18th May, 2012
Ahead of the 2015 general elections, governors of 19 northern states under the aegis of Northern Governors Forum, NGF, Thursday in Kaduna agreed to unite against candidates from the south in order to produce a president from their own region.
Speaking at the opening session of their quarterly meeting held in Kaduna, northwest Nigeria, Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum and Niger State Governor, Babangida Aliyu said the governors this time will not allow what happened in 2011 to repeat itself in 2015.
“We must be united more than ever to go into the 2015 elections as one entity with the aim of producing the president,” Aliyu said.
He advised all governors and politicians within the region to remain focused and pursue issues of development rather than trivial issues that have led to the retrogression of the region in recent years.
Sources told P.M.NEWS that the governors are unhappy that President Goodluck Jonathan wants to vie for a second term in 2015.
P.M.NEWS also learnt that the northern governors have set up a political machinery to resist any form of inducement to cajole the north to accept not only President Jonathan but also any other candidate from the south for the 2015 race.
The resolve to be united and produce a president from the north in 2015 is not unconnected with the argument earlier put forward by some northern PDP members that the north was shortchanged by Jonathan’s election into office in 2011 as president against the so-called “Gentleman’s agreement for power rotation”.
The general feeling in the north was that after President Umaru Yar’Adua died on 5 May 2010 and Jonathan became president through constitutional arrangement, he should have respected the zoning principle of his party and quit in 2011 for a northerner to run.
—Femi Adi/Kaduna