selfie’ video in Yoruba language challenging anyone who wanted to fight him to come forward so he could take a double portion of punishment. Not long after that, Melaye claimed he had escaped an assassination attempt planned by his political opponents in the state. A local government chairman and a couple of others were arrested and charged to court with the presiding judge mysteriously dying earlier in the week.
Apparently being pushed by the state government who does not see eye to eye with Melaye, a recall process was initiated against the controversial senator but was dead on arrival as fictitious names were used to indicate that his constituents had signed on his recall.
And when this was going, stories started making the rounds that he did not graduate from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, as he claimed. He had to start showing his certificate across any media he could lay his hands on.
For Melaye, a year could not be busier than 2017.