North, Igbo leaders strategise for 2015

* Nobody gets power on a platter of gold – Anya

BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE

EVEN before President Goodluck Jonathan’s four year term is consummated, underground moves and counter-moves for 2015 have started. President Jonathan has the constitutional right to go for two terms if the electorate so wished but the 2015 underground currents are flowing on the premise that the President would do a term and quit given the controversies that hallmarked his emergence as well as his said promise to do four years and leave the stage.

But for the death of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the President, who deputised for Yar’Adua would not have been president now, at least not on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which zoned the seat to the North. It was on this score that a section of the North opposed Jonathan’s election. In the thick of the electioneering, leading presidential aspirants and candidates pledged to do a term if elected, and the President spoke in like manner.

With President Jonathan expected to leave in 2015, the South-East and North have kicked off moves to produce Jonathan’s successor.

Benue indigenes root for Mark
It is on this score that some leaders of Benue South Senatorial District and supporters of Senate President David Mark, have begun campaigning for Mark ahead of 2015.

By then, Mark would have done eight years as Senate President and would be one of the best qualified northerners to mount the Aso Rock power saddle.

Disturbed by the campaigns, Mark has cautioned his supporters and leaders of the Benue South Senatorial district against campaigning for him in the 2015 presidency, warning that it was morally wrong for anyone to embark on such a campaign for him when he did not commission anyone to do so.

Speaking in Otukpo at a special luncheon he organised at the weekend to express his gratitude to the people of Benue South District for electing him back to the Senate, Mark asked Idoma leaders to support him to complete his second term as Senate president, rather than expend energy on presidential campaigns.

Igbo leaders strategise for 2015
Relatedly, Igbo leaders are not left. This is coming as former Chairman of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG), Professor Anya O Anya said the only way the South-East could get power was by going for it and not waiting to be handed power on a platter of gold or on the basis of zoning.

Indeed, despite getting the positions of Secretary to the Government of the Federation, occupied by Senator Anyim Pius Anyim and offices of the Deputy Senate President (Ike Ekweremadu) and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives (Ihedioha), Igbo leaders have not lost sight on producing the next president after Jonathan.

So, they are are tasking Igbo appointees holding these offices including  the office of the South-East Governors’ Forum, under the chairmanship of Mr. Peter Obi and the Ambassador Raph Uwechue-led Ohanaeze Ndigbo, as well as other political office holders in Igbo land, to position Ndigbo for 2015 and beyond.

“With its current position in the present administration, the south-east has something to cheer. But there is need to intensify efforts to ensure that more equitable positions due to the zone are secured in the allotment of ministerial portfolios,” an Igbo leader said.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo in its statement of October 15 2010 urging support for Jonathan was specific on the issue of the presidency coming to the South-East after the South-South “Ohanaeze Ndigbo firmly believes in the reality and absolute equality of the six zones and holds the view that the topmost executive office in the land – Prime Minister or President, which has eluded the two geo-political zones of the South-South and South-East since the birth of our nation half a century ago, should now go to them in turn in unbroken succession as a matter of national priority, before any other zone can justly claim the right to a second or even third turn.

In line with this position, taken after wide consultation over several months, among Igbo people at home and abroad, Ohanaeze Ndigbo confidently urges the Igbo Nation to support en masse a credible new-generation Presidential candidate that has emerged from the South-South geo-political zone, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan”.

Clearly, support for Jonathan was an end-product of the case for a federal character rotation of the office of the President among the six geo-political zones of our country.

Since Ohanaeze is a pan Igbo organization and is not involved in the internal decisions or programmes of political parties, South-East leaders are making plans to come to a round table to brainstorm and strategise on how to utilise the positions the zone occupies presently.

Today, the South-East has leaders in political offices that were not imposed on them; rather they chose them directly or indirectly. For example, Igbo leader were asked by President Jonathan, to submit names of credible Igbo sons and daughters that would be appointed as SGF.