Jonathan May Not Run Afterall
President Goodluck Jonathan may not be standing for the 2011 presidential election afterall and may make his intentions known by the end of the month.
A presidency source told Reuters on Tuesday that the president may have realized that his running for presidency could split the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) due to an agreement that power rotates between the North and South every two terms, meaning the next president should be a northerner.
The PDP has said Jonathan has the right to run, because he was previously Vice President on a joint ticket with Northern President Umaru Yar’Adua, who died mid-way through his first term earlier this year.
But the party also said that it would uphold the principle of zoning and that other candidates are free to contest at the primaries, expected to be held in September.
Reuters quoted the presidency source as saying that he is not likely to run “… simply because his party has retained the zoning of the presidency to the North for the next four years.”
“Though his party said he can run despite the zoning, the party said this because they didn’t want to offend him.”
The source said Jonathan would make his intentions public before the end of August.
“(He) is a man that always ensures equity and fair play, so he may allow the north to have their remaining four-year term if that will ensure peace and unity,” the source said.
A decision by Jonathan not to run would come as a surprise to many in the country. Never before has an incumbent leader, constitutionally allowed to seek re-election, withdrawn from a presidential race.
Sources close to the president have been saying for weeks that he is concerned about the implications of ending zoning and about his own credibility as a candidate in polls he says he wants to make free and fair.
Should Jonathan not run in 2011 in order to uphold the zoning principle, his southern home region would be next in line to present a presidential nominee in 2015 and he would be in a position to stand with his credibility intact, his allies say.
Meanwhile, a Northern Leader has assured that if President Jonathan refuses to respect the party’s zoning arrangement on ground and goes ahead to contest, they would make sure he loses at the polls.
Prof. Ango Abdullahi, one time Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and a founding member of the PDD said that the party boldly inscribed zoning in its constitution, therefore it must be respected. He said it was zoning that enabled Jonathan to become the Vice President in the first place from where he eventually became president after the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, so he shouldn’t turn round to offend the very system that produced him.
“Jonathan would never have dreamt of becoming a Vice President let alone President under an arrangement that leaves out zoning,” he pointed out.
Insisting that President Jonathan is not qualified, by PDP arrangement to run for presidency in 2011, the 72 year old academic, politician and statesman said the likes of Solomon Lar and Jerry Gana who led the G-20 and campaigning for Goodluck Jonathan should not be taken seriously as they are merely seeking political rehabilitation for their personal gains, and that going by the PDP constitution and their arrangement zoning must be followed till the North completes its four remained years. “Under the PDP zoning arrangement, the North still has four years to complete an eight-year-term and until the North completes its tenure, the zoning arrangement stands.”
He made it clear that “nobody will stop Jonathan from contesting election as president; it is a matter of personal choice. But he will not be the choice of the party to put him up as its candidate against the zoning arrangement.” He insisted that the North has to finish her eight year tenure before the PDP can revisit the issue .Prof. Abdullahi challenged the likes of Barnabas Gemade who now want to abdicate zoning for personal gains that they were products of zoning as he (Gemade) became PDP chairman under the same zoning arrangement.
Prof. Ango Abdullahi said the bottom line in zoning was power sharing, that it enables all constituents of the federation to share power so that all sections of the country would have a sense of belonging, even minorities in the North and South.
Going down memory lane, he said zoning was not new to the Nigerian polity after all as it was even practiced by the NPN in the second Republic when Alhaji Shehu Shagari, was President from the North and Chief Alex Ekwueme was Vice President from the South East and Dr. Joseph Wayas was Senate President from the South- South and that other positions were shared on that basis.
He said they had attempted to institute zoning in the constitution, but that it was rejected. That it was recommended in the 1994 Conference which adopted power rotation between North and South, but that the authorities felt it should be left for political parties to adopt.
He said when they formed the PDP, they initially agreed to rotate power between North and South but later decided on a rotation along the lines of geo-political basis. This was meant to satisfy all sections of the country, no matter how small and that because of the June 12 history which was confronting the nation, they decided that it start from the South West, being the reason Olusegun Obasanjo was the first beneficiary, and that if this arrangement has so far worked, there was no reason to scuttle it for personal ambition.
A presidency source told Reuters on Tuesday that the president may have realized that his running for presidency could split the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) due to an agreement that power rotates between the North and South every two terms, meaning the next president should be a northerner.
The PDP has said Jonathan has the right to run, because he was previously Vice President on a joint ticket with Northern President Umaru Yar’Adua, who died mid-way through his first term earlier this year.
But the party also said that it would uphold the principle of zoning and that other candidates are free to contest at the primaries, expected to be held in September.
Reuters quoted the presidency source as saying that he is not likely to run “… simply because his party has retained the zoning of the presidency to the North for the next four years.”
“Though his party said he can run despite the zoning, the party said this because they didn’t want to offend him.”
The source said Jonathan would make his intentions public before the end of August.
“(He) is a man that always ensures equity and fair play, so he may allow the north to have their remaining four-year term if that will ensure peace and unity,” the source said.
A decision by Jonathan not to run would come as a surprise to many in the country. Never before has an incumbent leader, constitutionally allowed to seek re-election, withdrawn from a presidential race.
Sources close to the president have been saying for weeks that he is concerned about the implications of ending zoning and about his own credibility as a candidate in polls he says he wants to make free and fair.
Should Jonathan not run in 2011 in order to uphold the zoning principle, his southern home region would be next in line to present a presidential nominee in 2015 and he would be in a position to stand with his credibility intact, his allies say.
Meanwhile, a Northern Leader has assured that if President Jonathan refuses to respect the party’s zoning arrangement on ground and goes ahead to contest, they would make sure he loses at the polls.
Prof. Ango Abdullahi, one time Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and a founding member of the PDD said that the party boldly inscribed zoning in its constitution, therefore it must be respected. He said it was zoning that enabled Jonathan to become the Vice President in the first place from where he eventually became president after the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, so he shouldn’t turn round to offend the very system that produced him.
“Jonathan would never have dreamt of becoming a Vice President let alone President under an arrangement that leaves out zoning,” he pointed out.
Insisting that President Jonathan is not qualified, by PDP arrangement to run for presidency in 2011, the 72 year old academic, politician and statesman said the likes of Solomon Lar and Jerry Gana who led the G-20 and campaigning for Goodluck Jonathan should not be taken seriously as they are merely seeking political rehabilitation for their personal gains, and that going by the PDP constitution and their arrangement zoning must be followed till the North completes its four remained years. “Under the PDP zoning arrangement, the North still has four years to complete an eight-year-term and until the North completes its tenure, the zoning arrangement stands.”
He made it clear that “nobody will stop Jonathan from contesting election as president; it is a matter of personal choice. But he will not be the choice of the party to put him up as its candidate against the zoning arrangement.” He insisted that the North has to finish her eight year tenure before the PDP can revisit the issue .Prof. Abdullahi challenged the likes of Barnabas Gemade who now want to abdicate zoning for personal gains that they were products of zoning as he (Gemade) became PDP chairman under the same zoning arrangement.
Prof. Ango Abdullahi said the bottom line in zoning was power sharing, that it enables all constituents of the federation to share power so that all sections of the country would have a sense of belonging, even minorities in the North and South.
Going down memory lane, he said zoning was not new to the Nigerian polity after all as it was even practiced by the NPN in the second Republic when Alhaji Shehu Shagari, was President from the North and Chief Alex Ekwueme was Vice President from the South East and Dr. Joseph Wayas was Senate President from the South- South and that other positions were shared on that basis.
He said they had attempted to institute zoning in the constitution, but that it was rejected. That it was recommended in the 1994 Conference which adopted power rotation between North and South, but that the authorities felt it should be left for political parties to adopt.
He said when they formed the PDP, they initially agreed to rotate power between North and South but later decided on a rotation along the lines of geo-political basis. This was meant to satisfy all sections of the country, no matter how small and that because of the June 12 history which was confronting the nation, they decided that it start from the South West, being the reason Olusegun Obasanjo was the first beneficiary, and that if this arrangement has so far worked, there was no reason to scuttle it for personal ambition.
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