Who is Mohammed Hayatu-Deen?

Someone said 24 hours is a long time in politics. So true. It has been one drama after the other in this presidential election season, so much that it is hard to catch our collective breath. On Friday, while we were busy with permutations and calculations, flipping from one TV channel to the other and hopping from website to website for the latest news from the courts (where most political battles take place these days), Mr Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, former chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), took us by surprise by picking the nomination form of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). I didn’t see that coming. Many young Nigerian voters asked: Mohammed Who?

I started my commentaries on the 2027 presidential election months ago thinking it was going to be a three-way fight featuring President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the ADC, and Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party. Before I knew what was happening, Obi had defected to the ADC and I thought it was now going to be a two-way fight, most likely between Tinubu, as the sitting president, and Atiku, as the moving spirit behind the ADC. When Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso moved from the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) to the ADC, I concluded Tinubu had unintentionally rallied the key opposition figures against himself and was now going to face a big war.

I was still trying to understand what was going on when Obi and Kwankwaso left the ADC to join the newly registered Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), where, we are told, they have been assured of getting the presidential and vice-presidential tickets. If Obi is endorsed by a consensus, he would not go through an elective primary. The 2026 Electoral Act stipulates that a party’s candidate shall be nominated in one of two ways: by consensus, meaning all aspirants who secured and submitted the nomination forms must — without dissent and in writing — agree to withdraw for one of the aspirants; or by direct primary, meaning registered party members, no longer delegates, will vote.

Before we could say Jack Robinson, former President Goodluck Jonathan received some youths asking him to run at his Abuja residence. Initial feelers were that he would run on the platform of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), with Bauchi Governor Bala Mohammed hoping to be the running mate. Bala, I recall, was the FCT minister under Jonathan. While we were still digesting the rumours, we heard again that Jonathan would join the NDC, the party registered by Senator Seriake Dickson, who was Bayelsa’s attorney-general when Jonathan was governor. Dickson also used to be Tinubu’s party mate, having been a top official of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) between 1998 and 2002.

I was struggling to figure out the NDC game when Hayatu-Deen entered the ADC fray, paying the N100 million fee for the nomination forms. If Atiku was planning to pick the party’s ticket by consensus or unchallenged, he may have to adjust his plan. Of course, we know Rt Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi is also going to throw his hat into the ring, but what seems obvious to onlookers is that he can settle for the running mate position as the coast is now clear with Obi totally out of the equation. But the entrance of Hayatu-Deen would tend to suggest that the ADC primary may not be a one-way street. There may be a competitive primary, except he decides not to go all the way.

Many Nigerians are not familiar with Hayatu-Deen the politician. Those who know him very well remember the economist and banker who was the CEO of the FSB International Bank Plc for 11 years and its chairman for three years. He was reputed as the man who turned around the former Federal Savings Bank, which had gone into coma under government ownership. FSB was “consolidated” into Fidelity Bank Plc in 2005. An alumnus of the ABU, Zaria, Hayatu-Deen cut his teeth at the Northern Nigeria Development Corporation (NNDC, now known as New Nigeria Development Corporation) which managed 145 investments of the northern states. At 30, he rose to the position of MD/CEO.

Hayatu-Deen, who received leadership and management training at the Harvard Business School, London Business School and INSEAD (France) in the course of his career, has four decades of experience in the corporate world. But that is Hayatu-Deen the economist and banker. Hayatu-Deen the politician is, to put in bluntly, a freshman. In 2023, he bought the PDP presidential nomination forms but withdrew a few days to the primary, alleging that the process was contaminated. “It is based on personal principles and with great humility that I have decided after wide consultations to withdraw from this contest which has been obscenely monetised,” he announced at the time.

He was complaining about the process that eventually produced Atiku as the party’s candidate. It was a war of cash between Atiku and Chief Nyesom Wike. Northern leaders in the party were scared Wike was going to get the ticket owing to his war chest and tried to get the aspirants from the north to step down for Atiku. Only Rt Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, then governor of Sokoto state, agreed to step down — just before voting started at the convention. Atiku polled 317 delegate votes while Wike had 237. That was a margin of 80 votes. Tambuwal was projected to have over 100 delegates in his corner. If he had not withdrawn, the outcome might have been different. We will never know.

In his interview with ARISE TV on Thursday, Hayatu-Deen — who was born in Borno state but made Kano his home — spoke about the insecurity in the north which he links to poverty. “Approximately 105 million Nigerians are living below the poverty line…. approximately 90 percent of those who are poor actually live in the northern part of the country,” he said, adding that security should be treated with the same urgency as economic management. He does not see himself as a political outsider. Rather, he says his career straddled public and private sectors as he played advisory roles to past administrations and was involved in national policy initiatives. We can call him a technocrat then.

Upsetting Atiku in the ADC will certainly be an uphill task for Hayatu-Deen — but, at least, we can start thinking less about the courts and begin to focus on the presidential contest itself. The APC ticket seems settled in favour of Tinubu. Although someone else in the ruling party has signified interest, I am not expecting any twist there. I also want to believe Obi will fly the NDC flag, except something really dramatic happens. I think more aspirants will soon procure the nomination forms of the other leading parties, namely the Labour Party and the PDP. The race needs more life. Politicians, activists and technocrats are all welcome. I want Nigerians to experience more excitements ahead.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

XENOPHOBIA VS XENOPHOBIA

Senator Adams Oshiomhole has an incredible solution to the xenophobic attacks in South Africa: we should nationalise MTN and Multichoice! South African scoundrels, inspired by laziness and weed, are being used by politicians to attack innocent foreigners, mostly Nigerians and Zimbabweans, ahead of elections, and the super solution is to nationalise privately owned companies that these ruffians don’t care about? How does that even make sense, if not that there is already anti-MTN and anti-Multichoice xenophobia in Nigeria? You want to overcome xenophobia with xenophobia? Does Oshiomhole even know that the Dangote Group also operates in other African countries? Ridiculous.

POWER CORRUPTS

A federal high court on Thursday convicted Mr Saleh Mamman, former minister of power, on all 12 counts of money laundering filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Justice James Omotosho said the EFCC proved its case beyond reasonable doubt that Mamman diverted N33.8 billion meant for the Zungeru and Mambilla hydroelectric power projects while the nation reeled in darkness. The former minister, who served under President Muhammadu Buhari, was found to have made a cash payment of $655,700 for property. We need more of these convictions so that public officers will understand the meaning of crime and punishment. Positive.

MENINGITIS MENACE

Some things happen so often in Nigeria that they no longer grab national headlines. Even if they do, who cares anyway? As many as 34 people have died in a meningitis outbreak across nine LGAs of Sokoto state. Yes, 34 human lives. Those who escape the barbarism of the bandits and terrorists are not guaranteed to see the next day. Diseases await. Dr Faruk Abubakar-Wurno, the commissioner for health, says most of the deaths occur at home before government intervention because victims always attribute what is clearly a medical problem to spiritual forces. There is definitely a correlation between poverty and communicable diseases, but — pray — where do we go from here? Distressing.

NO COMMENT

On Thursday, a group of “youths”, calling itself the Coalition for Goodluck Jonathan, marched to the Abuja residence of the former president singing and dancing, and asking him to run for president. He told them he was going to consult. He said something about computer science that I didn’t quite get. In other words, he doesn’t have any plans to run. The youths are the ones begging him to come and “rescue Nigeria” — the favourite phrase of opposition parties since 2007. Because he “never” wanted to run, he has to consult to make up his mind. Haven’t we seen this before? Who remembers Youths Earnestly Ask for Abacha (YEAA)? Now, Youths Earnestly Ask for Jonathan (YEAJ). Hahahaha…

•Written By Simon Kolawole