President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election campaign receives boost on account of certain developments in the land, Assistant Politics Editor, DANIEL KANU, argues.
With strings of successes by the military against Boko Haram insurgency, it appears President Goodluck Jonathan is systematically getting his acts right. In the process, his rating ahead of the March 28 presidential election seems to be getting brighter.
His supporters insist that the president has made a radical shift in his campaign strategy and seems to have tactically penetrated more difficult groups and blocs across geo-political zones.
It was, perhaps, in furtherance of the new strategy that the president, last Thursday, made a surprise visit to the reclaimed territories in Borno and Adamawa states.
Aside the Adamawa and Borno visits, TheNiche gathered authoritatively that Jonathan and his group have also permeated even some of the camps that may have been described as “enemy zones” in his shuttle diplomacy.
Before now, major groups had endorsed the president from major parts of the country.
For instance, pan-Yoruba socio-cultural body, Afenifere, after what appeared as indecision, endorsed Jonathan as the South West candidate for the presidency.
The endorsement was the outcome of the meeting the president had with the leaders of the group in Akure, Ondo State.
Afenifere said its decision was due to the commitment of the president to the national conference last year.
The group also noted that the only genuine change the nation needs at the moment is that of the constitution and not of personality at the helm of the country’s affairs, just as they agreed that the confab is the only thing that can liberate the nation.
The group believed that the president had expressed his commitment to implement the report of the confab and as such will mobilise for massive votes for him from the zone.
From the East, some chieftains of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the foremost socio-political body of Ndigbo, also endorsed Jonathan’s re-election bid. The body took the decision at a meeting at its national secretariat in Enugu.
Although the group noted that the Igbo contributed massively to Jonathan’s victory in 2011, it said it had to choose between backing the president to complete his second term in office and withdrawing its support for him.
But in arriving at the decision to back Jonathan, Ohanaeze said it took note of the fact that, although the president had not done as much as Ndigbo had expected from him, he has improved infrastructure in the South East, and given the Igbo a general sense of belonging in his administration.
Even the Hausa leaders in South West, through the Sarkin Hausawa of Ebute Meta, Sani Kabiru, announced the endorsement of Jonathan as the choice candidate of the entire Hausa community in the South West during the president’s campaign visit to Lagos.
In similar vein, Arewa Youth Integrity Forum (AYIF) has vowed to mobilise 20 million votes across the 19 Northern states for his re-election.
The group, in a statement signed by its national president, Hamid Usman, had described Jonathan as a statesman who is sympathetic to the plight of his followers.
AYIF said those thinking that the North has abandoned Jonathan should have a rethink and flow with reality on the ground.
“The North has not and will not abandon Jonathan. It is only a few insignificant number in the North, and they do not speak for the entire North. Some are already expired forces and their voices are of no effect in terms of mobilising the North. Jonathan has what it takes to drive Nigeria to the next level, having defeated the local content of insurgency and ready to fight the foreign elements that have joined insurgents to make Nigeria ungovernable for the citizenry.
“The president had proved wrong a section of Northern elders who said the president cannot campaign in the North. Jonathan has proven that he is popular against the propaganda advanced by spent forces. It is only fair Jonathan is allowed to complete his second term,” the group had noted.
National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has also made a public declaration to massively support Jonathan, assuring that millions of students are solidly behind his re-election bid.
The group, which was led by its national president, Tijani Shehu, as well as executive members and past leaders of the organisation from all the zones of the country made the pledge during a courtesy visit to the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Kingsley Kuku.
The letter given to Kuku for onward transmission to Jonathan read in part: “The choices facing the country today in the course of nationhood are simple: to move forward or to recede backward. We want to continue on the path of genuine democratic process, building institutions that guarantee qualitative change in terms of addressing and meeting the basic socio-economic and cultural needs of our people.
“Nigerians have been able to see that Jonathan is a great leader and not a draconian ruler. His unrelenting zeal in initiating and executing people-oriented programmes with direct impact on the welfare of the people stands him out as the best president so far; hence, Nigerian students will forever prefer democracy to dictatorship.”
Shehu told TheNiche: “NANS leadership in all the zones is getting across to Nigerian students and they have keyed into our position. I can tell you that over 80 per cent of students are for Jonathan.”
Even with all the endorsements, analysts remark that the journey ahead may still be tough for the president. This, they say, is because of the person and pedigree of the presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Muhammadu Buhari. The APC flag-bearer, who is going into the race the fourth time, has been posing enormous challenge to the president.
