Zoning: Nigerians to decide -Jonathan •North unites against President •Names IBB, Atiku, Ciroma, Ogbeh on committees to deliver presidential ticket

Written by Idowu Samuel, Leon Usigbe and Dare Adekanmbi
Monday, 21 June 2010

“At the appropriate time, I will tell Nigerians if I am contesting or not. I will also make my position known on zoning. I will encourage public debates on zoning and get to hear the views of Nigerians.”

FOR the first time since the issue of zoning sparked a chain of reactions in the build-up to the 2011 presidential election, President Goodluck Jonathan, on Sunday, said he would subject the issue to public debate and feel the pulse of Nigerians at the appropriate time.

He also said he would announce to Nigerians if he would contest next year’s election as president in the fullness of time, strengthening his rumoured presidential ambition in the election.

The president made the revelations at his maiden presidential media chat, during which he fielded questions from media executives from select media organisations.

Jonathan, who was non-commital on the issue of zoning, said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), at a meeting during the rule of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo had not made any categorical standpoint on the thorny issue.

“I was in that meeting, representing my governor then, who was away from the country. The meeting extended till about 4.00 a.m. the following day. The party did not make a categorical position on the issue of zoning.

“At the appropriate time, I will tell Nigerians if I am contesting or not. I will also make my position known on zoning. I will encourage public debates on zoning and get to hear the views of Nigerians. If I will contest, I will pick forms and, of course, the PDP will sell forms to would-be aspirants,” he said.

“If I declare now that I am contesting, then, all the governors who are incumbents who want to contest will begin to declare,” the president added.

On his nomination of Professor Attahiru Jega as chairman-designate of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Jonathan assured Nigerians that Jega would swing into action once the Senate confirmed his nomination.

He added that Nigerians should not wait for a perfect person as INEC umpire, promising that the body would not be limited by funds in the bid to ensure credible polls next year.

“We are waiting for the Senate to clear him after which he will be expected to swing into action.

Assuming I am going to contest, I will declare my intention close to the release of INEC timetable. If I won’t contest, I won’t pick form.

“Most of the governors have not declared their intention because the new INEC boss has not started work and released a timetable for the 2011 elections,” he said.

He reiterated his determination to ensure that the coming elections enjoyed credibility, insisting that the votes of every Nigerian must count.

“Our elections have been largely controversial. We are ready to conduct elections that will give our leaders credibility. The United States and other group have promised to help us in this area,” Jonathan added.

Asked how he hoped to get the PDP governors and chieftains of the party to join in the crusade for credible elections, Jonathan replied that he had stressed the need for rigging-free polls.

On three occasions he had addressed national stakeholders of the party during which he reiterated that votes must count.

While saying that he was not the only advocate of free and fair elections, he pointed out that the new PDP chairman, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo, was a stronger advocate of the campaign, urging INEC to cancel controversial polls.

“The new PDP chairman shares the vision too. He is a stronger advocate for free, fair elections. The governors are not expected to make much pronouncement on the issue.

“INEC should be able to cancel controversial elections, though some laws hinder this. The language of “capture” as being used by members of our party does not connote rigging. It is a political vocabulary.

“If I want Nigerians to follow a particular course of action, I only need to set machinery in motion to make Nigerians follow it,” Jonathan said.

On the 7-point agenda by his late predecessor, Umaru Yar’Adua, President Jonathan said the believed the blueprint would not interest Nigerians any more.

He said he had been advised by eminent leaders who had visited him when he acted as president to evolve pragmatic steps that would put the nation’s economy on the path of recovery.

Said Jonathan: “I don’t think the 7-point agenda will interest Nigerians. Budget is wholistic, hence, every area of our economy should function. I would not suffer Nigerians about any recitation on 7-point agenda.”

Agaisnt the background of the enormous power not codified in any known law in Nigeria which the former first lady, Turai Yar’Adua, wielded during the grave illness of her husband, Jonathan said he would not encourage wives of elected public officers to be ‘powerful’.

Jonathan, who also condemned god-fatherism, added that he would have been fingered as contributing to the death of ex-President Yar’Adua if he had forcibly visited him when he was brought back from Saudi Arabia.

“If I had forced my way and something happened, there would have been insinuations that I contributed to the eventuality,” he added.

When told that Chief Obasanjo and Theophilus Danjuma had been touted as his godfathers, he replied “it is okay if they call them my godfathers. I interact with elders, all past presidents and traditional rulers.”

On the public outcry that greeted the clamour for increase in quarterly allowances by members of the National Assembly, the president said he did not have power over the lawmakers.

“Only RMFAC can query the amount of allowance enjoyed by elected political public office holders. I recall that the head of that body once said that Nigerian president is the least paid in the world. The president at that time said the time was not appropriate for an increase in the allowance and salary.”

He, however, pledged to discuss the issue with the lawmakers, saying that Nigerians should not misrepresent the lawmakers’ overhead for allowance.

Jonathan also condemned the spate of kidnapping in the country, especially in the South-East and promised to expose those behind the act.

“Security is a major concern and it is becoming terribly embarrasing. Kidnapping is becoming a big industry; lawyers are involved in negotiating for kidnappers. By the time we arrest the big people involved, they will know we are serious. Kidnapping makes Nigeria worse than South Africa,” he said.

The president also reaffirmed his commitment towards ensuring stable electricity supply in the country, adding that leakages in the government had thwarted efforts geared towards the provision of uninterrupted power supply.

“Electricity generation and distribution must be privatised. Government can concentrate on tramsmission and may even involve consultants at a point in time,” he said.

Meanwhile, political juggernauts from the North, who converged on Abuja, last week, for deliberations on the 2011 presidential election, have now drawn a battle line with President Jonathan on his reported plan to contest the next presidential election, in spite of the reported zoning arrangement in the PDP.

The North is suggesting that since it yielded to popular clamour for zoning before the return to democracy in 1999 by conceding the presidency to the South through former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the idea of zoning has since become a norm and convention in the Nigerian political setting, a reason the late president, Umaru Yar’Adua, got the presidency in 2007 after Obasanjo’s two terms in office.

It argued that any plan to jettison the existing zoning arrangement in the current political circumstances would boomerang and then leave the North with no option but to fight its cause outside the zoning principle.

Against this background, the North had decided to put its house in order, to prevent Jonathan from taking the presidential slot.

The northern leaders, who met in Abuja, have, therefore, resolved to first reconcile all its war generals, including those who had declared ambition to run in the 2011 presidential election, for the purpose of fighting to get the next presidential slot.

Those to be reconciled, according to the plan, included General Ibrahim Babangida; General Muhammadu Buhari; General Aliyu Gusau; Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau.

The North is equally keen on drafting all northern governors, its representatives in the Senate and House of Representatives, all political appointees, irrespective of party affiliations and traditional rulers into the battle to present the next president in 2011.

The northern intelligentsia have, to this effect, constituted three committees, including planning and strategies, contact and mobilisation and media and publicity, with notable eggheads in the North as members, even as presidential aspirants, including General Babangida and former Vice-President Abubakar are heads of sub-committees.

Operating on the aegis of Northern Political Elders Forum, the political juggernauts, in a communiqué released on Saturday and made available to the Nigerian Tribune, stressed that the issue of zoning was a principle that must be adhered to by the PDP.

“That the North is calling on politicians and other stakeholders to respect political agreements and allow the principle of zoning to run its full course should not be construed as weakness on its part.

Northerners have all it takes to win free and fair elections without special arrangements.

“The call to respect the principle of zoning is on the grounds of principle and not targeted at speculated aspiration of President Jonathan in 2011. That zoning will, for the foreseeable future, serve the best interest of Nigeria and its political stability, at least in the short and medium terms.

There would have been no need for special political arrangement to concede power to the South in 1999 if Nigerians were ready to accept their presidents to come, perpetually, from any part of the country.

“That, in practice, zoning as a political mechanism to stabilise the country since 1999 has applied to every political office in Nigeria at all levels. We must be certain that we are ready, as a nation, to jettison the practice at all levels before we throw it overboard or set in motion a process that may lead to avoidable chaos and anarchy in the land,” the communique read.

According to the communiqué, signed by Dr Iyiorcha Ayu, the planning and strategy committee has Professor Ignatius Ayua as chairman, while Dr Abuba-kar Mohammed, Professor Yakubu Mukhtar, Dr Sule Bello, Senator Davis Iornem, Professor Nuhu Yaqub, Dr Junaid Mohammed, Alhaji Usman Alhaji, Basher Yusuf Ibrahim, Farouk B. Farouk, Omar Shittien, Professor Maxwell Gidado and Senator Salisu Ibrahim Matori are members.

Members of the contact and mobilisation committee include Mallam Adamu Ciroma (chairman), General Ibrahim Babangida, General I.M. Wushishi, Major-General David Jemibewon (rtd), Chief Audu Ogbeh, Dr Iyiorcha Ayu, Ambassador Yahaya Kwande, Alhaji Sha’aba Lafiagi, Professor Daniel Saror, Mr Patrick Adaba and Alhaji Mohammed Hassan (Ciroman Keffi).

The North-East members of the committee has Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Dr Shettima Mustafa, Alhaji Mohammed Bello Kirfi, Professor Saad Abubakar, Ambassador Yarima Abdullahi, Senator Abubakar Mahdi, Professor Isa Mohammed, Alhaji Dahiru Bobbo and Alhaji Yakubu Tsala.

The North-West members of the contact committee include Alhaji M.D. Yusuf, Aliyu Shinkafi, Alhaji Lawal Kaita, Senator M.T. Liman, AVM Hamza Abdullahi, Alhaji Magaji Dambatta, Major-General Mohammed Magoro (rtd), Senator Garba Ila Gada, Alhaji Yahaya Abdulkarim and Alhaji Usman Alhaji.
Those who constitute the media and publicity committee include Alhaji Magaji Dambatta, chairman; Chief Audu Ogbeh, Alhaji Sani Zangon Daura, Mallam Mohammed Haruna, Mallam Bukar Zarma, Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed Gusau and Zubairu Dada.