Barring any last minute change of plan, Universalreporters can authoritatively report that President Goodluck Jonathan is billed to declare his intention to contest the 2015 presidential election next week. According to an exclusive source to our correspondent in Abuja on Sallah day, the event will take place in Abuja, the nation’s capital city.
It was further revealed that the Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr. Dalhatu Sarki Tafida, who served as the Director General of the president in the 2011 elections, will be named as the DG of the 2015 campaign.
Political pundits and strategists of the president reasoned that given the failure of the peace and reconciliation plans between the factions of the PDP and the president it is better the president declares his intention early enough and rough it out with the opposition.
Another reason adduced for the president’s intended action is to be located in the suit filed in the Federal High Court, Kaduna, challenging the eligibility of the president to contest another 4-year term in 2015.
Having been served the proceedings of the case which is coming up on Thursday 24thOctober, it is believed by the president’s strategists that Jonathan’s declaration to contest before the determination of the suit would put pressure on the judicial process to rule in his favour.
Another plausible reason for this sudden political volte face of the president who cautioned against all campaigns for 2015 until next year is that the president may be aware that his opponents, especially in the North and the Southwest, are planning to use the National Dialogue to pass a resolution calling upon the president not to precipitate a national constitutional crisis by insisting to contest the 2015 presidential election. The president’s declaration by next week will therefore be a preemptive measure against such intention.
