By Best Masinire
Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan has commissioned a group of political pundits to begin to counteract former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s reported secret plans to work for the emergence of a Northerner as President in 2015, a source close to the President has said.
The source, who requested to remain anonymous, added that Jonathan’s team is charged with strategising on the best manoeuvres to contain the former Nigerian President, Obasanjo’s moves.
The source also revealed that President Jonathan does not yet have a full understanding of where Obasanjo stands in the crisis tearing apart the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but added that the President has decided not to take chances by ignoring the former president.
The Northern members of the team set up by the president have been mandated to lead the first stage of Mr. Jonathan’s campaigns and consultations across the entire Northern states.
“Some of the President’s pundits have swung into action in the ‘core’ Northern states of Sokoto, Kano, Jigawa, Zamfara, Kebbi, Katsina and northern Kaduna,” our source disclosed.
He added that Jerry Gana, Jonathan Silas Zwingina, Abdulkadir Kure, and Isaiah Balat were among those assigned to run the early stages of the president’s campaign in the Middle Belt. “Another group led by Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and Barrister Ahmed Gulak is working on the same mission in the North-East axis,” he said.
The source also revealed that a key strategy of the President’s group is to seek the support of top Islamic and Christian clerics in the North.
The well-funded Presidential group is offering millions of naira to selected clerics in return for their political sympathy for Mr. Jonathan’s re-election campaign.
Our source stated that President Jonathan has decided not to remain passive about Obasanjo’s antics.
“Mr. President is aware of Chief Obasanjo’s previous antecedents. Look at Mr. Obasanjo’s close relationship with the arrowheads of the rebellion in the PDP.
“He is the one who made Sule Lamido, Aliyu Babangida of Niger and Wammako of Sokoto. It’s the same thing with Nyako in Adamawa State,”said the source.
Added the source:“We gathered that Obasanjo is having serious problems with the IBB [Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida] and Abdulsalami circle that made it possible for him to be president in 1999.
“And we know that Chief Obasanjo wants to settle the Umaru Yar’Adua saga that led to the emergence of Jonathan. He thinks it is best to help install a Northern President in 2015.”
“And he is also not happy with Jonathan’s style and some power blocks influencing the President.”
Comments
About Author
