₦airaland Forum

[size=14pt]2011: North moves against Jonathan [/size]
•As ACF may compel northerners to quit govt
•Sets up Arewa Elders Assembly to actualise agenda
Written by Bola Badmus
Tuesday, 08 June 2010

A major decision to stop President Goodluck Jonathan from contesting the 2011 presidential election may have been taken by the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) as it has resolved to ensure a northerner is elected Nigeria’s next president.

Jonathan became the president following the death of President Umaru Yar’ Adua in May this year.

The ACF, which met in Kaduna on Sunday, according to a source, took  a number of decisions towards retaining power in the North beyond 2011, even though a division was said to have occurred in the ranks.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that in spite of the division which led to a section feeling suspicious of the other for allegedly selling out on Jonathan’s alleged 2010 presidential ambition,  a parallel organisation, Arewa Elders Assembly was said to have been raised with a strict mandate to ensure that a northerner emerged as the next president of the country.

[size=13pt]According to findings, prominent northerners serving in the government of President Jonathan may be given an ultimatum to resign their positions if eventually Jonathan decides to contest the 2011 presidential poll.

The elders’ assembly is said to consist of Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, Bashir Dalhatu, Alhaji Shetima Ali Monguno and Waziri Kirfi, among others.[/size]

The move, Nigerian Tribune learnt, is to commence in earnest with forces being mobilised across the length and breadth of the North followed by mounting of pressure on President Jonathan to declare his alleged presidential ambition.

Besides, prominent northerners in the government of President Jonathan, including ministers, National Security Adviser (NSA), General Aliyu Gusau; General T. Y. Danjuma and  others serving on various presidential committees would be tasked to confirm if it was true that Jonathan was going to contest the 2011 presidential  poll.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, disclosed that the Arewa Elders Assembly was said to have resolved that should it be confirmed that Jonathan would contest the presidential election, it would have no option than to ask prominent northerners serving in his government to quit within a given time.

It will be recalled that Nigerians have been speaking on the possibility or otherwise of President Jonathan contesting the 2011 presidential poll, with opinions divided against the backdrop of the zoning principle in the PDP.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has, however, stated that there was no zoning arrangement in the party but stopped short of saying Jonathan would contest the presidential poll in 2011.

http://www.tribune.com.ng/index.php/front-page-news/6512-2011-north-moves-against-jonathan-as-acf-may-compel-northerners-to-quit-govt-sets-up-arewa-elders-assembly-to-actualise-agenda

This is an incredible level of desperation. Foolishness come to town!!!!!
These idiots do not represent either Northerners or Northern opinion.

Jona should commit himself to providing visionary leadership for which fate brought him to that seat,not playing succession politics.More than that,you champions of of sectionalism and ethnicity as the deciding factors of political constestation,what did the North do with the presidential power it kept for over 3 decades?Destroying and keeping Nigeria worse than she was at independence many years ago?

Meritocracy must be given its due space in our democaracy,if Nigeria must realize her many potentials.

Dont mind those stupid fools, they have been in power for such a longtime, what are they even scared of?

If they dont want him they should divide the country now.

[color=deeppink]Jonathan Goodluck is the greatest Clown that has ever been in Aso Rock.

He has done absolutely nothing as president, just hope he gets kicked out as soon as possible.[/color]

The great Northern movement.

Would people from the "south" ever learn how to play the politics of region.

maybe we think we would live forever, so let's fight now and unite when we are old.

well i am in d school of "i don't care"

So let me get this straight, You complain that you don't want jonathan to run in 2011 so that won't become president again believing that the you (the north) will be short-changed and be marginalized. However, to come up with a plan to pull prominent northerners in the federal government to RESIGN?!!!! Wow they really are dumb up there smh,  If you pull your people out then that's just making room for more Yorubas,Igbos, Edos, and other southerners to join the federal government and "oppress" you(northerners) even more!

These guys are complete geniuses (fool really). This will lead to the country breaking up and everybody living peacefully without them   

mama-gee:
[color=deeppink]Jonathan Goodluck is the greatest Clown that has ever been in Aso Rock.

He has done absolutely nothing as president, just hope he gets kicked out as soon as possible.[/color]

He does not have the votes to win an election in Nigeria, yet he is not making any effort to get them by providing dividends of democracy. Sure, he will get a ticket back to Bayelsa in 2011 if he fails to deliver.

Nenum:
The great Northern movement.

Would people form the "south" ever learn how to play the politics of region.

maybe we think we would live forever, so let's fight now and unite when we are old.

well i am in d school of "i don't care"

That means we are in the same school . . lol

The East should move towards APGA. Time for regional governments.

If a free and fair election is held in Nigeria, an Igboman would rather vote for someone named Goodluck Ebele Jonathan than another person with some muslim and northern name, and this is true even if that person happens to be IBB.

Chineke mee!

What an elder would see while sitting down, a kid might not see even atop an iroko tree.

Some of us are just watching the drama. Times without number have we said that

"Nigeria is not one,
Nigeria was never one,
Nigeria will never be one"

Now is the time for us to come together, sit down and negotiate Nigeria. Nigeria was never negotiated, it was imposed.
Let is have 6 regional governments out of the 6 geo-political zones.

The "North" (the Hausa/Fulani Moslems only) will never let the sleeping dog be. In there political game, they have only 2 options:

1 . Rule
or
2. Rock the boat.

The Middle Belt is "Slave Boy" and the other Northern Minorities are "Prisoners".

As for the South, let the South West continue to do "diplomacy", let the South East continue to be the "Errand Boy" and let the South South continue to cry "our oil, our oil", instead of coming together to form a strong alliance, so that Nigeria will have a direction.

Nigeria shall definitely continue to be the land of the Looters.

Now is the time to search for the Black Goat, for no one can see it in the night. Perhaps after this generation, another one will come who will not tolerate this hypocrisy, and we shall have the second civil war and after that, "To your tents, oh Nigerians".

Yet, just one serious slip by the "North", "To your tents oh Nigerians, might be somewhere very much around"

Meanwhile, let the threats, intimations, looting, etc. continue.

Beaf:
This is an incredible level of desperation. Foolishness come to town!!!!!
These idiots do not represent either Northerners or Northern opinion.

Indeed. I for one hopes that Jonathan succeeds so that zoning of the Presidency is abolished once and for all. It is a crude political contraption that is moving Nigeria backwards. We simply need a system within which the best leaders are allowed to emerge through a transparent process . I would prefer Duke but , realistically and without the power of incumbency, he cannot win. Jonathan won't find it easy , and he might even fail, but he is the only non-Northerner who can win the 2011 Presidential election because of his current position.

I would hope that Jonathan would be extremely wary of OBJ. OBJ has now stated that Jonathan "must run" as if our current President is his anointed candidate. This brings back memories of how this treacherous old man fooled virtually all Nigerians into thinking that Odili was his man , back in 2006, and that there was no zoning formula in place. Odili actually believed OBJ and thus plunged himself into a massively expensive and laborious campaign for the Presidency that was totally unnecessary and ultimately futile .

In the end OBJ , in recognition of his deal to return power to the North, coolly brushed Odili, Duke et al aside to produce lacklustre Yar Adua !!!! OBJ has a penchant for handing over to the North - especially to the least competent Northerners (perhaps so he can look good) - to the detriment of our nation . We can all remember Shagari instead of Awolowo in 1979 and the wasted 3 years under Yar Adua is still fresh in memory . I feel he will attempt to set Jonathan up to be a fall guy of his scheming and double-dealing because that is all that OBJ knows how to do i.e callously sacrifice others for his own motives .

Desperation, lips sealed waiting and watching.

Nigeria is a land where the ruling elders are foolish and what does it say of the  of the FOLLOW FOLLOW youths?doom,unless there is a 'divine' intervention and the 'divine' intervention will emanate from the youths themselves,they will have to lift the veils off their eyes and begin to see and reason like living and progressive creatures not as they were foolishly taught to reason by the foolish elders.

Gbawe:
Indeed. I for one hopes that Jonathan succeeds so that zoning of the Presidency is abolished once and for all. It is a crude political contraption that is moving Nigeria backwards. We simply need a system within which the best leaders are allowed to emerge through a transparent process . I would prefer Duke but , realistically and without the power of incumbency, he cannot win. Jonathan won't find it easy , and he might even fail, but he is the only non-Northerner who can win the 2011 Presidential election because of his current position.

I would hope that Jonathan would be extremely wary of OBJ. OBJ has now stated that Jonathan "must run" as if our current President is his anointed candidate. This brings back memories of how this treacherous old man fooled virtually all Nigerians into thinking that Odili was his man , back in 2006, and that there was no zoning formula in place. Odili actually believed OBJ and thus plunged himself into a massively expensive and laborious campaign for the Presidency that was totally unnecessary and ultimately futile .

In the end OBJ , in recognition of his deal to return power to the North, coolly brushed Odili, Duke et al aside to produce lacklustre Yar Adua !!!! OBJ has a penchant for handing over to the North - especially to the least competent Northerners (perhaps so he can look good) - to the detriment of our nation . We can all remember Shagari instead of Awolowo in 1979 and the wasted 3 years under Yar Adua is still fresh in memory . I feel he will attempt to set Jonathan up to be a fall guy of his scheming and double-dealing because that is all that OBJ knows how to do i.e callously sacrifice others for his own motives .

I can not disagree with your post. The only thing that I find mind bungling is that OBJ has also been the only southerner that put the North in check and tried a balancing act when in power. I agree that he can not be trusted but with his previous contradicting antecedents, it is difficult to ascertain what game he is playing.

If Jonathan is a smart guy, he would have his own game plan and not be entirely reliant on OBJ. I believe that God placed Jonathan there for a purpose; it is now up to Jonathan to be a grown man or be led like a kid. For the sake of Nigeria, I pray that God leads him down the right path.

Don't even know if this piece is worthy of my reply. But reading through some the replies here which are even more ludicrous than the story i begin to understand when they say a generality of the political elite(and ultimately the populace) are not sophisticated at all.

I will have to have a different opinion here. I am wondering what really is wrong with the north not wanting to vote for Jonathan? Are the Ijaws willing to vote for anyone else now apart from Jonathan? The North has a right to whom they vote for and it is left for every individual northerner to decide for themselves. There are more than one party in Nigeria now. Can anyone in all honesty claim that Ijaws (from where Jonathan comes) will vote for any one in these other parties? So why should we expect the north not to play the same game?

edoyad:
Don't even know if this piece is worthy of my reply. But reading through some the replies here which are even more ludicrous than the story i begin to understand when they say a generality of the political elite(and ultimately the populace) are not sophisticated at all.

You do realise that you have not stated your position and it would be unwise to attack the positions of others without stating yours.

Nchara:
He does not have the votes to win an election in Nigeria, yet he is not making any effort to get them by providing dividends of democracy. Sure, he will get a ticket back to Bayelsa in 2011 if he fails to deliver.

ROTFLMAO

~Bluetooth:
ROTFLMAO

I see you and Mekusxxx are now best of friends.

Katsumoto:
I see you and Mekusxxx are now best of friends.

we both have the same view on rotational presidency.

Nchara:
I will have to have a different opinion here. I am wondering what really is wrong with the north not wanting to vote for Jonathan? Are the Ijaws willing to vote for anyone else now apart from Jonathan? The North has a right to whom they vote for and it is left for every individual northerner to decide for themselves. There are more than one party in Nigeria now. Can anyone in all honesty claim that Ijaws (from where Jonathan comes) will vote for any one in these other parties? So why should we expect the north not to play the same game?

Exactly my point. Nigeria is not one and I don't see it ever becoming one.
You are very right in your assessment of the situation, now the question is, is it possible for us to make any progress like this? The simple is NO.
What is is the point flogging a dead horse. This circle of stupidity will definitely continue.

It is painful and hard to say it, but we don't have a Country yet. We have north, south, east, south north, east north, west south, west west, east east, etc. If we cant negotiate Nigeria, then let us go our separate ways.

Katsumoto:
You do realise that you have not stated your position and it would be unwise to attack the positions of others without stating yours.

dude, if you check most of the threads i've started on NL, i can't remember ever quoting a story from a Nigerian tabloid. There's just so much crap on Nigerian dailies and i believe it's as a result of the calibre of market they serve.
So i repeat myself, we're not a politically sophisticated people that's why one group will continually move all and sundry like sheep and it's obvious from this story and the reactions i've seen here that it will remain same old.

Gbawe:
Indeed. I for one hopes that Jonathan succeeds so that zoning of the Presidency is abolished once and for all. It is a crude political contraption that is moving Nigeria backwards. We simply need a system within which the best leaders are allowed to emerge through a transparent process . I would prefer Duke but , realistically and without the power of incumbency, he cannot win. Jonathan won't find it easy , and he might even fail, but he is the only non-Northerner who can win the 2011 Presidential election because of his current position.

I would hope that Jonathan would be extremely wary of OBJ. OBJ has now stated that Jonathan "must run" as if our current President is his anointed candidate. This brings back memories of how this treacherous old man fooled virtually all Nigerians into thinking that Odili was his man , back in 2006, and that there was no zoning formula in place. Odili actually believed OBJ and thus plunged himself into a massively expensive and laborious campaign for the Presidency that was totally unnecessary and ultimately futile .

In the end OBJ , in recognition of his deal to return power to the North, coolly brushed Odili, Duke et al aside to produce lacklustre Yar Adua !!!! OBJ has a penchant for handing over to the North - especially to the least competent Northerners (perhaps so he can look good) - to the detriment of our nation . We can all remember Shagari instead of Awolowo in 1979 and the wasted 3 years under Yar Adua is still fresh in memory . I feel he will attempt to set Jonathan up to be a fall guy of his scheming and double-dealing because that is all that OBJ knows how to do i.e callously sacrifice others for his own motives .

100% Agreed with you.

Gbawe:
Indeed. I for one hopes that Jonathan succeeds so that zoning of the Presidency is abolished once and for all. It is a crude political contraption that is moving Nigeria backwards. We simply need a system within which the best leaders are allowed to emerge through a transparent process . I would prefer Duke but , realistically and without the power of incumbency, he cannot win. Jonathan won't find it easy , and he might even fail, but he is the only non-Northerner who can win the 2011 Presidential election because of his current position.

I would hope that Jonathan would be extremely wary of OBJ. OBJ has now stated that Jonathan "must run" as if our current President is his anointed candidate. This brings back memories of how this treacherous old man fooled virtually all Nigerians into thinking that Odili was his man , back in 2006, and that there was no zoning formula in place. Odili actually believed OBJ and thus plunged himself into a massively expensive and laborious campaign for the Presidency that was totally unnecessary and ultimately futile .

In the end OBJ , in recognition of his deal to return power to the North, coolly brushed Odili, Duke et al aside to produce lacklustre  Yar Adua !!!! OBJ has a penchant for handing over to the North - especially to the least competent Northerners (perhaps so he can look good)  -  to the detriment of our nation . We can all remember Shagari instead of Awolowo in 1979 and the wasted 3 years under Yar Adua is still fresh in memory . I feel he will attempt to set Jonathan up to be a fall guy of his scheming and double-dealing because that is all that OBJ knows how to do i.e callously sacrifice others for his own motives .

Someone shares my view of OBJ!

OBJ is all about saving his own hide. If the northerners go after him now, he would drop Jonathan like hot potato.

Well we can all quote OBJ for saying this and if he does beg for the north for leniency, he will be "persona non grata" in the South.

According to findings, prominent northerners serving in the government of President Jonathan may be given an ultimatum to resign their positions if eventually Jonathan decides to contest the 2011 presidential poll.

Amen o. This will be a natural fulfilment of Maj Gideon Orkar's wish.

Born to rule

One11:
So let me get this straight, You complain that you don't want jonathan to run in 2011 so that won't become president again believing that the you (the north) will be short-changed and be marginalized. However, to come up with a plan to pull prominent northerners in the federal government to RESIGN?!!!! Wow they really are dumb up there smh,  If you pull your people out then that's just making room for more Yorubas,Igbos, Edos, and other southerners to join the federal government and "oppress" you(northerners) even more!

These guys are complete geniuses (fool really). This will lead to the country breaking up and everybody living peacefully without them   

No, don't go there. If the prominent northerners resign, the non prominent northerners will be appointed to taste what they have been missing. Your guess is as good as mine. Th north will be in war.