From Emmanuel Bello and Chuks Okocha in Abuja, 06.22.2010
President Goodluck Jonathan is free to run in 2011, provided he conducts a free and fair poll, former Minister of Defence and Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC), Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, has said.
Danjuma said there is no law in the land banning Jonathan from contesting for the presidency.
Meanwhile, Northern Minority states of Benue, Taraba, Adamawa and Plateau said yesterday in Abuja that they are no longer ready to be used to attain selfish interests of some people in the North.
The bloc was apparently reacting to the statement of the over 150 Northern leaders, who met last Thursday in Abuja and argued that the North has all it takes to win any election in the country without any zoning arrangement.
Addressing a press conference, the Northern minority states under the aegis of the National Movement for Equality for Change also said there is nothing like a monolithic North.
Danjuma spoke to THISDAY in an exclusive interview over the weekend in Abuja against the backdrop of speculations that he had parted ways with Jonathan over the 2011 election.
The PAC chairman denied that he had any disagreement with the President.
In a rare interview, Danjuma said: “Jonathan, like all other Nigerians is entitled to his franchise. He can aspire to be the nation’s leader. He is not banned by any statue of the nation and as enshrined in our laws. Besides, he is the one who can make that decision to run or not to run. He is free as far as I’m concerned. In fact, he can run for office and for obvious reasons. The laws do not stop him. He can run as president and why not? ”.
The former minister said if he had any issue with the President, he would have since resigned as PAC chairman.
But he stated that all he wants Jonathan to do is organise a poll that will be a reference point in the nation’s history.
He added: “If I have any difference with Jonathan I would have since resigned. I’m not the type to stay with someone I have not endorsed. If I’m not interested in him, I would just resign. I have been approached by people who tell me that Jonathan should not run and I have consistently told them to disappear from my presence.
“My conviction is that there is no constitutional basis for that sort of call. We are a nation with a constitution. We are a nation led by laws and not by whims and caprices. So, no one has told me what the basis is for not allowing him to run.”
On the contentious zoning arrangement of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the move by some Northern leaders to enforce the zoning of the presidency to the North in 2011, Danjuma said: “Well, I’m not even a member of that party. So I don’t feel competent to speak on it and their internal issue.”
Jonathan’s alleged 2011 aspiration has continued to generate controversy in the land, though he has not said categorically he would contest.
He reiterated this stand two days ago during his maiden Presidential Media Chat, saying he would not declare his stand yet on 2011 until the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) releases the time-table for the poll.
Leader of the Northern minority group and former Senate President, Senator Ameh Ebute, who spoke on behalf of the group expressed reservations about the statement of the Northern leaders, describing it as unacceptable.
The Northern leaders had said in a communiqué issued on Sunday that the North can win election on its own numerical strength without zoning
They added, however, that they are not targeting their campaign for zoning at President Goodluck Jonathan, as the North has what it takes to win any election and never demanded for zoning in the first place.
But Ebute said: “We (have) observed with concern some unpatriotic statements by a group in the Northern part of Nigeria intended at emasculating other Nigerians into submission to their sectional views that the presidency must be zoned to the North; we use our numerical strength to win election and so on, and wish to say that we say no to these unacceptable threats.”
The former Senate president added: “This group should be reminded that the minority ethnic nationalities of the North contributed more to keeping this country a united entity and would continue to do so now and in the future.”
Also, he said the group should be “reminded that the numerical strength of numbers and perpetual retaining of power in the North is not possible without a united North (and) that the larger population of the North say no to primitive sectional domination and all divisive tendencies.”
Regretting that “just as the Northern minority ethnic nationalities were in the past ignorantly manipulated into supporting parochial personal and sectional agenda of the few in the North,” he said, “the South-South also allied and partnered with the North ignorantly to promote the parochial agenda of the few.”
Ebute said while the Northern minority ethnic nationalities have not benefited from the partnership, “the South-South minorities are now testing the bitter pill of their support to the North.”
The former Senate President said the political space is open and those who feel they must run in 2011 and have the numerical support may opt for any of the other political parties or decide to run as independent candidates as the yet-to-be fully amended 1999 Constitution permits.
He reminded the Northern leaders that zoning was adopted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 1999 primarily to address the June 12, 1993 saga and should not be seen as “a perpetual rotational item on the PDP menu.”
He observed that the most destabilizing issue in Nigeria today other than the utterances of the so-called Northern leaders is the Niger Delta issue.
Ebute suggested that the same principle of zoning adopted in 1999 should be appropriately applied to stabilize the country by allowing a South-South sitting President to contest on the platform of PDP in 2011, thereby permanently addressing the Niger Delta issue.
The Northern minorities said all Nigerians are free to contest elections through democratic means without intimidation, harassment or coercion.
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