Alleging that President Goodluck
Jonathan has not represented the
South South region well, a group of
eminent persons from the zone has
chosen to join forces with the North
to stop the rumoured re-election bid of the president. Towards this end,
the South-South leaders, led by a
former military administrator of
Lagos State, General Patrick Newton
Aziza, under the aegis of Urhobo
Progressive Union (UPU), last week held a closed-door meeting with the
leadership of pro-North group,
Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) in
Kaduna. Details of what transpired during the
closed-door discussion were,
however, kept secret as journalists
were only told that the meeting was
“to re-ignite that longstanding
relationship, keep it warm and energise it in our national political
journey.” Saturday Sun can
exclusively reveal that beyond what
was made public, the South-South
leaders were at the meeting to
negotiate the future of their ethnic group after complaining bitterly
about their disappointment with the
administration of President Jonathan
who incidentally is from the same
region. One of the leaders, who joined
General Aziza at the meeting,
disclosed: “Without mincing words, we
are not pleased with the Jonathan
administration because we have since
discovered that the president has given virtually everything due to the
South-South to only his Ijaw people,
leaving out the interest of other
ethnic groups in the region
unprotected.” When challenged to
justify the basis of their angst against the Jonathan administration,
the source said: “In this
administration, the Urhobos do not
have the smallest of political
appointments, not even a special
assistant. So, the government does not favour us in any way and that is
not healthy. This informed our decision to seek
cooperation with the North and
other parts of the country, which can
protect our interest in the next
dispensation, that is in 2015. We can’t
support someone who has failed and neglected us again. We need to take
the destiny of our people in our hands
and protect it.” A former governor of
Edo State, Chief John Oyegun, who is
the Chairman of the South-South
Peoples Assembly (SSPA) led by President Jonathan’s kinsman and
confidant, Chief Edwin Clark, however,
described the UPU move as narrow-
minded. He said though the Aziza
group is a formidable team, it cannot,
however, decide for the entire region. He also denied that the development
was an indication of a crack in the
political aspiration of the region.
According to him: “I don’t think the
visit of General Aziza and other
leaders of UPU to ACF in Kaduna suggests a crack in the leadership of
the South South. Everything boils
down to the subject of their
discussion. It could be on security,
unity and others. Different groups
can hold their meetings depending on their interest. But when the issue
borders on the interest of the
different geo-political zones, that is
a totally different matter. Their visit does not portend any
threat at all. Don’t forget that UPU
has been there for a very long time
though it is a very small unit and it
covers only Urhobos. Urhobos are just
a part of Delta, a majority part though. “Such groups will be doing
their thing now, but when the time
comes and we decide on the interest
of our people, we will expect
everybody to fall in line. When we get
to that point, we will hold discussions with everybody and UPU will surely be
part of that discussion. The issue of where the next president
comes from is still too early. We have
the presidency now and if our man is
not going to contest, then the issue
of who to support will then arise. But
now, nothing like that yet. By then, we will decide where our interest lies
given the alternatives that are on
offer. “So, now is the time for a lot of
movement, motions, body language
but all that don’t affect the position
of the South South because UPU does not represent the interest of the
South-South; eventhough they are a
very important group. We have
immense respect for them, they are
very well organised but they are not
South-South.” All efforts to get General Aziza’s
reaction, however, failed, as calls to
his telephone line were neither picked
nor text messages to the same
replied. Answering questions after
the closed-door meeting that lasted for two hours, Aziza had said: “We
came to see our brothers; we had
good deliberations over what is
happening in Nigeria. The Arewas and
Urhobos are not strange bedfellows.
We share a long political history from the days of struggle for political
independence from the British to the
days of the First Republic and the
post-military politics. We don’t want
to bore you with the details of such
political affinity and the historicisms, suffice to say, however, that such
political affinity was based on mutual
respect and equity. “We seek to re-ignite that
longstanding relationship, keep it
warm and energise it in our national
political journey. ACF, in our mind,
share many other similarities with the
UPU. Just like the UPU, the ACF is a major platform of convergence of
the Arewa people and the veritable
positive force for engagement of her
people. It also provides an avenue for
the ventilation of the views and idea
of the Arewa people on critical national issues. It is this similarity of
purpose and mission statement in our
mind that has convoked this august
gathering.” On his part, ACF spokesman, Anthony
Sani, said that the problem of the
country has been suspicion among
ethnic groups, adding: “But it is a
good thing that the Urhobos have
come around.” He said, the coming of the Urhobos to the North would
eliminate the suspicion, more so that
the ACF itself has begun nationwide
tour of ethnic groups for peaceful
co-existence.
www.247nigerianewsupdate.com/2015-bad-news-for-jonathan/

Kk.we hear you.Buhari propagandist.