By Taye Obateru, Ben Agande, Abdulsalam Muhammad, Ndahi Marama & Adetola Adeniyi

ABUJA—IT was another day of intense debate for and against whether President Goodluck Jonathan should contest in next year’s Presidential polls.

This time, however, the discordant tunes came mainly from the northern part of the country.

While some pro-zoning elements within the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, were wooing governors that had not made their positions on the subject known to join their camp, elder statesman, Chief Solomon Lar, warned that the attitude and utterances of some northern leaders on the issue of zoning portended danger for the unity of the country.

He described the insistence that the next President should come from the North as an abuse of the zoning arrangement.

Also, Chairman, Kano chapter of the PDP, Alhaji Farouk Iya, declared that President Goodluck Jonathan did not require amending the constitution of his party to contest the 2011 poll.

To complete the circle, a youth group under the aegis of Arewa Youths Development Foundation, AYDF, proposed a 10, 000 man_march in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, in outright condemnation and protest of the recent alleged endorsement of the perceived ambition of  President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2011 presidential race by the state governor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff.

Pro-zoning northerners woo govs

Northern political leaders across the political divide who are in support of the retention of the zoning arrangement by the PDP have begun the lobbying of northern governors to support zoning or lose support of the grassroots in the next general elections.

Vanguard learnt yesterday in Abuja that the strategies being considered would be fine tuned at a meeting of the Northern Political Leaders Forum to be held in Abuja next week.

A member of the PDP who is a staunch supporter of the party’s zoning arrangement said that no effort would be spared by both the northern political establishment and other political leaders to ensure that “we are not short-changed by the emerging scenario in the country which is being orchestrated by some political leaders from the South for their selfish gains.”

The member who craved anonymity because the strategy was being closely guarded and he would not want to be seen to be revealing it ‘prematurely’ said: “All known northern media of communication would be deployed to robustly sensitize the northern masses to ensure that any governor who is not interested in protecting the northern interest bears the consequences of his actions.

“Our job has been made easier by the actions of former President Olusegun Obasanjo who systematically tried to cripple the North politically and economically.

While we are not concerned about the person of President Goodluck Jonathan, it is imperative that we collectively reposition the North before the 2015 elections so that we would have the bargaining power in the interest of our region. If we allow the South to go away with the presidency next year, then we would have mortgaged the interest of the North for a long time to come.”

Vanguard gathered that one of the strategies being adopted by the northern leaders was to down play the issue of the differences between the Middle Belt and the core North so as to give every northerner a sense of belonging that ‘the interest of one is the interest of all.

Some of the governors being targeted for this campaign are Gabriel Suswam of Benue, Jonah Jang of Plateau; Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna and the Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Wamako Batagarawa.

Lar carpets some northern leaders

Elder statesman, Chief Solomon Lar, meantime has warned that the attitude and utterances of some northern leaders on the issue of zoning portended danger for the unity of the country. He described the insistence that the next president should come from the North as an abuse of the zoning arrangement.

Lar who was the National Chairman of the PDP that introduced zoning said in a statement in Jos, Tuesday, that the way some people were going about the issue was portraying the North as sectional and parochial.

He urged political leaders to “make statements that will build, promote national unity and integration and not provocative statements that would threaten the sovereignty of this great and promising nation.”

While commending the Northern Governors’ Forum for declaring that President Goodluck Jonathan had the constitutional right to contest next year’s election, he said the North must go beyond that and give full support to his electoral victory.

Lar warned those claiming to be speaking for the North that they would be taught bitter lessons by the electorate stressing that the situation that led to the issue of zoning in the first place, should not be glossed over.

He said: “The PDP of today is more rooted in the North than it was in 1999 when some states voted against it during the general elections. Even then the PDP won the election, especially the apex one. As of today, the PDP can boast of total grassroots support in all the northern states so if there are people thinking they can work against the wishes of the people by opposing President Jonathan, the electorate would teach them lessons.

“The doctrine of necessity that brought President Jonathan to power is divine and he must complete the task of political engineering that would take this country to a greater height. It is going to be fruitless for any person or group to say they are speaking for the North by abusing the zoning system.”

Meanwhile, National Coordinator of Jonathan Ebele Goodluck Support Campaign for 2011 Presidential Election, Mr. Ahmed Gulak, has said only the South_South was yet to produce a leader for the country at the highest level.

Making a case for a Jonathan Presidency during a visit to Jos, Gulak said the North which some people were clamouring should produce the next president under the zoning arrangement had produced many presidents for the country.

Jonathan unstoppable, says Kano PDP chair

Chairman, Kano chapter of the PDP, Alhaji Farouk Iya, in his contribution to the debate declared that President Goodluck Jonathan did not require the amendment of his party’s constitution to contest the 2011 poll.

IBB and other proponents of zoning were quoted in a recent media chat as saying that President Jonathan could contest subject to the amendment of PDP constitution

Farouk Iya, however, told newsmen that “the supremacy of the federal constitution nullifies any set of arrangement outside it that denies a citizen his constitutional right.”

Iya, a renowned constitutional lawyer faulted the argument of the proponents of zoning in PDP saying “they are simply ignorant of the Nigerian Constitution.”

He said: “As it stands now, President Goodluck Jonathan is at an advantage and he does not require the amendment of his party’s constitution to contest the 2011 because the federal constitution has given him that right.”

The PDP chairman noted that the presidential race was still not open for now as President Jonathan was yet to declare his intention to contest, adding, however, that Kano would line up behind whoever clinched the sole ticket in PDP.

AYDF plans 10,000 man-march

A youth group under the aegis of Arewa Youths Development Foundation, AYDF, yesterday, proposed a 10, 000 man_march in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital to protest of the recent alleged endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2011 ambition by the Borno State Governor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff.

The group which stormed Maiduguri with anti_Jonathan posters insisted that it was the turn of the North to produce the next president as it was agreed in the PDP’s constitution since 1999.  He said the presidency should be rotated between the North and the South even as they said Borno State governor who allegedly voted against zoning during the last northern governors’ forum was speaking for himself and not the people of the state.

In a statement signed by the zonal coordinator of AYDF, Abdurrahman Adamu Bulama, the group which pasted anti_Jonathan and Sheriff  posters all over the state capital said: “It is unfortunate that some governors, including the Borno State governor were not in support of northern presidency in 2011. They are prepared to sell the rights, the privilege and the general future of the north in quest of selfish political relevance and the so_called Abuja connection.

“We are not surprised that a governor like Ali Modu Sheriff would be part of those eager to abandon his people so easily, because he has a candidate to impose on the people in 2011, even as he hopes that only a presidential blessing can actualize his plan to impose his candidate on the people. “