By Henry Umoru, Abuja
Strong indications emerged weekend that former minister of finance, Mallam Adamu Ciroma, may have concluded arrangements to meet with the presidential flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, President Goodluck Jonathan as a way of moving the nation forward politically.

Sunday Vanguard gathered that the Ciroma–led  Northern  Political  Leaders  Forum (NPLF), under whose platform former Vice President Atiku Abubakar emerged as the consensus candidate before he was defeated at the January 13 special national convention of the PDP, is prepared to brainstorm with Jonathan in the national interest and love for Nigeria.

This development is coming days after Atiku declared that he was prepared for dialogue with the PDP and Jonathan.

It was also gathered that as members of the PDP, the NPLF believes that, after its inability to actualize its desire of producing the flag bearer for the party ahead of the April general elections, it became imperative to agree with the theory of dialogue to promote the nation’s democracy.

The system, which produced Atiku, is coming up with peace moves when the former vice president said he would not congratulate Jonathan under duress, even as  he was yet  to  congratulate  the winner at the January PDP presidential primary.

It was also gathered that the group’s struggle before the primary was, among others, to entrench democratic culture and should not be mistaken for personal fight against Jonathan and his camp.  What  the group stood for transcends personalities and was anchored on strengthening justice, democracy, rule of law, fair play, national unity and respectable political culture.

A source, who noted that  the move by the group centered around patriotism and national interest, stressed that the decision to open up discussions with the president was made after wide consultations with members of the NPLF,  even as the source said that  members  of  the  group have agreed to the meeting.

According to the source, “Dialogue and reconciliation are ingredients of democracy and we were prepared to break the ice in the interest of our party and the country. It was not about us as a group, but about the pursuit of a common good.

“We did not choose this option out of weakness, but rather, out of deep conviction that survival of our collective being should be uppermost in the minds of genuine leaders.

“The truth cannot be consigned to irrelevance and oblivion by those who do not want to confront it.”