President Goodluck Jonathan is set to run as the sole candidate of the
ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at its November 2014 presidential
primary. Reason: the national leadership of the party has secretly
agreed
to allow the president take the presidential ticket without any
opposition from within. By implication, the deal on the much-touted
automatic ticket for President Jonathan has been sealed.
Regardless of the automatic ticket deal already struck in favour of
Jonathan, the leadership of the PDP will not entrench it in the
constitution of the party “in order to avoid needless crisis in the future”, LEADERSHIP was told in confidence.
According to an impeccable source, a member of the PDP Board of Trustees
(BoT), the decision to give President Jonathan the “right of first
refusal” became necessary for two reasons: the need to avoid bickering
and deepen internal party democracy and the absence of any serious
presidential aspirant in the party.
Nonetheless, the source was ambivalent on whether or not same gesture
would be extended to PDP governors serving their first terms.
“You
can see how interesting the
entire political landscape is looking now; in the APC, there is turmoil
over Muslim-Muslim ticket; they cannot agree to conduct peaceful ward
congresses; yet, their target has always been the PDP and the
Presidency.
“As a party, the APC lacks all democratic norms but it is the PDP they
always abuse even at odd times without reasons. What you have seen in
the APC is just a tip of the iceberg; that party will soon erupt
in flames,
and that is why I pity those PDP governors who abandoned their party to
join them, thinking that there will be room enough for them.
“All those who said they were leaving the party because PDP was planning
to impose Jonathan and Sambo with the belief that they would either be
presidential candidates or running mates to someone have all been
disappointed now; they have seen that, unlike the PDP, APC has landlords
and tenants.”
Asked if it was democratic for the party to contemplate automatic ticket
for Jonathan, the PDP chieftain said it was nothing new in democracy:
“It is not a new thing in democracy; every democracy has its own
peculiarities. In any case, if the governors left because of that, what
is worse between having a Muslim-Muslim ticket without any democratic
process
and one which is implemented through the rules?
“In our own case, yes, we have been alleged to be planning to impose
Jonathan but we shall follow very enviable democratic principles to have
him as our candidate; for the first time, Nigerians will witness
respect for party rules and institutions because we have to deepen
democracy.
“It is annoying and very distracting for a sitting president to go
through the rigours of party nomination when in actual fact he is
entitled to another term in office. The best thing to do is to allow him
move on and that exactly is what the leadership of the party has
already agreed to do for President Jonathan come October or November
this year. I can bet you that he would be the sole candidate of the PDP
at the primary.”
On the governors, he said, “What is of paramount interest is what I have told you.”
LEADERSHIP gathered that, at a meeting of party stalwarts at the presidential villa sometime in March this year, it was agreed that the last National Executive Committee (NEC) before the presidential primary will endorse the president for another term.
However, in order to avoid legal complications, even though President
Jonathan would stand as the sole candidate, delegates would have to vote
to ratify the NEC’s decision.
PDP’s national publicity secretary Olisa Metuh was circumspect in his
reaction to the issue. “The party will follow its constitution to the
letter; anything outside the constitution will not be done and once you
lay hands on our constitution, the provisions are clear and
unambiguous,” Metuh said on telephone.
Automatic ticket, a must – Group
Meanwhile, a pseudo campaign group, National Coalition for
Jonathan/Sambo Presidency (NCFJSP), has demanded automatic ticket for
President Jonathan.
Presenting the group’s position to the national secretary of the PDP,
Professor Wale Oladipo, the national secretary of the Coalition for
Jonathan/Sambo Presidency, Dr Benjamin Irikefe, said the group was
impressed with the achievements of the Jonathan administration.
The group called on the PDP Board of Trustees and the National Executive
Committee (NEC) to convene separate emergency meetings of the two
organs and pass resolutions adopting the incumbent president as its
candidate for 2015.
“Our irrevocable decision to call on the leadership of the PDP to grant
this automatic ticket to Mr President is also premised on the fact that
we genuinely believe, and the records are conspicuously there for all to
see, that there is no alternative to President Jonathan till 2015. He
has the proven capacity and track records to prevent Nigeria from chaos,
disintegration and monumental ruins,” it said.
National secretary of the ruling party Professor Wale Oladipo, who
received the delegation on behalf of the national chairman of the party,
Adamu Mu’azu, assured them that the party would do the needful.
“I thank you for the support for the leader of the party, Dr Goodluck
Jonathan. Your message is very clear and we shall communicate to the PDP
Board of Trustees and all other organs of the party. We believe in
rule of law and we will be guided by two things: the Nigerian Constitution and the PDP Constitution,” he stated.
It was unclear whether the push for automatic ticket for President
Jonathan through various campaign bodies was a strategy being adopted by
initiators of the move to pressurise the leadership of the party to
fall in line.
Only a few weeks ago, former governor of Zamfara State and board
chairman of the National Coalition for Jonathan and Sambo Presidency,
Alhaji Aliyu Mamuda Shinkafi, told those vying to unseat President
Jonathan in 2015 to forget it as there was no vacancy in the nation’s
seat of power until 2019.
Shinkafi made the statement in Abuja at the inaugural ceremony of the
zonal executive councils and state chairman of the association.
PDP BoT chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, had last year canvassed the idea of
an automatic ticket for the president and first-term governors on the
party’s platform. (AJETUN)
