2015: Northern govs plot to stop Jonathan

THREE years to the next general elections, the battle line for the 2015  presidential race appears drawn. Multiple reliable sources in government and the Peoples Democratic Party told our correspondents over the weekend that prominent Northern politicians, including governors, were plotting to stop President Goodluck Jonathan’s alleged bid for a second term.

This is in spite of the denial by the Presidency that Jonathan has no re-election ambition. The President, in a statement by his spokesman, Reuben Abati, had said the speculations about his second term bid were the handiwork of “mischief makers and opportunists.”

The PUNCH, however, gathered that the Presidency’s denial was not believed by Northern politicians. Our correspodents report that those who are bent on stopping Jonathan are hoping to use the budding presidential ambitions of Governors Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Isa Yuguda (Bauchi) and Babangida Aliyu (Niger) as rallying points for Northern voters.

This plan is, however, likely to meet with stiff opposition. Some groups, in the South-South, have commenced activities to counter all opposition to the President’s second term.  Already, the Ijaw National Congress has accused the North of a “moral deficit” in asking for the number one job in 2015.

Aliyu, at the Northern Governors’ Forum meeting in Kaduna on Thursday, had vowed that the North would not allow the 2015 presidency to elude it.

 “We must be united more than ever to go into the 2015 elections as one entity with the aim of producing the President,” he had told his colleagues.

A member of the PDP National Working Committee, who spoke in confidence with one of our correspondents, said, “The journeys of some of the northern governors across the country are part of the subtle campaigns for the Presidency.”

Investigations showed that the plot to stop Jonathan is spearheaded by governors who are no longer seeking second term tickets. They, findings show, are leading the campaign for the return of the Presidency to the North. A source in the PDP told our correspodents that the governors were doing this because they wanted to contest for the Presidency in 2015.

Out of the 19 states in the North, the PDP controls 14 – Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Plateau, Sokoto and Taraba.

The All Nigeria Peoples Party is in control of Borno, Yobe and Zamfara -while the Congress for Progressive Change is in charge of Nasarawa.

Out of the 14 PDP states, 12 of the governors are serving their second term in office. Only four, which are those of Kaduna, Gombe, Kwara and Kogi are in their first term.

 Among the northern governors who are in their second terms, only the governors of Gabriel Suswan (Benue), Danbaba Suntai (Taraba) and David Jang (Plateau) are likely to support Jonathan’s second bid.

Source

Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji AbdulFatai Ahmed, The PUNCH gathered, might not support the President’s second term.

Ahmed’s godfather, who is also his predecessor, Dr. Bukola Saraki, is believed to be having problems with the President.