FORMER Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr Mike Aondoakaa, said on Monday that President Goodluck Jonathan should be supported to continue in office beyond 2011.
The former AGF, who spoke to newsmen in Abuja, said that electing President Jonathan, who he said was a close ally of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, would be a befitting tribute to the late leader.
The former minister said that since Nigerians had agreed to the fact that the Seven-Point agenda of the Yar’Adua government would engineer development in the country, the best thing they could do was to give power to the man who had closely implemented the programme with the late Yar’Adua.
He also stated that Nigerians needed to face the reality of a possible Jonathan presidency beyond 2011, adding that zoning arrangements of political parties infringed on the constitutional rights of the citizenry.
He said that President Jonathan should reserve the right of first refusal to the presidency, as he said was the case in the United States of America.
When asked whether Jonathan could contest the next election or not, Aondoakaa said: “Well, if it is on the basis of the zoning that they are talking, they will be unfair to ask him not to contest and will be infringing on his constitutional right. It is a right given to him by the constitution which he has a sole discretion to exercise.
“And ideally, political parties should not come up with guidelines and policies that directly infringe on the constitution.
“Honestly, the issue of zoning is a distraction and unconstitutional. Nigerians at this stage should be talking of credible elections and free participation. Credible people should be allowed to participate in the election.
“I come from a minority tribe (Tiv) and if we start talking that the minority cannot have their way, we will be creating a bigger problem for this nation. The moment we allow everybody to contest, the issue of settlers or non-settlers will stop. I think we are on course. The choice of who should be elected as president should be left to the electorate.”
The former minister further declared: “If the late president was alive, it would still have been the same ticket. I look at things rationally. I am looking at it from the rational point of view and international best practices. In America, an incumbent president can only be denied the right to contest presidential election only if there is glaring evidence that he cannot carry out the programmes of the party. And over the years, the incumbent American president had always had the right to seek re-election.
“Secondly, a vice-president had always been given opportunity to contest for the presidency when the incumbent president is not contesting.
“The most rational thing which Nigerians should consider and even members of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) should consider is that PDP government came in 2007 with a Seven-Point Agenda that could deliver dividends of democracy and between 2007 and till ex-President Yar’Adua died in 2010, President Goodluck Jonathan was the co-pilot of the agenda. He appears to be in the knowledge of the Seven-Point Agenda more than anybody. He also participated in the implementation of the Seven-Point Agenda with Yar’Adua more than anybody.
“And the actual implementation of the seven-point agenda has commenced with the amnesty package in the Niger Delta; enhanced security; power; electoral reform and food security.
“All these have taken off in the last three years. One would expect that a person who will ensure the full implementation of the seven-point agenda should be the president in 2011. This is the naked reality and we must accept that naked reality because Nigeria has suffered from so many abandoned programmes and we must ensure stability.
“What I am trying to explain is that anybody who was loyal to ex-President Yar’Adua and genuinely felt that his programmes were good for this country should give support to Jonathan to ensure the full implementation of the seven-point agenda. That is the only way to pay tribute to the late president.
“In other words, any other person, who was a supporter of Yar’Adua and has moral conscience, should leave politics aside and look at the naked reality of who is in a better position to implement the seven-point agenda and bring peace.”
Meanwhile, former military head of state, General Ibrahim Babangida, on Monday, said the advice by the former representative of Nigeria at the United Nations (UN), Alhaji Maitama Sule, that he should drop his presidential ambition, was his opinion.
Reacting to the call by Sule that he and General Muhammadu Buhari should not contest the presidential election, Babangida, in a brief chat with airport journalists at the presidential wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, attributed the statement to what he called the beauty of democracy.
“This is democracy. You may have 150 million opinions. I have my own opinion and he has his own, you cannot deny him,” he said.
The development came even as Babangida canvassed for the immorta-lisation of the acclaimed winner of the 1993 presidential election, Chief Moshood Abiola, saying that he fought for democracy for Nigeria.
IBB, who commended the effort being made by the government to finally recognise the contribution of the late Chief Abiola to democracy, said “I think it is good at long last that somebody is trying to acknowledge the efforts of Chief MKO Abiola. We cannot deny him the fact that he fought for democracy and I am glad that the government is accepting it.
“Also, I want to see a situation whereby he will be immortalised as a person who fought for democracy in this country.”
Speaking on how he wanted Abiola to be immortalised, the former military leader said “well, there are so many things but I will leave that to the government. I want to see, may be an institution, named after him. That is the most enduring legacy we can give MKO.”
When asked of his opinion on the number of the political parties that should exist, Babangida suggested that the country needed between three and five, as against the 57 political parties currently in existence.
“I am not a believer in 51 parties. The smaller, the better for democracy, then everybody will have a place to be accommodated, but you see, there are so many little ones and everybody moves toward the winning party.
“So you find we are more or less running. I think it is better for this country to run a manageable party of three, four or five.”
Talking on his controversial presidential ambition, Babangida said the time had not come for that, adding that “when we get to the bridge we will cross it.”
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