2015: Northern Presidential Aspiration Is Negotiable – Aliyu

IN the collective interest of Nigerians, the leaders of the northern part of the country may support any region of the country that produces the president after the 2015 election.  But the North would negotiate properly with those seeking the office in a bid to safeguard the region’s interest. This was the stance of the Chairman of Northern Governors’ Forum, Dr. Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, who was apparently expressing the position of the leaders of the North.

Aliyu spoke during the inauguration of an office complex for federal workers in Enagi, headquarters of Edati Local Council of Niger State. Denying that he advocated that only northern candidates should seek the Presidency, he stressed the need for the promises made to the region to be fulfilled. He criticised his opponents, who he said were holding meetings in Abuja in their attempt to earn the favour of the Presidency in respect of 2015.
The governor warned that the state would not accept introduction of religion into its affairs. He said: “Here in Niger, we do not play the politics of religion as such attitude would negate the development drive of the state and the country at large.” Aliyu’s stance is a marked departure from positions taken by some groups in the North that had unequivocally advocated the emergence of a president from the region. One such group under the aegis of Concerned Arewa Patriots  (CAP) had in March advocated that the North should produce the president in 2015, saying it would  not only check  the   insecurity in the country, but also would compensate for the truncated tenure of the  late President Umaru Yar’Adua.
The National Co-ordinator of CAP, Alhaji Mayaki Idris, had while addressing journalists in Makurdi, said that “zoning of the Presidency to the North would afford the zone and its leaders an opportunity to address the socio-political and security challenges confronting the country.” The group had urged the three political zones in the North to “work together with other zones in the South to realise the truncated tenure of Yar’Adua presidency without resulting in situations that would give rise to suspicion, rancour and insecurity.” Idris pointed out that since the North had in the past supported other zones in their quest to lead the country, “good conscience demands that they equally support our noble intentions.”
The CAP further noted that the quest for a northern presidential candidate should be devoid of all socio-religious or political considerations as Nigerians must look for a candidate who would enjoy the support of the majority of the people. “The qualities of such a candidate should not be compromised; the Nigerian president of northern extraction that we are talking about come 2015 should have credibility, not based on ethnicity, political and religious sentiments.
“He should be incorruptible, saleable, reliable and have track record of nationalism and performance; that is what our nation, Nigeria needs,” he stressed. Similarly, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has insisted that only a northerner shall be president in 2015.
Its spokesman, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, said that the forum had told the northern governors, who are not ready to key into the 2015 “Northern Presidency” project, to prepare for the worst because there is no alternative to it. He stated that the bottom-line is that, “power must return to the North in 2015 and the region is ready to align with any political party that will offer the North the presidential ticket.”
He added: “As it is now, it appears that PDP has closed shop for a northern candidate with Tony Anenih’s automatic ticket proposal for Jonathan. But we will wait to see how it goes; if the party should have a re-think on the proposal and offer the North the presidential ticket in 2015, we will support them, but anything contrary, we are out of it. Also, Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido warned that no sentiment and even a People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) ticket would guarantee Jonathan’s electoral victory for second term.
Lamido, who made this known at the weekend during an interview with journalists at the State Government House, said elder statesmen, politicians and ethnic agitators must take the interest of all Nigerians and democratic tenets into consideration when making utterances. According to him, it is the Nigerian electorate that have the total power to decide who to lead them and not any party or individual. Asked if he would take up the responsibility of leading the country if such an opportunity arose, the governor said all human beings were created by God with their individual templates drawn at birth, stressing that the least he ever expected in life was to be a chief in his village just like his deceased father.
He asserted that he was grateful to God for what He had so far made out of him. According to him, Nigerian politics is polluted and hijacked by a selfish few, adding that “the chemistry is not yet healed of sentiments. “This country is applying democracy with idiosyncrasies and our own peculiarities – that it is not the turn of one person or some people yet. It is the Nigerian chemistry you have to look into, which has been hijacked by people who manipulate it with differences. Today, if you go to somebody in the South-South, he would say ‘my son is there, he must be!’ It would not matter whether that man is killing him.  “So, first and foremost, is the Nigerian chemistry thoroughly healed? The elite, are they honest enough? Are the people courageous enough to do the right thing?”
The governor specifically took an exemption to utterances by South-South’s leader, Chief Edwin Clark and former Niger Delta militant, Mujahid Asari-Dokubo and others, warning that they must be cautious in whatever they say. Lamido added: “If you are saying his party must give him the ticket, it is okay. But it doesn’t mean he is going to win the election. But when you say he must win the election, then what are you talking about? “In 2011, the name Edwin Clark was not part of PDP vocabulary. And then look at it today, it has become the main vocabulary. And what is the qualification? Emotion and sentiments.
“When before election somebody was saying ‘our son must serve a second term’, while second term comes after election, then what you are saying is a factor of an election. But when you say he must win the election, why then do we have democracy?”