The recent adoption of President Goodluck Jonathan as the sole presidential candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 election may have shut the party’s doors against prominent politicians from the north nursing a similar ambition.
Reflecting on Jonathan’s adoption, former Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, told Sunday Independent in an interview during the week, that it is a call for the north to muscle their way to Aso Rock.
“Now, that the PDP has again shut its door against the North, obviously it makes more sense for the North to fight back and ensure that PDP loses this election at the federal level,” said Abdullahi, who is spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum.
For him, “we have said that, we would be working for the return of leadership to the North on the grounds of fairness, equity and justice initially, thinking that the PDP, when it adopted the zoning policy, would live with this policy and respect it. But from all indications, from 2007 up to this time, the PDP has reneged on the zoning policy.
“As far as the North is concerned, it is not asking for power, simply because it wants power. The argument here has always been that of equity and justice.
“I was once a member of the PDP at the top level and I was aware of everything that transpired on this power rotation arrangement between the North and the South. The South had its turn of eight years and the North was expecting that it was going to have its own turn of eight years.
“Now that the PDP has again shut its door against the North, obviously it makes more sense for the North to fight back and ensure that PDP loses this election at the federal level” the don declared.
He argued further that “the issue has shifted from resistance from the North, but resistance from the entire country that the man is not fit to remain in office after 2015. So, the North has no problem with any of the aspirants that emerges from their primaries in the APC.”
“So, the APC should respect its constitution in terms of how candidates emerge from local government up to the Presidency. If they respect their constitution and carry out their primaries openly, fairly and transparently, they should have no problem of acceptance of the candidate that emerges as winner. So, from that point on, everybody’s hands should be on deck”, Prof. Abdullahi maintained.
The President’s ambition may not be without qualms, as those who know say he is under mounting pressure from some northern elites to dump his deputy as running mate, Namadi Sambo, in the next election. This is based on the perception that the VP may have lost popularity in the region, and may become a baggage the president.
The insinuation, it appears, may have caught Jonathan’s attention, who has lost some good measure of popularity because of the persistent insurgency that has plagued the region.
A member of the PDP, who sought anonymity, told Sunday Independent that some PDP governors in the north have opened discussion with Jonathan on why he should drop Sambo and pick one of them as replacement in 2015.
Some possible replacements being considered include governors of Katsina State, Ibrahim Shema and Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, both from Sambo’s north east geo-political zone. The source added that the clamour for Sambo’s replacement stems from the belief that the vice-president lacks the political clout to deliver the north for Jonathan at the crucial election.
According to the source, Shema and Lamido have been able to handle the affairs of their respective states discretely, especially as it relates to insecurity facing northern Nigeria.
Sunday Independent also gathered that Sambo’s frosty relationship with the Emir of Zaria, Kaduna State, is another factor likely to work against him.
“Those that want Sambo replaced have told the presidency not to under-rate their argument, explaining that the north of 2011 is not the same north in 2015, because the security challenge and other factors have changed the political equation in the region,” the source said.
Reacting to the report of a search for Sambo’s replacement, the Lagos State PDP has dismissed the rumour, blaming it on the handiwork of political enemies of the party, even as its Publicity Secretary, Gani Taofeek, is willing to swear that PDP’s National Executive Committee (NEC) has endorsed Sambo as part of president Jonathan’s winning team for 2015.
Although Taofeek did not dismiss moves by some politicians to discredit Sambo, so as to replace him, he insists: “Sambo is part of the winning team and you don’t change a winning team.”
The determination to replace Sambo with either Shema or Lamido, observers say, is an apparent sign that the endorsement of Jonathan at the 66th meeting of PDP’s NEC on September 18, technically deals a fatal blow on the chances of both governors.
It has also emerged that Jonathan’s political associates have been advising him to be careful, so as not to dampen his chances, which could happen if the opposition presents a formidable candidate against him in 2015.
Although sources have said former Vice President, Abubakar Atiku, who has announced his intention to contest under the All Progressive Congress (APC) could be a formidable opposition, others assure that strong forces within the APC’s ranks in the north have vowed to stop him.
The president’s chances of returning to Aso Rock have however been boosted by the gale of endorsements from various groups, known and previously unknown, across the country, the latest being a group of former deputy governors who served at the time Jonathan was one in Bayelsa.
For example, an a statement signed by its Chairman and Secretary, former Deputy Governor of Bauchi State, Alhaji Abdulmalik Mahmood, and former Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Dr Chris Ekpenyong, in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, at the weekend, the Forum of Former Deputy Governors in Nigeria (FFDGN) said Jonathan’s endorsements by the PDP, is based on same reasons the group gave, when it insisted recently that “President has done well and deserves a second term.”
The forum urged the President not to reject the call to be the PDP’s sole candidate, just as the people of Northern Cross River, endorsed Jonathan’s return, in possible appreciation of the party’s support for their son and Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, who is not only being assured of a return, but retention of his juicy position, amidst pockets of opposition from the home front.Source: Daily Independent
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