2015: NORTH WON’T VOTE AS A BLOC – UMAR

• Balarabe, others on how Jonathan can survive opposition

Those who believe that President Goodluck Jonathan has a mountain to climb in getting northern votes in seeking re-election in 2015 may be wrong after all, as former Kaduna State military administrator, retired Colonel Abubakar Umar, said the North would not vote as a bloc during the next general elections.

Umar spoke to Daily Newswatch in an interview in Kaduna, while other northern opinion leaders, including Alhaji Balarabe Musa, and Alhaji Abba Gana, former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, and others, also highlighted how President Goodluck Jonathan can survive the predominantly northern opposition.

Umar told Daily Newswatch that, “In asking this question, you seem to be assuming that the North will vote as a bloc. Nothing will be further from the reality. It is my opinion that the electorate in the North, as in other parts of the country, will consider the merits of each of the presidential candidates in their voting decisions.”

He said, “There is a growing misconception that the opposition of the G7 Governors is a representation of the collective political opinion or interest of the North,” he said.

Umar stressed that far from seeing his possible re-election as an uphill task, President Jonathan should come out in the open and exercise his constitutional right to seek re-election through due process, seeking his party’s nomination and then presenting himself to the Nigerian electorate.

“The challenge to his eligibility or qualification should be through the courts. His suitability should be challenged through responsible debates in the course of campaign,” he said.

The former military governor of Kaduna State said it would be presumptuous of anyone to determine how the North will vote in the 2015 presidential election. He insisted that the North will not vote as a bloc, and as for the zoning arrangement of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it is dead and buried in 2011, he said.

The other northern opinion leaders, apart from Umar, also advised President Jonathan on how to survive the predominantly northern opposition. They include Second Republic governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, Abba Gana, as well as spokesman of the House of Representatives, Zakari Mohammed.

Balarabe said the only issue is for President Jonathan to accede to what the northerners want, and he should know that there are two major elements in the North: the progressives and the reactionaries. He should choose which of the two groups he wants to accede.

“He should know that the North is divided into two, the progressives and the reactionaries, and he should decide those he wants to appease. It may not be possible for him to appease both the reactionary North and the progressive North. It may not be possible for him to appease the leaders and the led, he should know that.

“The North is divided; because there is a section of the North which says actually, we have passed the stage where we should be talking about North and South. What is important is building Nigeria. The issue is not where the President comes from, either from the North or from the South. The issue is that there are two fundamental problems, whoever is able to solve the two fundamental problems the North will go ahead with him.”

The former governor urged President Jonathan to tackle the problems of the development disparity between the North and the South, if he wants northerners to go along with him.

“The problems are those of Almajiris and disparity in the development in the North and the South. Whoever can tackle these problems in the North, they will go along with him. You and I will realise that the North and the South benefit from the economy. The North is fair in terms of political power, but the problem in the North is that of Almajiris and the problem of educational development.

“But there are some Northerners who are in opposition to the reactionary Northerners. Some of the progressives in the North say they want a united Nigeria and a progressive government that can solve the problems of Nigeria. There are some Northerners that say the North is at a disadvantage in terms of development,” he explained.

However, in spite of the vehement opposition to the President’s likely quest for a second term from the core North, Abba Gana is upbeat about Jonathan getting the support of majority of northerners in his re-election bid. He said all the President needs do is to ensure fairness to all.

Gana disclosed that there are many northerners who are ready to vote for Jonathan on the understanding that the North, having produced nine Nigerian Heads of State should allow its traditional ally, the South-South to exhaust its own opportunity of governing Nigeria for the first time.

The former FCT minister also agreed with Umar that the North would not vote as a bloc, adding, however, that neither the Northern Elders Council nor the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) can speak for the North.

But he expects the President to continue to reach out to the northern people.

However, Zakari Mohammed, spokesman of the House of Representatives, believed that for Jonathan to get the support of the North for his re-election bid in 2015, he has to thread the same path he did in 2011 by meeting leaders of the party in the northern states and seeking their consent.

“He surely won’t get the support of everybody, but could win some”, he said, stressing there are people around Jonathan whose agenda is at variance with his.

“He has to get rid of such people from the corridors of power. He doesn’t have to be nice to such people to be a good leader. He doesn’t have to be nice to everybody,” Mohammed said.

The lawmaker would want Jonathan to effect a change in leadership of the PDP, especially the Alhaji Bamanga Tukur-led National Working Committee (NWC).

“You and I know that the present leadership of the party is not helping matters,” he said.

On his part, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha, representing Taraba South in the Senate, said he personally has no problem with Jonathan remaining in office for another six years, saying that he is not aware of anything achieved by his predecessor that the present government has failed to accomplish.

For the President of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) Alhaji Yerima Shetima, Jonathan should be more concerned about national issues rather than sectional matters, stressing that is the only means that can guarantee his support for a second term in office.

According to Shetima, part of the problems Jonathan has is treating his latent re-election bid as his own creation. The President has made it glaring that he has sympathy for Niger Delta as against the entire country that is his constituency.

Shetima explained that though he is favourably deposed to having “a President that will be concerned with the development of the country; the President may not necessarily portray himself as belonging to one section of the country, because emphasising that a certain section of the nation should produce the President has in no way helped the country”.

“This idea of a section producing the President has not favoured the country. I do not share the idea of sectional leadership. The President should have a rethink and make himself a national leader, rather than playing up sectional issues.”

Source: Daily Newswatch