By Femi Aribisala
There is a lot of irritating noise coming especially from the North-West concerning the need for the presidency to return to the North in 2015. This should be discarded as sound and fury signifying nothing.
To talk of the presidency returning to the North is to presume the presidency belongs to the North. It does not! There should be no Northern president of Nigeria for the next 14 years at the very least. After that, the presidency should not go to the North-West. It should go to the Middle-Belt.

President Goodluck Jonathan
The new PDP: In the last few weeks, we have witnessed a comedy of errors whereby some PDP Governors, mostly Northern, have rebelled from the PDP, formed what they call a new PDP with one central demand: that Goodluck Jonathan should not contest for the presidency in 2015. This makes for good newspaper headlines and little else.
It is preposterous to insist that a sitting president should not go for a second-term when he is entitled to do so. Those who are opposed to him should challenge him at the polls if they can. In my opinion, they don’t stand a chance against him and they know it.
This is a Nigerian thing. If you start a business and are successful, your competition does not strive to match or exceed your services. The favoured option is to try to drive you out of business. They will pay the police to close you down.
They will go to the babalawo and ask him to terminate you with extreme prejudice. You will come to your office and find a dead chicken on the doormat. What all this says eloquently is that your competition cannot compete with you. The same goes for the shenanigans of the so-called new PDP. There is nothing new about these jokers.
All they have to offer is the same bad news. The reality they don’t want to face is that Jonathan is unstoppable as the PDP presidential candidate in 2015. A new PDP candidate does not even have a look-in. Neither does a PDM candidate, which Atiku is apparently reserving as his fall-back position when his shenanigans in the PDP come to nothing.
It sometimes takes Nigerians a long time to face reality and admit defeat. This is the case with Atiku Abubakar. The bitter truth is that, try as he might, Atiku can never be president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The 2015 election will be between President Jonathan and the APC presidential candidate. The only opportunity that the North has to produce the next president lies in the APC putting forward a Northerner as its presidential candidate. Even then, President Jonathan must be the odds-on favourite to win. As a rule, sitting African presidents don’t lose elections.
Lame-duck Governors: Politics is a power-game. However, the high jinks of the nPDP are all smoke and mirrors. All but one of these rebel governors is a lame-duck; meaning this is their last term in office. With the sole exception of Abdulfattah Ahmed of Kwara, they have all served two terms as governors and that is the statutory limit.
Lame-duck governors have greatly diminished power. Their opponents know they will not have to tolerate them much longer. Lame-duck governors run against the clock. They are soon to be dumped into the dustbin of history. That is the predicament of these loud rebels.
What is pathetic about their situation is actually their central demand. President Jonathan is at the height of his powers. He is not a lame-duck. He can run for a second term. That gives him enough time to deal with his opponents. It also tells them that they better make peace with him now, or they will be in the wilderness possibly for the next six years. That is a very long time in politics. By that time, at least six of the rebel PDP governors will be politically dead.

These politicians facing a bleak future are now demanding that the President relinquish his advantage by making himself a lame-duck like them: declaring that he will not contest for the presidency in 2015. President Jonathan is certainly not a fool; so that is not going to happen.
This is my prediction. The rebel lame-duck governors have had their 15 minutes of fame; thanks to the Nigerian news media that hankers after sensational stories. They have made the noise and grabbed the headlines. That is the end of the road for them.
They have to come back to Jonathan cap in hand. I repeat, politics is a game of power and, at the moment, Jonathan is sitting pretty. If these lame-duck governors don’t play ball, they will all be handed over to the EFCC if and when Jonathan is returned as president. I actually believe that is
what all this brouhaha is about.
These governors want assurances that they will be left in peace to enjoy their booty after their retirement. I don’t believe that assurance should be given either. They have gone about it the wrong way. They should have gone to the President to plea-bargain rather than all this bluster. As it is, the PDP machinery in their states will be taken away from them and that will be it.
Who are the people going to follow? Would they join a man who is going to be out of a job as governor within two years, or will they follow a sitting president who is likely to remain president for another six years? It is a no-brainer: Jonathan has all the cards hands down.
Of all the rebel governors, the most pathetic is Rotimi Amaechi. He is from the South-South. Nevertheless, he is demanding that a South-South president should not seek a second-term. Within the framework of Nigeria, that position is not only idiotic, it is politically suicidal. You don’t scuttle a South-South presidency in favour of the North and expect thank you from the people of the South-South. All Amaechi has achieved is to consign himself into future political irrelevance.
Northern political disintegration: There are still more smoke and mirrors. One of these is that the North can determine who will be president of Nigeria. That is all poppycock. If it were true, Buhari would have been elected Nigeria’s president in 2011. He won all the far northern states of Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Sokoto, Yobe, and Zamfara. Nevertheless, he still lost woefully by 10 million votes.

Time was when a Northern candidate was certain of victory by sheer weight of numbers. All that is history now. The North is the only region in Nigeria that no longer exists politically. Thanks to Boko Haram, it is now divided between Moslems and Christians. The Middle Belt now considers itself Middle Belt and not as the North. What is the point of including yourself in the North if all it gets you is to play second-fiddle perpetually to Sokoto, Kano and Katsina? The North is now also divided between the elite and the masses. What is the point of insisting on a Northern president when all it produces are Northern billionaires without appreciable development of the North?
In their insistence on being president of Nigeria yet again, the far North is burning its bridges. The most faithful supporters of the North politically have been the South-South and the South-East. The possibility for such continued support in the future is now being scuttled by the seeming Northern determination to truncate the legitimate second-term bid of a South-South president and to deny the Igbos their rightful claim to the presidency. If the politicians of the far North are not careful, they will not get a president from their area for another 50 years.
Federal character: Nigeria is an agglomeration of peoples of different regions and ethnicity. This must be reflected in the polity. Accordingly, the North should take an extended sabbatical from the presidency. Other regions have tolerated a Northern presidency for 37 out of 53 years, to no great effect. There is nothing to recommend another Northern president in the short-term. The last thing Nigeria needs right now is another President Musa Yar’Adua with his highfalutin seven-point programme.
Northerners are rightfully the apostles of federal character. By the same token, the presidency should reflect the federal character of Nigeria. Jonathan is important as the first South-South president. The South-South deserves a second-term according to the principles of federal character.
After eight years of a South-South presidency, it cannot be said to be the turn of the North again, when the Igbos, a major ethnic group, have only had a head of state for six months. Before we can talk of another Northern presidency, we should have had at least eight years of an Igbo presidency. If after that, the presidency then moves to the North, it should not go to the traditional Northern odd-jobbers. It should go to the Middle Belt for another eight years.
Political wilderness

My advice therefore to the people of the North (especially the North-West) is that they should fasten their seat-belts. They may be in for a long journey in the political wilderness. The way out is not through this nPDP nonsense which is likely to antagonise the rest of the country against them. The predicament of the far North requires greater political dexterity. There is a new realpolitik in Nigeria, and it is not to the advantage of the North.

Zero policy debate
Nigerian elections are peculiar in that there is hardly any policy debate as such. It is all about which region gets the presidency, as opposed to which policies get implemented. In 14 years of PDP presidency, I have yet to discover exactly what the party stands for. Nobody seems to care. Immediately a president is elected, the debate begins on where the next president should come from. 2015 is two years away. Nevertheless, we are already in election-mode. Government money is being saved for the next election. Government money is being looted by the lame-ducks. Everyone is shouting “my turn;” “me-first.” Meanwhile, Nigeria continues to go to the dogs.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/09/why-goodluck-jonathan-must-run-for-a-second-term

Booked

seconded

Why are afraid the election.

While I do not care much about issues concerning the rest of nigeria (which I now refer as the other countries ), I do care a lot about the Odua nation.
This aribisala has finally revealed himself to be under the employment of the PDP(immigrants) and clueless joe.
He has spent the better part of the year attacking strong yoruba leaders and other southwest interest .
His language ,the way he constructs sentences etc are enough to conclude that the person bearing aribisala is not a yoruba.

Words of wisdom. Let those who have ears, take heed.

bloggernaija: While I do not care much about issues concerning the rest of nigeria (which I now refer as the other countries ), I do care a lot about the Odua nation.
This aribisala has finally revealed himself to be under the employment of the PDP(immigrants) and clueless joe.
He has spent the better part of the year attacking strong yoruba leaders and other southwest interest .
His language ,the way he constructs sentences etc are enough to conclude that the person bearing aribisala is not a yoruba.

All yorubas must not worship at Tinubu's shrine. Majority of the yorubas have said no to the greatest thief of all time, Tinubu.

In other countries they talk about who should be president, in Nigeria they talk about which region should get president as if all the people from the various regions are carbon copies of one another.

Whomever says the north should get president in 2015 is very stupid, just as the OP of this thread and whomever agreed with him/liked his post. You are all very stupid, it matters who becomes president and what they aim to do with Nigeria, it matters not what region they come from.

atlwireles: By Femi Aribisala
There is a lot of irritating noise coming especially from the North-West concerning the need for the presidency to return to the North in 2015. This should be discarded as sound and fury signifying nothing.
To talk of the presidency returning to the North is to presume the presidency belongs to the North. It does not! There should be no Northern president of Nigeria for the next 14 years at the very least. After that, the presidency should not go to the North-West. It should go to the Middle-Belt.

President Goodluck Jonathan
The new PDP: In the last few weeks, we have witnessed a comedy of errors whereby some PDP Governors, mostly Northern, have rebelled from the PDP, formed what they call a new PDP with one central demand: that Goodluck Jonathan should not contest for the presidency in 2015. This makes for good newspaper headlines and little else.
It is preposterous to insist that a sitting president should not go for a second-term when he is entitled to do so. Those who are opposed to him should challenge him at the polls if they can. In my opinion, they don’t stand a chance against him and they know it.
This is a Nigerian thing. If you start a business and are successful, your competition does not strive to match or exceed your services. The favoured option is to try to drive you out of business. They will pay the police to close you down.
They will go to the babalawo and ask him to terminate you with extreme prejudice. You will come to your office and find a dead chicken on the doormat. What all this says eloquently is that your competition cannot compete with you. The same goes for the shenanigans of the so-called new PDP. There is nothing new about these jokers.
All they have to offer is the same bad news. The reality they don’t want to face is that Jonathan is unstoppable as the PDP presidential candidate in 2015. A new PDP candidate does not even have a look-in. Neither does a PDM candidate, which Atiku is apparently reserving as his fall-back position when his shenanigans in the PDP come to nothing.
It sometimes takes Nigerians a long time to face reality and admit defeat. This is the case with Atiku Abubakar. The bitter truth is that, try as he might, Atiku can never be president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The 2015 election will be between President Jonathan and the APC presidential candidate. The only opportunity that the North has to produce the next president lies in the APC putting forward a Northerner as its presidential candidate. Even then, President Jonathan must be the odds-on favourite to win. As a rule, sitting African presidents don’t lose elections.
Lame-duck Governors: Politics is a power-game. However, the high jinks of the nPDP are all smoke and mirrors. All but one of these rebel governors is a lame-duck; meaning this is their last term in office. With the sole exception of Abdulfattah Ahmed of Kwara, they have all served two terms as governors and that is the statutory limit.
Lame-duck governors have greatly diminished power. Their opponents know they will not have to tolerate them much longer. Lame-duck governors run against the clock. They are soon to be dumped into the dustbin of history. That is the predicament of these loud rebels.
What is pathetic about their situation is actually their central demand. President Jonathan is at the height of his powers. He is not a lame-duck. He can run for a second term. That gives him enough time to deal with his opponents. It also tells them that they better make peace with him now, or they will be in the wilderness possibly for the next six years. That is a very long time in politics. By that time, at least six of the rebel PDP governors will be politically dead.

These politicians facing a bleak future are now demanding that the President relinquish his advantage by making himself a lame-duck like them: declaring that he will not contest for the presidency in 2015. President Jonathan is certainly not a fool; so that is not going to happen.
This is my prediction. The rebel lame-duck governors have had their 15 minutes of fame; thanks to the Nigerian news media that hankers after sensational stories. They have made the noise and grabbed the headlines. That is the end of the road for them.
They have to come back to Jonathan cap in hand. I repeat, politics is a game of power and, at the moment, Jonathan is sitting pretty. If these lame-duck governors don’t play ball, they will all be handed over to the EFCC if and when Jonathan is returned as president. I actually believe that is
what all this brouhaha is about.
These governors want assurances that they will be left in peace to enjoy their booty after their retirement. I don’t believe that assurance should be given either. They have gone about it the wrong way. They should have gone to the President to plea-bargain rather than all this bluster. As it is, the PDP machinery in their states will be taken away from them and that will be it.
Who are the people going to follow? Would they join a man who is going to be out of a job as governor within two years, or will they follow a sitting president who is likely to remain president for another six years? It is a no-brainer: Jonathan has all the cards hands down.
Of all the rebel governors, the most pathetic is Rotimi Amaechi. He is from the South-South. Nevertheless, he is demanding that a South-South president should not seek a second-term. Within the framework of Nigeria, that position is not only idiotic, it is politically suicidal. You don’t scuttle a South-South presidency in favour of the North and expect thank you from the people of the South-South. All Amaechi has achieved is to consign himself into future political irrelevance.
Northern political disintegration: There are still more smoke and mirrors. One of these is that the North can determine who will be president of Nigeria. That is all poppycock. If it were true, Buhari would have been elected Nigeria’s president in 2011. He won all the far northern states of Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Sokoto, Yobe, and Zamfara. Nevertheless, he still lost woefully by 10 million votes.

Time was when a Northern candidate was certain of victory by sheer weight of numbers. All that is history now. The North is the only region in Nigeria that no longer exists politically. Thanks to Boko Haram, it is now divided between Moslems and Christians. The Middle Belt now considers itself Middle Belt and not as the North. What is the point of including yourself in the North if all it gets you is to play second-fiddle perpetually to Sokoto, Kano and Katsina? The North is now also divided between the elite and the masses. What is the point of insisting on a Northern president when all it produces are Northern billionaires without appreciable development of the North?
In their insistence on being president of Nigeria yet again, the far North is burning its bridges. The most faithful supporters of the North politically have been the South-South and the South-East. The possibility for such continued support in the future is now being scuttled by the seeming Northern determination to truncate the legitimate second-term bid of a South-South president and to deny the Igbos their rightful claim to the presidency. If the politicians of the far North are not careful, they will not get a president from their area for another 50 years.
Federal character: Nigeria is an agglomeration of peoples of different regions and ethnicity. This must be reflected in the polity. Accordingly, the North should take an extended sabbatical from the presidency. Other regions have tolerated a Northern presidency for 37 out of 53 years, to no great effect. There is nothing to recommend another Northern president in the short-term. The last thing Nigeria needs right now is another President Musa Yar’Adua with his highfalutin seven-point programme.
Northerners are rightfully the apostles of federal character. By the same token, the presidency should reflect the federal character of Nigeria. Jonathan is important as the first South-South president. The South-South deserves a second-term according to the principles of federal character.
After eight years of a South-South presidency, it cannot be said to be the turn of the North again, when the Igbos, a major ethnic group, have only had a head of state for six months. Before we can talk of another Northern presidency, we should have had at least eight years of an Igbo presidency. If after that, the presidency then moves to the North, it should not go to the traditional Northern odd-jobbers. It should go to the Middle Belt for another eight years.
Political wilderness

My advice therefore to the people of the North (especially the North-West) is that they should fasten their seat-belts. They may be in for a long journey in the political wilderness. The way out is not through this nPDP nonsense which is likely to antagonise the rest of the country against them. The predicament of the far North requires greater political dexterity. There is a new realpolitik in Nigeria, and it is not to the advantage of the North.

Zero policy debate
Nigerian elections are peculiar in that there is hardly any policy debate as such. It is all about which region gets the presidency, as opposed to which policies get implemented. In 14 years of PDP presidency, I have yet to discover exactly what the party stands for. Nobody seems to care. Immediately a president is elected, the debate begins on where the next president should come from. 2015 is two years away. Nevertheless, we are already in election-mode. Government money is being saved for the next election. Government money is being looted by the lame-ducks. Everyone is shouting “my turn;” “me-first.” Meanwhile, Nigeria continues to go to the dogs.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/09/why-goodluck-jonathan-must-run-for-a-second-term

This one sef dey look for post. Is the more important issue Rotation or True Federalism? Nigeria is just filled with dunces and hypocrites.

OP,Gbam you have spoken my mind. We can't continue to allow other regions of the country feel that we are meant to be ruled, when we generate the highest income for the country. Enough is enough, it is time for us to stand up for our rights. If they can't wait till the middle belts finish ruling in 14years time they should join Niger or any other country around them, or better still be on their own.

Dpeacemaker101: OP,Gbam you have spoken my mind. We can't continue to allow other regions of the country feel that we are meant to be ruled, when we generate the highest income for the country. Enough is enough, it is time for us to stand up for our rights. If they can't wait till the middle belts finish ruling in 14years time they should join Niger or any other country around them, or better still be on their own.

This is not the solution to the problem you are pointing out. All regions and states should govern themselves with little regard to whomever is president and where they come from all year round, every year. It is called federalism, you know, the type of system of government we pretend to practice.

The author generally contradicts himself...after insisting that we must continue to inflict ourselves with Jonathan produced by the PDP for another 4 years for no justifiable reason he later realised that the PDP is all about who gets what and the political debate is about origin of the office holder without any major policy issues.

Not a bright write-up if i must say with the insinuation that power must necessarily rotate from one clueless regional champion to another colourless retardeen just to keep anyone of northern extraction out of power even if the person has obvious credentials to justify consideration for office. How can this kind of thinking help to change Nigeria's fortune that we may attain our manifest destiny as a nation of proving the black man was not created retarded?

Goodluck Jonathan can run for election in 2015 because he is qualified to do so. Infact, anyone who says he shouldn't run is very likely saying so for selfish reasons & should be ignored, ATIKU & BARAJE especially.. True opposition should never insist he shouldn't run. Who are they? na dem write constitution?

The only downside of him running for election is the billions of naira that will be used for bribes and settlements. From 'elders' like Fasheun all the way to some hungry paid posters in this forum, they will share in that sick money. Then again, we have that insulting period when an underachiever, an oil theft abetter, a corrupt ministers' retainer, an expert in making un-leader like statements, a corrupt human with a deceptively meek face BUT with an obvious lack of true sensitivity for the truly poor nigerians (including those in his region who put their hopes foolishly on "our son" back in 2011), below average stellar leadership qualities will be touted as the best person to rule Nigeria. It's really insulting....& sad.

But then, above all, i look forward to GEJ running in 2015 so that at least his thugs like Asari Dokubo & co (may God spare their lives too) will be there to see that GEJ WILL LOSE that election to a MUCH BETTER candidate & despite all their 'contingency plans' to forment trouble in the event of his loss, NOTHING WILL HAPPEN.

............& if care is not taken, they'll all be spending Christmas 2015 in detention or better still, prison.