ELECTION:Jonathan Keeps Everyone Guessing

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has not showed interest  to contest the next presidential elections. Chief Dikivie Ikiogha, a political associate of the former president, made the remark recently in an interview, the Bayelsa State capital. He said it is powerful Nigerians that has been mounting pressure on him to run.

Ikiogha, one of the coordinators of “Southsouth Presidency 2023”, a bi-partisan group canvassing for a Southsouth presidency in 2023 said those seeking to draft Jonathan into the race are doing so, because he is the best suited for the job. The chieftain of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) admitted that some stakeholders visited the former president in his residence to sell the idea of contesting the presidency again to him.

He said: “We visited him to sell our idea to him about what we stand for at the South-south Presidency 2023, our aims and objectives, our mission and that we are prepared to support a candidate from the South-south. We did not go there to persuade him; we did not go there as members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) or the PDP. We were there to convince him on why the South-south should be given a chance to complete its tenure.

“We placed the matter before Jonathan and even told him specifically that when the acclaimed winner of June 12, 1993 election, Moshood Abiola died, if the Southwest had kept quiet, they would not have got a replacement through the Interim National Government headed by Ernest Shonekan. Also, the North would not have had a chance in 2015, if stakeholders had kept quiet when Umaru Yar’Adua died.

“In Nigeria, you don’t keep quiet to get things done. That is why it is necessary we do what we are doing and we pray that every zone, the North-central, the Northeast and the Northwest, as well as the South-south, the Southwest and the Southeast, all have people to contest. It is on that opinion that he agreed with us.

“At the appropriate time, when we move around all these people, then we will see what would happen. In his own case, we are not telling him that he would spend four years. But, he is constitutionally bound to spend only four years. We have been telling other people that if they are coming in, it is four years because we don’t want to create problems in this country. If you can actualise what is in your mind for four years, step in, but if you can’t, step out. We will support anybody who agrees to spend four years.

“We have met him and he said it was a good idea because every zone has people to lead the country. However, he did not say he accepted and that he wanted to contest. Anyway, he wouldn’t have told us that. Even if he is not willing to contest, the people will call on him to come out. We have been having a lot of calls from the North. It is now I know that Jonathan is a hot cake in Nigeria.”

Ikiogha, a former Chief of Staff, Bayelsa State Government House, said Jonathan’s alleged bid to return to Aso Rock, the seat of power, is still a matter of speculation. His words: “Has anybody declared in this country? Nobody has declared. Until they declare, we will know that they are contesting the election. Otherwise, we know the whole thing is speculation.

“When a politician is sharing rice to orphanages, people will say because he wants to contest. Therefore, until we hear them declare that they are contesting, we know it is a serious business. But, nobody has declared yet.”

On the bid by Jonathan’s associates to draft him into the 2023 race, Ikiogha said anyone who has good intentions for the country has the right to search for a good person to contest. He said, it is against this background that many groups are seeking to convince the former president to join the race, “because it is believed that he is the best person to contest the election today”.

He added: “If we are looking at the reality, Jonathan is the person that can bring peace, stability and unity to the system. Some persons are threatening to tear the country apart, but he is the only person that is most acceptable today.

“Again, Jonathan has only one term left. After that, the country can be stable and united, so that the normal politics can flow. Otherwise, anywhere you go and pick somebody now, that wound is not healed. If it is not healed, anything that we put there is an explosion, it is pregnant and anything can come out.

“So, today, in this country, through analysis and if we love Nigeria, then we should look towards that. But the question remains; is the man (Jonathan) willing? That is the thing because he has just come out to say he wants to contest.

“And implementing them will solve the problems of the Southwest, Southeast and the Middle Belt, among others, and he will also bring unity which is the idea of the North. They don’t want the various regions to go their separate ways; they want all of us to stay together.”

Credit: The Nations