The
intense power play preceding the 2015 presidential election intensified on
Saturday when Governor of Niger State, Babangida claimed that President
Goodluck Jonathan entered into an agreement with governors on the platform of
the Peoples Democratic Party to serve for a term.
Aliyu, made the claim during an
interview with a Kaduna-based radio station, Liberty FM on Saturday
morning.
The audio interview was later in the
evening uploaded on an online news portal,Saharareporters.
Aliyu in the interview said PDP
governors had a single-term pact with Jonathon.
According to the governor, it was on
the basis of the said agreement that he and some of his colleagues in the
ruling Peoples Democratic Party supported the President in the 2011
presidential election.
He 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 number
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. But for now, President Jonathan has not
declared his candidacy and we must not be speculating based on who those are
benefiting from such a thing. I believe that we are all gentlemen enough and
when the time comes, we will all sit down and see what the right thing to do
is.
“Many people may misunderstand my
stance that I pray for the success of the merger of the opposition parties
because I want a situation where in this country, parties can really challenge
one another. So that we don’t take it for granted that because you have been
winning elections, you can do as you wish. There is a purpose for election. There
is a purpose for setting up government. You set up government for the
competence, effectiveness and efficiency of running an administration. You
don’t set it up because of a group of people to keep on enjoying to the
detriment of the people.”
When contacted last night, the
presidency was quick to deny the claim credited to Aliyu, who is also the
Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum.
Special Adviser to the President on
Political Matters, Dr. Ahmed Gulak, made the presidency’s position known in
Abuja.
Gulak told one of our correspondents
that Jonathan did not sign any agreement with anyone.
Gulak advised the governor who has
declared a presidential ambition to go about the pursuit of his ambition
without making what he called “frivolous allegations” against the President.
He said, “President Goodluck Jonathan
did not win the presidential election in Governor Aliyu’s state, Niger.
“Anybody who has a presidential
ambition, it is such a person’s constitutional right to have ambition.
“He should however go about his
ambition without coming up with frivolous allegations.
“President Jonathan did not sign such
an agreement with anybody to the best of my knowledge.
“The alleged agreement only exists in
the figment of the imagination of somebody with presidential ambition.”
The National Publicity Secretary of
the PDP, Mr. Olisa Metuh, however, said he won’t speak on the issue since
he didn’t hear the governor say such a thing.
“I won’t speak on that since I didn’t
hear the governor saying such,” he said.
Governor Aliyu was quoted as saying
that he and the other signatories to the agreement, had no doubt that the
President would keep to the terms of the agreement.
He also added that President Jonathan
had not told the governors that he would contest the 2015 presidential
election.
President Jonathan, during a media
chat last year, had declared that he was yet to decide whether or not to
contest in 2015. He said his decision on the subject would be made public in
2014.
He had argued that making a definite
pronouncement on the subject would distract his administration from delivering
on its campaign promises.
Aliyu is one of the seven northern
governors who have indicated interest in contesting for the presidency.
Other governors who have their eyes on
the position are Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State,
Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State, Rabiu Kwankwaso
of Kano State and Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State.
All the governors are of the ruling
PDP to which President Goodluck Jonathan belongs. All of them are also in their
second term in office.
Ex-governors Ahmed Makarfi and Ibrahim
Shekarau of Kaduna and Kano states respectively, are also said to be interested
in the race.
In the past one year, leaders of the
North have met on different platforms, insisting on replacing President
Jonathan with a northerner in 2015.
Source:
Punch
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