Jonathan recently visited key traditional rulers in the North and South West in what is believed to be consultation on his second term ambition.
The appointment of Sambo as the head of the planning committee may have put paid to insinuation in some quarters that Jonathan is under pressure to drop his deputy in his second term bid.
According to a reliable source in the presidency, who does not want to be named, President Jonathan would soon meet with stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the North- West to stem moves against Sambo from the region.
The source said Jonathan who has solid confidence in Sambo had instructed the latter to assemble a compact team to work out prudent measures that would make a hitch-free declaration a reality.
“President Goodluck Jonathan cannot wait for too long in the face of all that is happening in the polity because doing so is inimical to most interests, particularly the interests of the PDP. Against this backdrop, we insisted that he give a semblance of readiness which he did last week by asking Vice- President Namadi Sambo to set up a closely-guarded team to work between now and May which has been tentatively fixed for the declaration of Mr President for a second term in office” he said.
The source who is a presidential aide further disclosed that Vice- President Sambo has in turn co-opted Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, former Chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority ( NPA) Chief Bode George and six governors to work out modalities towards the declaration.
He said Governors Ibrahim Shema ( Kastina) Olusegun Mimiko ( Labour Party Ondo), Gabriel Suswam ( Benue) and Isa Yuguda (Bauchi) have been contacted on the work of the committee.
According to him, Sambo and members of his team have been mandated to “launch out” fast so as to avoid negative consequences that may follow unnecessary delay.
“For now the number two citizen is closely guiding the project with only trusted associates of Mr President having knowledge of what is going on at the moment. This is even to show that all the news and permutation that Mr President would drop Sambo are all false because he could not have instructed him to do this assignment if he wanted to drop him” he added.
Source: Sun
No comments:
Post a Comment