In 2011, President Goodluck broke a covenant of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP with the Nigerian people, and secured the party’s ticket contrary to the gentleman zoning arrangement that power will reside in the North till 2015. The violence that followed the outcome of the 2011 presidential election which brought Jonathan to power still filters in the air. As political gladiators warm up ahead of 2015 presidential poll, will President Jonathan break another solemn oath and run in 2015? Fred Itua takes a look at the issues.
Political goings on in the country has taken a twist over the purported moves by President Goodluck Jonathan to run for a second term in office. While Jonathan is quick to dispel the glaring handwritings on the wall, leaders from Northern Nigeria have repeatedly declared that the pendulum must shift back to the region in order to avoid a repeat of what transpired in the months leading to the 2011 presidential poll where President Jonathan jettisoned the zoning arrangement of the Peoples’ Democratic Party and secured the party’s ticket.
The counter-moves by Northern leaders sufficed when the agitation for a review of the revenue sharing formulae started. Angst by the fact that Jonathan’s region, the South-South Geopolitical Zone, enjoys the bulk of the national cake, the counter twists that have followed from Southern leaders, leave little to be desired. Some Pundits have also opined that the series of secret meetings held by some ‘concerned’ Northern leaders are geared towards establishing a formidable force that will counter any eventual moves by Jonathan contrary to deliberating on issues about security concerns bedeviling the region.
Facts about President Jonathan’s covert plans ahead of 2015 presidential race became conspicuous when members of the National Assembly were allegedly reported to seek elevation by becoming members of the National Executive Committee of the PDP before the vehement opposition of state governors under the party. Another glaring pointer to the purported plans by President Jonathan to run in 2015, observers noted, is the choice of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as the anointed chairman of the PDP to run the affairs of the PDP ahead of 2015. Although serious concerns have been expressed about his agility to run the affairs of the party considering his old age, President Jonathan has however anointed him thereby casting doubts on the ability of the PDP to entrench internal democracy within the party.
The adoption of Tukur pundits believe, is no mere coincidence considering the fact that he hails from Adamawa State, the home-state of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar whose ambition to take another shot at the presidency is not in doubt. The emergence of Tukur will obviously hamper his chances, thereby paving the way for President Jonathan.
Some assumed personalities from the South-South region have been urging Jonathan to seek another term in office.
Alhaji Asari Dokumbo, a former activist and now a relentless defender of the President stated recently that Jonathan will rule Nigeria for eight years. “Jonathan has an 8-year tenure,” Asari stated. “He has 8 years tenure. If he wants to go for 8 years, he has the right to do so. But if he says he does not want to go, it is politics. Politics is about numbers. It is about sagacity. So, what we are going to do is to work towards it, to work towards the realization of our goal to make sure that those who have held us down will never get to power again.”
Determined to shatter the plans of Jonathan, a leader of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Yerima Shettima, has reinstated that the North is prepared to take back power in 2015. According to him, northern leaders are meeting to advance the interest of the region and nominate a consensus candidate that can match the president, should he decide to contest.
“In these meetings, we are trying to solve the problem of insecurity in our region and advance the interest of the North. I believe at the end of the day, the North would agree on a consensus candidate who will not just represent the interest of the North but someone who clearly understands the problems of Nigeria as a whole. And I believe that such a candidate would be able to match Jonathan even if he eventually decides to contest,” he said.
Shettima further stated that he does not believe “any arrangement between the North and the South on who produces the president or not will work.”
A Coalition of Northern Leaders has also vowed that the “North will rise to oppose tenure elongation for the president.”
According to the group, the presidency is using the Justice Alfa Belgore Committee on Constitution Review to fulfill third term agenda for Jonathan.
Dr. Junaid Mohammed, the convener of the coalition stated that “it has become clear that both the villa and the Chairman are relentlessly pursuing a sinister third term agenda/renewed tenure elongation for the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.”
Unperturbed by the growing cynicisms over his purported plans to seek for a second term in office, President Jonathan has asked Northern leaders not to distract his administration’s agenda with its politics of 2015 succession.
According to a press statement released by his media assistant, Dr Reuben Abati, Jonathan is spending his first term in office and could not have been pursuing a Third Term Agenda.
“The President is focusing on governance and he remains committed to the transformation agenda,” Abati stated. “He refuses to be distracted by those who are already playing the politics of succession.
“It is not in any evidence, in any way, that the Belgore Committee, which the President set up to look at the outcomes of previous political conferences’ recommendations, has submitted any report, anywhere.
“I am not aware of any report that has been submitted anywhere making any recommendations. We would expect that people, who claim to be major stakeholders in the Nigerian project, when they make contributions, their contributions will show commonsense and decency.
“To comment on the report of the Belgore committee that has not been concluded and a report that has not yet been submitted, will amount to witchcraft or if you like call it sorcery, and it is therefore curious and entirely mischievous. As far as I know, the Belgore committee has not concluded its work.
“It also appears strange to me that a group of people, who otherwise would be described as distinguished Nigerians, would claim that the President is looking for a third term.
“Every intelligent man in this country knows that President Jonathan is in his first term in office. So, how have they suddenly jump from first term to third term. From the point of view of arithmetic, even their claim cannot stand. So, that claim is weak, it is unacceptable.
“If their concern is about the seven-year term tenure, President Jonathan has made it clear that his proposal is out of patriotic concern about the amount of wastefulness, greed, tension, conflict and the obsession that go into the search for second term.
“It is borne out of patriotic concern that elected officials at all levels should dedicate themselves and concentrate their efforts during a specific period. This proposal is not original to the President.”
Judging by the outcome of the 2011 presidential election which nearly brought the nation to its knees, concerned citizens and observers are worried that Jonathan’s alleged attempt to seek for another term in office is tantamount to throwing the nation into chaos. One observer specifically noted that the prediction by the United States government that Nigeria as a corporate nation will cease to exist by 2015, might come through if President Jonathan take heed to the advice of his kinsmen and seek for another term in 2015.
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