*Tells emissary: ‘He should
look for re-election help
elsewhere’
*Atiku faults automatic ticket
bid
Soni Daniel, Regional Editor,
North
The moves launched by
President Goodluck Jonathan
to get northern leaders to
support him ahead of the
2015 presidential election
appear to have failed, Sunday
Vanguard has learnt. One of
the moves was the emissary
sent to the Northern Elders
Forum (NEF) at a meeting in
Abuja.
The northern leaders were
said to have told the
emissary, a senior
presidential aide, point-
blank, they would rather
prod one of their own to
stand against the president
in the next elections.
Jonathan, it was gathered,
on Thursday, sent the senior
aide to persuade the
influential northern group to
back down on attacking him
and to, once again, support
him to return in 2015.
The presidential aide,
according to Sunday
Vanguard sources, met with
an NEF delegation of three at
a guest house in Jabi, Abuja
and tried for about two
hours to extract assurance of
support from the group.
Two former ministers from
the North and a former
adviser to erstwhile
President Olusegun Obasanjo
allegedly represented NEF at
the meeting.
JONATHAN-2015
The emissary reportedly
assured the NEF delegation
that the Presidency would
take urgent steps to correct
perceived imbalances in the
polity, which the northerners
were complaining about, and
the threat by ex-militant,
Asari Dokubo, who recently
vowed to attack anyone who
stood in the way of
Jonathan’s re-election.
The northern leaders were
said to have pointedly
rejected any appeasement
from the Presidency, asking
the aide to tell Jonathan that
they were not interested in
working with him anymore.
“We met with a man sent to
us by the president and we
told him our mind because
we feel that there is no need
to continue to deny the fact
that we are opposed to
Jonathan running again in
2015,”one of the sources,
present at the meeting, said.
“We have seen enough of
Jonathan in the last four
years or so. We do not
believe that there is any
more magic he will bring to
salvage Nigeria.
“We made it clear to the
emissary that if we
continued to support him
beyond 2015, Nigeria would
be thrown into more
corruption, insecurity,
poverty and misery in the
midst of rising oil revenue.
“We also told the man sent
by the president that his
actions and utterances are
pro-Ijaw and that he could
seek new allies from other
parts of the country to
actualise his political
ambition in the next polls.”
In the meantime, NEF
Secretary, Prof Ango
Abdullahi, has faulted the
recommendation by Chief
Tony Anenih, the Chairman of
the Board of Trustees (BoT)
of the ruling Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) which
seeks to give automatic
ticket to Jonathan and first
term governors of the party.
Abdullahi said the move was
not only undemocratic but
was also in violation of the
party’s constitution, which
provides for primary election.
Describing the postulation as
a desperate move to edge
out other presidential
aspirants of the PDP in the
run-up to 2015, the former
ABU Vice Chancellor asked
the party faithful to reject
such dictatorial proposal.

CyberG: Hmmm...OBJ shows up everywhere in Nigeria! You got to salute this buy even though I think he could do muuuuucccchhh better than he did! It's a shame that the clueless ones that came after him cannot even touch the latchet of his sandals talk less of looking his achievements in the eye! I don't know if I support the NEF but they recognize that whatever or whoever the answer to Nigeria's problems are, it is not the retardeenic GEJ. Also notice they are not boasting, beating their chest, etc but articulate their position with much diplomacy! You can not fault their manner of response!