A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr Umar Ardo, has said that prominent northern leaders are engaged in strategic schemes to wrestle power from President Goodluck Jonathan through the 2015 general elections.
Ardo, who only recently lost out to Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State in an attempt to secure the PDP governorship ticket, told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY that top northern leaders are frantic because the region is at its weakest since independence: It has no economic power and has since 1999 lost the military and political power that it traditionally had.
Governor of Niger State Muazu Babangida Aliyu has, however, said it would be difficult to separate the meetings being held on the security challenges of the region from the political goals of its people.
Aliyu who spoke through his spokesman, Danladi Ndayebo, said northern governors have held several meetings but were not necessarily behind all the meetings that are being convened.
Ndayebo said: “ We are interested in bringing peace and unity in the country and are ready to partner with anyone that is ready to bring solutions. Governor Aliyu attended the meeting convened by General Abdulsalami Abubakar, a former head of state.”
Giving the impression that meetings being held across the north by elder statesmen, traditional rulers and politicians are as much about forging a common ground for political goals as they are about the security challenges, Ardo said the north lost its greatest opportunity to destabilize Jonathan by not supporting Timipre Sylva.
He said: “The north has nothing economically. The only thing the north had was political and military power. And the north has lost these two since 1999. Therefore, I do not see how the north can take up leadership in 2015 without sitting down and articulating a functional and practical strategy.
“I was involved in this northern leaders’ meeting that came up a few weeks ago; you can see how frantic northerners have become. There was this committee set up by Maitaima Sule; it is called security committee headed by Al-Amin Daggash. Somehow they invited me to come and brief them.
“I told them, yes, you can take over leadership but you have to do certain things. One of the key things that the north ought to have done, they did not do. The major obstacle for the north if they are going to contest elections now is the incumbent.
“If the north had rallied itself, supported Governor Timipre Sylva who was removed and returned to Bayelsa State by the Supreme Court, the north would have gone 70 per cent in taking over power. If you neutralize that, then, you would give the president something to think about.”
Ardo added: “With the state out of his hand; with a very strong politician like Sylva holding sway in that state, the president would not only be destabilized, he would be distracted and the north would have a very strong ally. But, of course, it is too late, the north has lost that opportunity.
“But there are other things to be done, but you do not give out strategy. There are very clear, practical strategies that we can adopt, then the north will take over power.”
He also said individual politicians were scheming. “I know they are. A lot of them are coming up. Atiku has said he is going to contest. Nasir el-Rufai is there, I believe he is going to contest. And I believe even the governor of the Central Bank is also scheming, he wants to contest. Next week he is going to be turbaned and he wants to bring the entire ward as stepping stone.”
He added that the interpretation of the law by the Supreme Court, in its verdict on the tenure of five governors, that no one can stay in office for one day more than eight years could be a problem for Jonathan.
He said: “Jonathan said it three times that he would not contest in 2015. He first said in Abuja that he was not going to contest in 2015, he would only contest the 2011 election. Then he went to Ethiopia, at the African Union, he repeated it.
“Then he said it the third time in the government house in Kaduna that he would not contest. At Wadata Plaza, it was the governors that gave him a condition and he accepted. But voluntarily, he said three times without any governor putting any threat on his head. So, by saying that, Jonathan has disqualified himself from contesting.”
SOURCE: Leadership Newspaper, 29 April 2012. http://www.leadership.ng/nga/
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