POLITICS: North divided over Jonathan’s 2015 bid

LEGISREPORTS NG – Indications emerging  have it on good authority that northern leaders are engrossed in severe conflict of interest with one another, a development which has ushered into their circle, a deepening rift over President Goodluck Jonathan’s bid to seek re-election in 2015, LEGISREPORTS has gathered.
While a faction considers President Jonathan worthy of a comeback in 2015 given the zoning arrangement of the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party which makes him entitled to a second term, some on the other flank insist otherwise that seeking to re-contest office in 2015 amounted to using the zoning formula against the interest of the north, who they believed should produce the President in 2015.
Against this backdrop, there is a brewing crisis ensuing amongst members of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Northern Elders Council (NEC), some of whom have vowed loyalty to President Jonathan urging him to contest in 2015.
LEGISREPORTS investigation revealed that some members who have their allegiance fixed on President Jonathan are already working to frustrate the efforts of the other faction who they believe are unnecessarily sentimental about the president’s wish to seek re-election.
A source within the Arewa Consultative Forum who spoke in confidence told LEGISREPORTS that it was only fair for President Jonathan to be given a chance to contest in 2015 since the zoning formula allows him to so do.
He said any northern leader who worked against President Jonathan on the premise that he was using the zoning arrangement against the north was not only being “mischievous” but working against the interest of the entire northern region of the country.
The source said: “There is just to much fuss made about Jonathan’s wish to return in 2015. I wonder why some leaders would not work in the interest of Nigeria as a whole.
“When it was the north in control, then the zoning formula was okay to be applied, but because it is south now, then zoning is now been used against them.
“In the interest of peace, let the South-South get their second term and go. It wouldn’t help anyone if the country is thrown into chaos over who should oir should not rule.
“It has happened that the President came into power through certain circumstances which we all know he did not create. So why make an issue out of what does not exist?
“I believe as leaders of a region, we should make choices on behalf of the people that will benefit and serve all their interest not to do what will not lead us anywhere. Anybody insisting against the President coming back is just trying to be mischievous and has an agenda that is selfish and not in the interest of the north.”
Meanwhile, the National Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, Alhaji Mohammed Aliko on his path accused some members of both the ACF and the Northern Elders Council, NEC, of betraying the north by endorsing President Goodluck Jonathan for a second term in office.
Aliko spoke in Kaduna yesterday during the opening ceremony of ACF’s annual general meeting.
According to the National Chairman of the ACF, some ACF and NEC members betrayed the North by meeting President Jonathan by giving their support to him to contest the 2015 general elections.
Aliko said: “It is very sad that the Presidency has employed the divide and rule tactics against the North. It is very glaring, because we noticed with dismay that some members of this organisation have gone to the President and assured him that he must contest for 2015 election.
“We are really surprised that some northerners that went there are also members of ACF. I am speaking particularly of two gentlemen. The two gentlemen I am referring to, one is a member of the ACF and the other is of the Northern Elders’ Council. The ACF member is General Lawrence Onoja, rtd. He was actually part of the group that went to see the President (with elders of the South-South). Also, one of the Northern Elders Forum, is Senator John Wash Pam. He was there.
“We are surprised that they have really gone to see the President. We are particularly sad because General Onoja is here with us in ACF. We went to Maiduguri together when we went to see Dr. Ahmed Datti, (the President, Supreme Council of Sharia in Nigeria, SCSN) and Onoja was with us.
“He (Onoja), also made it possible for us when we went to Maiduguri to meet the leaders of the Joint Task Force, JTF, and we had a long discussion with them till the early hours of the morning. The military had problems with the Maiduguri people and we thought that if we intervened, things would be better.
“That is not all, we have gone with Onoja to every meeting we have held and he knows what the North wants. Now for him to turn round to say the President must contest in 2015, using the word, must, is very sad for us in ACF.”
This report was prepared by our Political Reporter in Abuja.