At last President Goodluck Jonathan has beaten the October 30 ultimatum given him and other aspirants to political offices within the party to express their interests in electoral contests. He had on Thursday officially made the long awaited declaration to run for re-election in 2015. That came barely two days after he had met the governors of the PDP over the modalities for fielding candidates for various electoral posts after he was earlier endorsed by all organs of the PDP as the sole candidate for the party’s presidential primaries.
President Jonathan, who had been expected to declare his intention long before now, ordered the setting up of presidential declaration committee charged with the responsibility of drawing up a comprehensive programme for his eventual declaration. The committee is to be headed by Dr Bello Halliru, erstwhile Minister of Defense and former National Chairman of the PDP. The final declaration is expected on November 11, almost three weeks ahead of the party’s National Convention.
Before now, there was disquiet about the party’s preceding directives foreclose the possibility for second-term automatic tickets for the first time and the outgoing governors who may wish to contest for senatorial seats as well as the ministers that had been endorsed by the state chapters of their parties to run for governorship elections.
Previously, there seems to be disconcerting twists in the relationship between the president and state governors over divergent opinions concerning PDP primary elections. There were also indications that they may develop into an unpleasant disagreement very soon. In addition, the President had been dragging his feet for too long feet over the announcement of his decision to contest or otherwise, even after the highly successful, mammoth rallies held nationwide by his supporters to convince him about the imperative for doing so. The seemingly protracted delay suddenly caused serious friction and discord in the cordial relationship and commendable camaraderie between the President and the governors. It also induced deep mistrust and fear for the future of the ruling party and the destiny of Jonathan’s presidency.
Piqued by subtle and subterranean moves by PDP stalwarts who had impulsively jumped the gun by rashly kick-starting the process of anointing aspirants for contests, President Jonathan read the riot act to all political appointees in his government to desist from doing so, or quit honorably. Eventually seven ministers had honorably resigned a few days ago, in compliance with that directive and are now on their own, busy preparing for the gubernatorial contests in their respective states.
Nevertheless, some ambitious members of the party, including some state governors, who are desirous of contesting the most coveted political position in the country, complied diffidently with that directive simply to please the president or his party. However, that was not allowed to degenerate into unpleasant situation that could cause more problems and difficulties capable of derailing the party. A convenient means of circumventing undesirable situations like that was hurriedly devised by giving President Jonathan a nod to contest the forthcoming elections.
Although some disagreeable governors later acquiesced without much ado, aspirants to other lucrative elective posts insisted to be treated in a similar manner the President was given his ticket on the platter of gold, and should therefore not be subjected to restrictive regulations or suffer unnecessary discrimination.
To counter that stance, prime movers of the PDP had desperately tried to weaken the deft move by the adroit governors to strategically pave way for the emergence of one of them to contest the presidency come 2015. That was indeed a contrasting proposition to the stratagem adopted by some leaders of the party to emasculate perceived or real opposition to President Jonathan’s ambition to solely contest the forthcoming presidential primaries.
Although President Jonathan had ever said that he would not contest presidential elections in January 2011 while on a visit to Turkey and Ethiopia, he had secretly nursed the ambition of running for the second term soon after his installation in May last year, ostensibly driven by the inordinate ambition of his power-hungry kinsmen to perpetually dominate the presidency. That had provided an ample evidence to show that President Jonathan and his people will never concede power to any block from any zone and have accordingly consolidated their control on the government.
In fact, Jonathan’s contentious ascendancy to the presidency in 2011 was largely responsible for all the predicaments that weighed down the country while his body language which clearly communicates his feelings and psychological state about his imminent participation in the 2015 race is unnecessarily overheating the already stressed polity. There are indications that his continued stay in office beyond 2015 portends bad omen for the already beleaguered country.
The PDP state governors are now being coerced to out rightly demonstrate their unreserved support to the incumbent president whose styles and policies most of them found totally objectionable and unsuitable for getting the country out of the doldrums. There is no reason why the governors should be coerced into giving the President unreserved and blind support having seen enough reason to effect a change in the present state of affairs. There must be a change.
