BY DANIEL IDONOR
SOKOTO – THE Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, yesterday, said that political leaders should be elected based on their capacity to deliver the dividends of democracy, rather than ethnic and religious sentiments even as former President Shehu Shagari expressed optimism that President Goodluck Jonathan would emerge victorious in next month’s presidential election.

Speaking when he received President Goodluck Jonathan in his palace in Sokoto, the Sultan decried the regular resort to sentiment as an instrument of electioneering.

He said: “No politician can win elections with Muslim or Christian, Northern or Southern votes alone. Therefore, voting on ethnic or other sentimental divides cannot help us as a nation. We must vote for the person who we believe can move the country forward, not based on his religion or ethnic background.”

The Sultan who welcomed President Jonathan as “a son of the caliphate,” said that through word and deed, the President has shown love and respect for the caliphate, and therefore he was part and parcel of the people.

He said: “Welcome home our son the President. You have taken us as your parents, your brothers and your sisters. This is your home and you will always be welcome here.”

Speaking earlier, President Jonathan thanked the Sultan for standing by him right from his days as Vice President, noting: “You have always taken me as one of your own, and for this I am very grateful.”

The President told the Sultan that the Goodluck/Sambo ticket stands for the unity and total transformation of Nigeria.

He said: “You would have noticed that the fuel queues have disappeared. We are gradually stabilising power, we are encouraging mechanised farming, opening up new rail networks. We are re_jigging almajiri education so that we can properly expose the children to modern trends without compromising their cultures and traditions.”

Meanwhile, former President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, has said that President Goodluck Jonathan will win next month presidential election because he has worked so hard for it.

While urging Nigerian youth to be prepared for the onerous task of leading the country out of current socio_economic woes, the elder statesmen said there is no place for the old breed in today’s Nigerian politics.

He called on the old brigade to allow younger Nigerians who are full of energy to take over the leadership of
the country.

The former leader who spoke when he received, in audience, President Goodluck Jonathan in his private house expressed delight that as politicians like him were getting old, “a younger one like Jonathan has emerged to take up the onerous task of leading the country”.

He said: “I’m getting old and I don’t think I can join any political party for active politicking now, but I’m happy that you (Jonathan) have emerged to undertake the onerous task of leading this country. I believe you will succeed, having worked so hard.”

Shagari whose second term in office was truncated by a military coup led by the presidential candidate of the Congress Party for Change, CPC, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) said President Jonathan was a product of the age_long political alliance between the North and the South-South.

The former President said the emergence of Jonathan as President has its root in the long political friendship that had existed between the North and the old Rivers state in particular and Niger Delta region in general.

He said that even before the nation’s independence in 1960, when the Northern Peoples Congress, NPC, was looking for an alliance with Southern region to strengthen the nation, it was politicians from the Niger Delta that volunteered to form coalition with the party.

Shagari said: “Even after the independence, people from the Niger Delta remained faithful to the friendship bond that had developed over the years. The North will remain proud of such a long political friendship with the people of the Niger Delta.”

He assured President Jonathan that he would not regret his decision to particularly pay him a personal visit on his way out of Sokoto after addressing the Presidential campaign rally at the Sokoto township stadium.
Earlier, President Jonathan had expressed his gratitude to Shagari for the invaluable advice he gave him even at the time he was Acting President, saying that “we want to follow your foot_step of building a united, peaceful and economically stable nation.”

The President said that his aim is to create jobs for the growing number of youths, re_invigorate the economy, strengthen the security and positively touch the lives of Nigerians.