Politics
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After months of keeping mum despite his body language which showed he was interested in returning to Aso Rock for a second tenure, President Goodluck Jonathan has finally announced his decision to seek re-election
| By Olu Ojewale | Nov. 3, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT |
AFTER several months of keeping Nigerians in suspense about his candidacy, President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday, October 23, signified his intention to seek re-election in 2015. Jonathan broke his silence by informing leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, about his intention at a closed-door meeting held in one of the guest houses inside the Presidential Villa.
In accepting to run, the president was said to have thanked the party leadership for giving him the right of first refusal as far as the party’s presidential ticket was concerned. He also promised to come to the party headquarters to pick his nomination form before the October 30, deadline set by the party.
To show his seriousness, the president set up a 37-member declaration committee headed by Haliru Bello, former minister of defence, to draw up an elaborate declaration programme. According to sources, Jonathan would make a formal declaration between November 7 and November 15.
To serve as deputy chairman of the committee is Ken Nnamani, former Senate president while Pius Anyim, secretary to the federal government, would serve as secretary.
Members of the committee include a governor from each of the six geopolitical zones of the country, four National Assembly members; four members of the Federal Executive Council, FEC; four PDP officials as well as eight party members and four others appointed on presidential discretion.
To work with Bello, Nnamani and Anyim are: Rufa’i Ahmed Alkali, special adviser to the president on political matters, (Gombe); Julius Imagwe, senior special assistant on youths (Edo) and Baraka Sani (SSA NSAP – Kano).
The PDP state governors nominated to represent their zones on the committee are governors Liyel Imoke (Cross River – South-South); Theodore Orji (Abia – South-East); Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo – South-West); Babangida Aliyu (Niger – North-Central); Ibrahim Shema (Katsina – North-West) and Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe – North-East).
Those to represent the National Assembly include Senator Hosea Agbola (Oyo), Senator Ahmed Makarfi (Kaduna), Bitrus Kaze (Plateau) and Salmas Badru (Ogun), both members of the House of Representatives.
From the federal cabinet are: Dieziani Alison-Madueke (Bayelsa), minister of Petroleum Resources; Abduljelili Adesiyan (Osun), minister of Police Affairs; Zainab Maina (Adamawa), minister of Women Affairs; and Senator Bala Mohammed (Bauchi), minister of Federal Capital Territory.
Those to represent the PDP in the committee include are: Uche Secondus (Rivers), deputy national chairman; Emmanuel Egbo, Benue State Chapter Chairman; Kema Chikwe (Imo), national women’s leader and Ambassador Ibrahim Kazaure (Jigawa), zonal chairman, North-West.
Nominated to represent party stakeholders are Stella Omu (Delta), Walid Jibirn (Nasarawa), Ibrahim Bunu (Borno), Jolly Nyame (Taraba), Senator Aniete Okon (Akwa Ibom), Peter Obi (Anambra), Remi Adiukwu-Bakare (Lagos), and General A. B. Mamman (PDP National Youth Leader – FCT). Others nominated at the president’s discretion include Halima Alfa (Kogi), Nigerian ambassador to the Netherlands; Nimota Nihinlola Akanbi (Kwara), FCT ALGON chairman; Micah Yohanna Jiba (FCT) and Sam Ikon (Akwa Ibom).
Shortly after that meeting, Jonathan also entered into a crucial meeting where a committee saddled with the responsibility of raising fund for the PDP presidential campaign was formed. It has Jerry Gana, a former minister of information as the chairman. Party chiefs who attended the meeting included Adamu Mu’azu, national chairman of the PDP; Tony Anenih, chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, and David Mark, president of the Senate.
Nevertheless, the president’s declaration of intention, which is largely seen as formality, seems to have been made less cumbersome by all organs of the PDP as the party’s sole presidential candidate for the election. Several pressure groups including the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, TAN, had also been campaigning vigorously for Jonathan at various rallies and through advertorials to contest the next presidential election. The TAN even said it had collected more than 17.8 million signatures from Nigerians urging the president to seek re-election. Even though he had kept mum on the matter, his body language clearly showed that he had made up his mind to seek re-election.
In its reaction, the All Progressives Congress, APC, described Jonathan’s decision to seek re-election as an anti-climax. Lai Mohammed, national publicity secretary of the party, said it would have been news if the president had declared that he was not running. Mohammed said: “Of course, if the TAN have been going all around spending billions on television advertorials and campaign, all the governors have adopted him, the National Working Committee, said he is the only one. As far as we are concerned, it is an anti-climax. It would have been news only if he said he wasn’t running.”
Wale Ogunade, a lawyer, said it was disappointing that Jonathan would allow himself to be begged or persuaded to run for a second term. “It means that the president was not prepared and it would be difficult for anyone to hold him accountable because he never told anyone that he was interested to go for a second term,” Ogunade argued.
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