Don’t Trust Jonathan, Northern Elders Tell Nigerians

Prof. Ango Abdullahi

By John Shiklam

Secretary of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Prof. Ango Abdullahi, said Saturday  that Nigerians should not trust President Goodluck Jonathan with the leadership of the country, alleging that the president betrayed the process that brought him into office. 

Abdullahi, who has been in the fore front of the campaign for power shift to the North come 2015, also accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo  of denying  the existence of zoning in the ruling  Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), saying  President Jonathan was following Obasanjo’s footsteps.  Speaking on a Kaduna based Liberty Radio programme, Guest of the Week, monitored in Kaduna, Abdullahi claimed that  President Jonathan’s foot soldiers had approached him to canvass   support for the president to “transform the country”, stressing however that though he is canvassing for the return of the Presidency to the North, he will support a candidate like Prof. Tam David West as a potential presidential candidate from the South-south.  Said Abdullahi:

“When Obasanjo wanted an extension of tenure for a second term under the zoning arrangement, he had to come to an extended caucus of the PDP. I remember   … people opposed to the idea.

Late Abubakar Rimi was one of them and he was supported by about three others that Obasanjo should not be given an extension and that the Presidency should come to the north  for four years before going back to the South.  “Eventually, about 37 people out of the about 41 present voted for the extension for Obasanjo to have a second term.

Now coming to why we should not trust people who renege on promises.  “Obasanjo  was the first to deny that there was a zoning that brought him to power. He did that and he  kept doing it and it is most likely from him that they learnt what they are doing because he was instrumental to Jonathan becoming vice president.  “So, Jonathan must be Obasanjo’s student on matters of zoning because he himself kept saying when we were arguing that Jonathan rightly became the president of the country when Yar’ Adua died. 

“This is what the constitution allowed and in fact insist on and nobody begrudged that.  “After taking over, he must have realised the arrangement that brought him into office in the first place. Umaru has died in an arrangement that allows the North to run the office of the president for eight years. 

“Umaru died midway into their terms of office and so, in practical terms, the North ran the Presidency for two years while the remaining had to be given to Jonathan and there was no problem about that. 

“But it should come to somebody’s mind in terms of fairness and equity and the PDP should reason that there is a zoning arrangement and that the  North is supposed to run the office of the president for eight years.

  “I am trying to raise the moral ground on which I will not trust the current president because he has not been trust worthy.

If he wanted to be trust worthy, he would have to hand over to the north and say I was VP to Yar’Adua under a zoning arrangement and that if Umaru had lived, he would have been President for eight years; but Umaru has died and we know it is the right of the north for the remaining period.  “If he had acknowledged this understanding, it would have been purely a different matter.

But people kept arguing purely on semantics and politics … and Jonathan just one of them who don’t believe, both in the North and South that people should honour simple agreement.

  “I am not an advocate of zoning. In fact, I want it dead. Right now, we want a President of northern extraction. I want to disabuse your mind on whether the northern votes will not split if there are more than one candidate from the vote contesting and another party presents a candidate from another part of the country.

Let me assure you that the north will vote in one place.  “The President’s foot soldiers have approached me. I met one of the foot soldiers and I told him that for me, there wouldn’t have been any reason to support any candidate from outside the North. The North is no selfish and has never exhibited any selfishness. 

“They are saying allow Jonathan to transform the country, I don’t know what indices they are using and cant see what direction this transformation is going. The indicators are very clear that virtually everything is collapsing....”