President Goodluck Jonathan’s declaration in far-away New York, that he would contest the presidential election in 2015 has been causing some ripples among the camp of the aggrieved Group of Seven Peoples Democratic Party Governors and some northern leaders who are resisting his re-nomination as the party’s standardbearer.
This is also as the leadership of the PDP is gearing towards dissolution of some state Excos of the party that are clearly loyal to the new PDP, dominated by the aggrieved governors.
A PDP source disclosed to Sunday Mirror that the National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, has ordered the acting National Secretary of the PDP, Dr. Remi Akintoye, to raise a memo to be discussed at the next National Working Committee, NWC, of the party, including a list of the states in which the tenure of their exco has ended or about to end.
This, according to our source, is a prelude to appointing a caretaker committee that will be loyal to the national leadership in some of the states. “With this appointment, the party will take absolute control of these states which are controlled by the rebel governors who are supporting the new PDP.”
Targeted states include Niger, Jigawa, Kwara and Sokoto. States like Kano, Rivers and Adamawa have since been taken over by the national leadership of the party.
The presidential project of Dr. Jonathan, particularly his recent declaration of intention in the United States, has been ruffling the feathers of some members of the political elite in the North, even though it did not come to them as a surprise.
A source has it that there is already a crack within the aggrieved PDP camp over the way forward as regards their aim of stopping Jonathan from returning to power. According to the source, while some of the governors including Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers) and Aliyu Wammako (Sokoto) appear to favour defecting to another party, particularly the Peoples Democratic Movement, PDM, Governors Sule Lamido (Jigawa) and Babangida Aliyu (Niger) will prefer staying put at the PDP.
Recall that recently, the governors voiced out the pressure by the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s camp to lure them into his political camp.
An aide to Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State who chose not to be mentioned, told ‘Sunday Mirror’ that the governor may soft-pedal from his opposition to the re-election plans of President Jonathan so long as his emergence has not contravened the party’s rule.
“His opposition all along has always been on principles and not personal. He has nothing against President Jonathan contesting the election but he is only opposed to imposition of candidacy and not allowing a free contest as it concerns the north.”
While the Abubakar Baraje-led new PDP has repeatedly told President Jonathan that he was ineligible to seek a second mandate in office, the camp of the President has continued to expand in acceptance by several groups across the nation.
The Baraje group had outlined that the 1999 Constitution, an agreement the President entered into and his open statement in Turkey in 2011 were factors that disqualified him from seeking re-election.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, New PDP faction also warned that Jonathan’s second term ambition was not in the best interest of the country as it may cause the disintegration prophesied by some international community.
“After reviewing the state of the nation and the pulse of Nigerians, we wish to advise President Jonathan to abandon his plan to seek re-election in 2015 as this is not in the best interest of the country,” it added.
The statement read: “We are worried that Mr. President is intent on running despite his earlier promise not to do so and in spite of the wise counsel of well-meaning Nigerians, including respected elder statesmen. Why can he not keep his words as a man of honour instead of allowing himself to be misled by selfish advisers to go back on his words, thereby overheating the polity?”
The faction called on the President to heed the advice of well-meaning personalities such as Prof. Ben Nwabueze (SAN) and Archbishop Emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie, all of whom had advised him to correctly read the handwriting on the wall and stay away from the 2015 presidential race. While saying that by 2015, Jonathan would have been in office for six years, it added that this was enough time for him to achieve whatever he planned for Nigeria.
It said, “What else is he looking for that is making him desperate to participate in the 2015 presidential election despite warnings that doing so may spark a chain of events capable of culminating in the country’s disintegration, thereby bringing to pass the predictions of Lord Lugard that Nigeria as a nation by 2014 may become history, which was later confirmed by the USA Think-Tank that Nigeria may disintegrate by 2015. “
However, the Presidency while replying the new PDP said that nobody or group of individuals, including the New PDP, was capable of stopping Jonathan if he decided to contest the 2015 election.
The Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak, said unrealisable ambition had blinded members of the New PDP to the extent that they were no longer aware that Nigeria was governed by law.
He said, “The Abubakar Baraje group (New PDP) is an outlaw as far as the law of this country is concerned. The country is governed by law. “As far as I am concerned, there is no political crisis in the country.
It is a group of few people with unrealisable ambitions that are blinded to the fact that there is a Constitution and there is the Electoral Act.”
A few days ago, former governors and candidates of the PDP unveiled the Godluck To Goodluck Project, while insisting that it would be against natural justice to deny President Goodluck Jonathan a right to seek re-election in 2015.
According to the convener of the forum and former governorship candidate of PDP in Edo State, Major Gen. Charles Arhiavbere, the team asked “all well meaning PDP members to embrace peace and to return to the mainstream of the party under the leadership of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.”
It stated: “The constitution provides for eight years for every office and I believe that going by natural justice, if there is a tenant in a house and it is going for sale, the first opportunity of refusal should go to the occupant.
“And I believe that based on the mid-term report of the President, we believe that he should be given a second term in office to finish his project. President Jonathan has the right. It has not been published anywhere that he signed an agreement to run for one term.
He should be given support and peaceful environment to implement his projects to completion.” Present at the meeting are former Minister of Sports, Damishi Sango; Fidelis Seri; another former Minister of Sports, Col Abdulminu Aminu; former governor of Adamawa State, Boni Haruna; former deputy governor of Ogun State, Alhaji Salimot Badru; governorship candidate of PDP in Ondo State, Sola Oke; a former minister, Alhaji Dauda Birmah; Col. John David Dongi (rtd) and a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, Donald.
Source: National Mirror
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