2015: Northern Elders Says NO To Jonathan

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  • Says Power Must Return To The North In 2015

Northern major political groups yesterday told President Jonathan plainly that he will not receive their support or even cooperation from the north should he decide to run for the office of the President of the country come 2015.
The Groups in statement signed by Prof Ango Abdullahi said Jonathan has no moral ground to run for 2015 election and that he should kill such ambition. The Groups are Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Northern Union (NU), Arewa Re-awakening Forum (ARF), Arewa Research and Development Project (ARDP) and Code Group (CG).

In their statement the group said;  “We are now saying that since there is no consideration on morality and so on, the North is going to insist that the Presidency will come to the region whether on the basis of rotation or on the basis of voting power, and we have the voting power to make sure the power comes back to the North. It is not correct to say that North is not as assertive as people think on 2015 presidency, you know here in the North, we have certain traditions that are sometimes misread as wickedness. The fact that we don’t come out as shouting masses in abusive language and so on, does not mean that we don’t have deep rooted concern for ourselves. This is not true.”
“All of us here are members of the ACF, and if you look at other part of the country that is making noise, it is a small enclave, perhaps, may not be bigger than Kaduna State. Looking at history of diversity and our style of governance, make us to behave slightly different from the other.
“But I want to make it absolutely clear to you that ACF and all these other groups that have emerged in the recent past, we are all talking about the same thing, we are committed to Northern interest, there is no question about it. If you haven’t heard the succession clearly loud enough, that the North is determined and it insisted and it’s been insisting and firm that the leadership of the country will rotate to North in 2015, I am making that very clear to you on behalf of all of us, ACF in front because they have been the oldest group, the middle belt group that have been very active and strong and all of us are likely to have this very firm common agenda.
“It is not that the North is hungry and power blind, no, it will be argued on the basis of  the national arguments that are on ground today, the North on the basis of one man one vote can keep power indefinitely in the present Nigeria state. If it is democracy on the basis of one man one vote, the demography shows that the North can keep power for as long as it wants because it will always win elections, but on the basis of usual sacrifices that Northerners do make in the cause of the life history of this country, some of us who participated in constitutional conferences from 1987 up to the last one, political reform conference accepted that every part of this country should feel part of the leadership, and this is the basis of acceptance of rotation of power between the North and the South which was what happened in the constitutional conference I attended, many of us attended. This is the basis of the rotation between the North and the South; there was no question of geo-political zones. The geo-political zones were later introduced.
“The argument at that time by the government in power was that the rotation was too much to put in the constitution, but it should be something that the party can put in its constitution. The agreement was that the President should do four years and rotate it to another zone for another four years. But when it was time to rotate, the then President, Olusegun Obasanjo begged the North to allow him do eight years before the power could shift to North.
“All of us were present, we all agreed with him, and he was the first person to sign the agreement, not knowing that he had third term agenda in mind, and Jonathan who  was then the deputy Governor, representing the Governor of Bayelsa State was at that meeting, and he signed as  number 37, you can find the document.
“So you see that we agreed that the South should have eight years, and then the North should have eight, but eventually, when Obasanjo having seen some lacuna somewhere, he tried to abandon the zoning as well as the constitution to seek for the third term, and of course, eventually it failed.
“He thought, with due respect, that we will allow him without resistance to hand pick a successor, he handpicked my younger brother, Umar Musa Yar’Adua, ok, the condition has been satisfied, we had a Northerner as President and so on.  But Umar was ill, and he died two and half years in his first tenure. So it will make a lot of sense to accept the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which says that for whatever reason the President is not there, the Vice President will take over power. This was why Jonathan being his Vice President took over the presidency.
“We thought that on moral ground at the end of that four years, the North should take over, if it didn’t have eight years because of the transition, at least it should have six years, but they say no, no, and I don’t want to go into how this no translated into yes because it might be the fault of Northerners as far as I am concerned to have allowed this.
“They allowed it, but it was their turn, and Jonathan came in, and I thought that on moral ground, he should have given the North the chance, but those of them that signed the agreement publicly denied it.  Obasanjo said he did not know about rotation, Jonathan himself said he did not know about rotation despite all the facts. Go to Chief Audu Ogbe, he will give you the full story on how this thing happened, but the issue is that recently we are now getting to hear from one of the governors, that there is secret arrangement to allow Jonathan have another four years. It was revealed by the governor of Niger State, Muazu Babangida Aliyu.

“It makes you think that how can leaders be transparent if they cannot honour simple agreement whether written or unwritten. This is a hallmark of decent leadership, believe and honour agreement. So first there was agreement for this kind of rotation, and there is immorality in the movement of people not to really hand over this turn to us”.

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