As President Goodluck Jonathan declares his intention to run for second term in 2015, leaders of the North, under the auspices of the Northern Elders Forum, have expressed their decision to support any presidential candidate presented by the All Progressives Congress in the 2015 election. They expressed their grievances with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party over the automatic ticket issued to President Goodluck Jonathan to seek a second term in the election. This, the elders said, had prevented aspirants from the North from contesting on the platform of the party. The national leadership of the PDP, including the Board of Trustees, the National Executive Council and the National Working Committee, had unanimously adopted Jonathan as the consensus presidential candidate of the party. In separate interviews with our correspondent on Friday, the Deputy Chairman of the NEF, Dr. Paul Unongo and spokesperson of the forum, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, stated that despite Jonathan’s power of incumbency and the deployment of state resources at his disposal, he would not win the election if the region voted against him. He said, “Our position has not changed. We don’t mind him contesting, but we are not going to work for him to become president of this country again because we don’t believe that we have had any president that has been so divisive; that has heightened religious tendencies, hatred, ethnic militancy, high rate of impunity and a tremendous amount of insensitivity. “The majority of northerners and the majority of Nigerians will decide for us and for the APC. We are not into party politics, but the APC has shown respect and deference to the North by allowing the North to produce its (presidential) candidate. But the PDP shut the door, saying there is nobody else but Jonathan; that he is the best for Nigeria. That is a lie.
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