22nd October, 2010
The Goodluck/Sambo Presidential Campaign Organisation has asserted that only the Nigerian people will determine the fate of President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2011 elections.
This is in response to assertions by Mallam Adamu Ciroma that the North will stop Jonathan from getting the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP presidential ticket for the 2011 elections or stop him from getting elected into office even if he is able to get the ticket in an interview he granted the Voice of America, VOA.
The former finance minister said President Jonathan should have been ruled out from contesting for the presidential ticket in the first place in accordance with the party’s principle of zoning.
Ciroma added in the interview that the North will do everything possible to stop President Jonathan from running in the 2011 elections.
But the Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organisation in a press release signed by Sully Abu, its Director of Media and Publicity today accused Ciroma of helping to enlarge Nigeria’s ethnic and religious fault lines as he “leads the charge against the legitimate aspiration of President Goodluck Jonathan to seek his party’s nomination to contest the 2011 presidential electionsâ€.
The campaign group which said it has been reluctant to take on the former minister before now because of his position as an “elder statesman†and “a party grandeeâ€Â also said the position of Ciroma on the 2011presidency is at variance with the position of many in the region whom he claimed to be speaking for.
“Indeed, every available indication is that our people are sick to death with the divisive politics of yesterday and those who have been responsible for the country’s under development and regression.
“No one should delude himself that he is speaking for the North or any other part of the country for that matter unless they are willing to go along with the people’s yearning for change, fundamental change.
“The least the people of Nigeria expect from a man of his status is to help build the country and help repair any ethnic and sectional faultlines that may exist.
“But alas, Mallam Adamu Ciroma has taken on a rather divisive role. Insisting that he is speaking for the North he has been playing the politics of division and in a way which would not edify the country’s unity,” Abu said.
—Oluokun Ayorinde/Abuja
