2015: SOUTH SOUTH GOVS, IJAW LEADERS’ SILENCE RATTLES JONATHAN

There are strong indications from the Aso Rock Villa that the ‘complacence’ of Governors of the South-South zone over the 2015 Presidential election is creating anxiety and concern in the Presidency.

Not only that, the silence of the leadership of the Ijaw ethnic nationality over recent disparaging comments against President Goodluck Jonathan by one of his kinsmen and erstwhile supporter, Mujaheed Dokubo Asari, is giving the powers-that-be sleepless hights.

Asari, a former creek warlord, who a few months back vowed that Jonathan would occupy the seat of power for eight years, penultimate week, started throwing punches at the administration of his kinsman, describing it as a disappointment as far as the Niger Delta region was concerned.

Presidential spokesman, Reuben Abati, had equally fired back, saying regional sentiments would not work under Jonathan’s Presidency.

A credible source close to the Presidency said the reaction, which came a few days after Asari’s remarks, was actually as a result of the “disturbing silence of credible Ijaw leaders over Asari’s outburst.”

This is even as the Presidency insists that no level of ethnic or regional pressure on Jonathan would force him to tow “primordial ethnic lines.”

But according to the source, the President had waited for some days to see if his kinsmen would fire back at Dokubo-Asari.

“It is not as if the issues raised by Asari in the series of interviews are not fundamental, they are.

“But what we are yet to unravel is the disturbing silence of the leadership of the President’s ethnic nationality, the Ijaw, through the Ijaw National Congress or other credible bodies in the region because there are quite a lot of them.

“Ordinarily, the Presidency ought not to have reacted but after waiting some days and no one was talking, the Presidential response became very demanding and imperative since the comments appeared very well rehearsed, orchestrated and coordinated.

“Some concerned persons have been asking why the response to Asari’s interview but if carefully examined, how many credible names have come out to say ‘look, Asari, stop this nonsense?’ None has come out because the most worrisome is the fact that even after the Presidential reaction, Asari came out more vociferous than he did in the first instance.

“The question therefore is: Is Asari merely holding the bull by the horn while others are clapping for him from the dark?

“The most disturbing is the fact that none of the Governors has even come out to either admonish their colleagues from the North or make statements to the effect that the President is constitutionally empowered to run for another term.

“They may want to argue that the President had warned against talks about 2015, but about their northern colleagues who are spoiling for a political showdown?” the source noted.

The source confided in our correspondent that disturbed by this development, Jonathan summoned a meeting of the Niger-Delta Development Council on Wednesday, giving it a marching order to present a developmental blueprint for the region.

The source gave April 2013 as the flag-off date of the much publicised coastal road from Oron to Lagos through Ondo State, disclosing further that new strategies had been adopted to ensure the speedy construction of the East West road, using mostly funds sourced outside the conventional national budget.

The source, however, declined to disclose the new strategies.

Meanwhile, Political Adviser to President Jonathan, Ahmed Gulak, insisted on Monday that whatever plans the President has for the Niger Delta region was not out of primordial ethnic sentiments.

In a telephone conversation, the Presidential aide said comments from the President’s kinsmen are not unusual in politics.

“The comments are not unusual in politics; they are allowed but the President will not bow to such blackmail by some individuals who felt left out in the scheme of things and tend to lean towards ethnic lines to whip up needless sentiments.

“I can tell you that as you and I know, Jonathan is from an ethnic group, he is from a community, he is from a state. But did he get to where he is by the singular efforts of his people? That is the question I would want you to answer for me; and if you won’t answer that question, the simple answer is no.

“He got there through a pan-Nigerian mandate which he swore to protect; he is answerable to Nigerians and Nigerians alone, not to an individual who feels he has got what he wanted.

“Without mincing words, the only way to please Nigerians is for the President to continue to do what he is doing in the various sectors by institutionalising structures for massive development like what we have just witnessed in the rail transport sector where thousands of persons can be transported in one swing from Lagos to Kano.

“You can only imagine the human capital dividend in that regard as thousands of unemployed youths will now be involved in the loading and off-loading of goods at each rail station,” Gulak said.

As if in tandem with Gulak’s position, the quest by the North for the Presidency to return to the zone in 2015 appears to be running into stormy waters, as it (region) is presently caught in a web of contending tendencies in spite of indications that all is not well in Jonathan’s home front, the South South.

The forces almost tearing the hitherto politically-monolithic North apart include the Northern Governors, some of who are eying the Presidency and that of the yet-to-be-declared ambition of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

An impeccable source confided in our correspondent at the weekend that in the event that Jonathan decides to run in 2015, the North cannot muster enough political cohesion to stand on his way because interests have set in.

The source spoke from the perspective of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Jonathan has consistently refused to say if he is interested in the 2015 Presidential race for now, though his body language indicates he will seek re-election.

All the same, the source said:

“The Governors of the North who today are playing to the gallery know that the game is up for them. As I am talking to you today, the new thinking in the North is that even if the President decides not to run, none of them will emerge either candidate of the party (PDP) or President eventually.

“So, if today they are now protagonists of divisive politics that the Presidency must go to the North, they are not likely to be the beneficiaries because the people already see them as selfish and more interested in their political survival.

“Were they not instrumental to the imposition of the President because they wanted their second terms? What has suddenly gone wrong that they think what was not good for the North in 2011 is now good for the region?

“These are the questions the elite in the North have actually developed into posers; so end or tail they are losers.”

The source said already, Atiku had begun deft moves to pre-empt his former boss, Olusegun Obasanjo, in his quest to throw up one of the northern governors for the race.

Details of Atiku’s moves were not clear as at press time.

Governors Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Isa Yuguda (Bauchi), Ibrahim Shehu Shema(Katsina), Muazu Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano), and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), are all touted to be interested in the 2015 Presidential race.

Source: Daily Independent