Special Correspondent, BENJAMIN JIBRIN, writes on obstacles to President Jonathan’s re-election bid by politicians from the North West and his efforts in surmounting the barrier.
Barely two months to 2015 general elections, proponents of Northern presidency, with interest in a candidate from the North West, have continued to mount resistance to the re-election bid of President Goodluck Jonathan. This is despite the massive campaign by Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) in advertising the efforts of his administration in fixing the country.
The president, incidentally, has secured the approval and ratification of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to take another shot at the office.
Since the development, however, some aggrieved members of PDP in the North have left the party and pitched tent with the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC). One of such individuals is Sheriff Mohammed.
At a press conference in Kaduna, Mohammed announced his resignation from the party and declared for APC, citing the sterling qualities of the APC presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, as reason for his action.
He said: “Before now, I was a PDP man, but I have defected to APC because I am not comfortable with Goodluck Jonathan’s presidential aspiration. If PDP candidate were to be another person that had the quality I wanted, I would have remained and supported him.”
Another reason that accounted for Mohammed’s disdain for Jonathan’s leadership, according to him, is lack of political patronage which he suffered under PDP. He recalled his moral and financial support for the party that went without appreciation.
“As a PDP man, I had been spending money for the party, but there was never a time they gave me contract.
“When Adamu Mu’azu, the PDP National Chairman, was governor of Bauchi State, I assisted him; but nothing to show for it. “Yesterday, I was with PDP. Today, I have declared for APC to support Buhari’s presidential ambition due to his good nature revolving around honesty and accountability,” he said.
Apparently launching his campaign for the former head of state, Mohammed recalled: “Buhari had served as governor, minister and head of state without being accused of any offence. He also worked well, especially on roads, hospitals, education, renovation of prison as well as the welfare of staff and inmates when he was made chairman of the defunct Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF).”
While urging Nigerians to elect Buhari, he asked APC chieftains to join hands and ensure that he is elected. Buhari scored the highest votes (3,430) at the party’s presidential primaries that took place in Lagos. Rabiu Kwankwaso got 974, Atiku Abubakar got 954, Rochas Okorocha got 624, and Sam Nda-Isaiah got 10.
A number of notable members of PDP, mostly from the North West, had earlier defected to APC. They include governors of Kano (Kwankwaso) and Sokoto (Aliyu Wamakko).
Aside the defections, our reporter learnt that in a bid to stop the president from running in 2015, a number of legal actions had also been taken against him. He has incidentally waded through the whole plot.
If anything, rather, groups, who are receptive to the president’s style of administration and believe that his stay for another four years will benefit Nigeria and the people, are known to have rolled out drums encouraging him to seek return to Aso Rock. President Jonathan has yielded to their demand, despite all odds. Consequently, another round of battle line is drawn in which Nigerians are to decide who emerges victorious in next year’s election.
Even at that, imposition of candidates, particularly, at the governorship level, is threatening the success of PDP in the North West. Shortly after the screening of governorship aspirants in Kaduna, a group of politicians under the umbrella of Conference of Gubernatorial Aspirants of PDP had raised the alarm about the plot to scheme them out of their ambition, threatening that the agenda would work against the party to the advantage of opposition.
The concerned politicians included Ibrahim Aliyu (Kebbi State), Senator Ibrahim Ida (Katsina State), Felix Hayat (Kaduna State) and Abba Anas Adamu of Jigawa. Their allegation was that the out-going governors of the respective states had perfected plans in favour of their anointed aspirants.
They alleged that the governors had designed plots by anointing unpopular candidates specifically in Jigawa, Katsina and Kebbi states, describing the action as a calculated attempt to frustrate and deliberately compromise the party’s chances of success in the 2015 general elections.
They further stated that “the North West zone, given its historical political influence, voting strength and the increasing ferocity of the opposition, is very critical to the success of our party in the 2015 general elections”.
It, however, appeared that the complaints of the aggrieved aspirants were not attended to, as they withdrew from the race abruptly.
Prior to the screening exercise, there were ward congresses across the country preparatory to the primaries. Virtually in all states of the federation, many aspirants decried the outcome of the exercise, calling for its cancellation. Against this backdrop, there are fears of aggrieved aspirants working against the party in some states.
