 |
| President Goodluck Jonathan |
Chibuzo Ukaibe in this report looks at the import of the call by PDP governors for Jonathan to declare. Excepts.
The call by the governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the recent Enugu unity rally for President Goodluck Jonathan to declare his intention to seek the 2015 election was anything but surprising.
It was also instructive that the call was made in Enugu, the political headquarters of the South East, a region that has solidly backed the ambition of Jonathan since 2011.
While the governors led by their chairman and governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, said the call was from the zone in recognition of the federal government projects in the zone, PDP watchers noted that the call was part of the process to test the waters ahead of Jonathan’s eventual declaration.
Giving reasons for the call for Jonathan to declare, Akpabio said “the PDP governors whispered to my ears that the reason they want you to re-contest election in 2015 is because they want you to commission the second Niger Bridge that you are building for them. The first Azikiwe built the first Niger Bridge and another Azikiwe in Jonathan is building the second Niger Bridge for the South-East people.
“They said they don’t want another person to commission the bridge that you have started for them. That is why they are saying Mr President even if this is a unity rally, a continuity rally and not a political rally, you must re-contest in 2015.
“The second observation, Mr President, is that as we were coming, we saw the newly completed international airport here in Enugu, the coal city. The coal city is the headquarters of all the South-East region, and the development here in your administration is unprecedented total transformation,” the governor stated.
He pointed out that “The South-East people are worried and are saying if you don’t accept their request to re-contest in 2015, who will commission all the massive projects going on in the region. Today in Enugu, Ethiopian Airlines are all fully booked until June. We tried to get a seat but couldn’t secure even one because it takes off right here from Enugu. You have opened the South-East to the international community and everyone around the world is making the South-East their destination.
“We are proud of you, Mr President, for all these development projects, and we your foot-soldiers in the states, we assure you of our total support from the S/East to other regions. The only state
that is left in the South-East, we are sure that by 2015 we will reclaim it,” Akpabio concluded.
This of course was in the face of the opposition to Jonathan’s perceived decision to run in 2015; there have been legal hurdles, bothering on constitutional breach as regards number of times he can take the presidential oath having been made president since 2010 upon the death of his boss, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
However a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) had declared that President Goodluck Jonathan is eligible to contest in the 2015 presidential elections if he so desires. The FCT court presided over by Justice Mudashiru Oniyangi had pointed out that Jonathan’s assumption of office after the demise of former President Umaru Yar’Adua was in line with what the National Assembly described as doctrine of necessity and not as a result of emerging winner in any bye-election conducted after the death of his former boss.
Justice Oniyangi said “having exhausted the late President’s tenure, he (Jonathan) sought for his party’s ticket and ran for the office of the President successfully in the 2011 general elections. He is therefore currently serving his first tenure of office, and if he so wishes he is eligible to further seek his party’s ticket through the party’s primary election and to run for office in 2015.”
But there is more to the governors call in South East. Sources from the party hinted that the call might be preparatory to offering President Jonathan the right of first refusal to the party’s presidential a ticket in 2015, a move that was advocated by some party faithful especially the Chairman of the Board of Trustess of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih. The idea is to copy the United States where their presidents who are still eligible have the right of refusal to the party’s ticket first.
However, this move contributed to the eventual defection of the G5 governors now in the All Progressives Congress (APC) and other former PDP stalwarts now in APC. The defected governors were those of Sokoto, Rivers, Kano, Kwara, Adamawa. Leading the pack of PDP Chieftains who left was former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Although the aggregated grievances of the defected governors were initially aimed at the former national chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, it was however alleged that they were adverse to Jonathan’s contesting in 2015, because some of them were purportedly nursing presidential or vice presidential ambitions by 2015.
For Atiku, the concern was that with the way he was sidelined from the activities of the PDP, it would be difficult for him to take shot at contesting the primaries against the president, as he had done and lost in 2011. Another speculated aspirant, This much, another rumored presidential aspirant and governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, has underscored while. From experience, the odds always favored the incumbent going into primaries, hence the need for the president not to contest. This much, another rumored presidential aspirant and governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, has underscored while
But these sentiments against the emergence of Jonathan at the time, were expressed by the Niger state governor, Babangida Aliyu (who alongside Lamido, eventually declined to join his counterparts in the defection move) while speaking on Kaduna-based radio station, Liberty FM last year, cautioned President Jonathan not to seek a fresh term, as he claimed that it would be a breach of the single term deal the latter signed with PDP governors.
Governor Aliyu had said “What will be, will be in 2015. We must remind people of the promises they have made. When he (Jonathan) was going to declare, governors of PDP were brought together to ensure that we were all in the same frame of mind. Some of us, given the PDP zoning, were expecting that the northern states would produce the President for these numbers of years but God has done His own. At that discussion, it was agreed that President Jonathan would serve one term and we all signed and when he went to Kampala, he said the same thing.’’
However, with the defection of those seemingly opposed to Jonathan, and with the party approaching the last lap activities before outright campaign begins, the coast seems to be clear for the president to meet little or no resistance to clench the party’s presidential ticket.
However, it might be too early to call whether fresh opposition to his ambition would emerge as he has not declared his intention yet.
Access and attempt UTME Past Questions Online in CBT format - Earn up to N10,000 when you refer 50 candidates to our portal
Download National Common Entrance Examination Past Questions and Answers
Download unlimited e-books in various disciplines for FREE
Get Breaking News on BBM - add our PIN - 232FC0E9
Follow on Twitter to receive updates every hour
Don't miss the next news item - LIKE our Facebook page
No comments:
Post a Comment