Jonathan will run in 2015 – Ciroma
Malam Adamu Ciroma
All the signs are indicating that President Goodluck Jonathan will contest the 2015 election and that he is being supported by former president Olusegun Obasanjo and some northern governors, elder statesman Malam Adamu Ciroma has said.
Ciroma, who served as finance minister under Obasanjo, was the leader of the defunct Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF) which stoutly resisted Jonathan’s moves to run for president last April because it was the turn of the North as enshrined in an agreement signed by leaders of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
Following a heated national debate, the NPLF selected former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the consensus candidate of the North. Atiku went on and contested the ruling party’s presidential primaries with Jonathan.
In an interview aired on the Hausa service of the Voice of America yesterday, Ciroma fingered Obasanjo as the man goading Jonathan to re-contest the presidency in 2015, arguing that his accomplices among northern state governors are in the plot because they owe their being in office to the former president.
The PDP chieftain said that it is not easy for the northerners using Obasanjo to destroy the north to resist the temptation. He said they had also used Obasanjo to acquire top positions from which they have become extremely wealthy.
“Some of them are still appreciating him, and some are doing it because they want him to help them achieve some other things. As a result, everybody is using everybody,” he said.
Ciroma, who said the PDP introduced the zoning formula in order to entrench equity and fair play between the north and the south, lamented that the principle has been jettisoned and, as a result, the polity has become rudderless and heading for the precipice.
The former minister noted that truth and justice are the foundation of governance.
He decried a situation whereby party delegates would be induced with cash in order to rubber-stamp the will of one man.
Ciroma accused Obasanjo of corrupting Nigerian politics, adding that it was the ex-president who started the tendency of buying people’s allegiance, especially when he wanted to secure a third term in office.
According to Ciroma, Obasanjo knows the attitude of the average Nigerian politician is the accumulation of wealth, “so he capitalises on that.”
After Jonathan succeeded President Umaru Yar’Adua following the latter’s death, Obasanjo taught Jonathan how to compromise people with money, Ciroma added.
Ciroma, who holds the traditional title of Galadiman Fika in Yobe state, also alleged that Obasanjo and Jonathan shared the PDP National Executive Committee (NEC) positions between themselves, leaving crumbs for the north at the recently concluded national convention of the party.
On his relationship with Obasanjo, Ciroma said that the former president knows that he would always stand by the truth whatever the circumstance, adding that just as he could not change Obasanjo “from his bad ways,” the former president could also not change him.
While praying for God’s guidance for the nation, Ciroma predicted that a messiah would come and deliver Nigeria from its present predicament.
He cited the case of Hausa land when it was ruled by unjust and ruthless Habe rulers for over 200 years, “and God brought Usman Dan Fodiyo, who did not even seek power, to salvage them.”
Filed Under: Politics News
Ciroma i suggest u go back to Yobe and mind ur bzness intead of coming out to make rubbish coments on national issues, hw ar u tokin of truth and Justice here wen u were ther ther wen Atiku Abubakar vowed 2 make d country ungovernoable 2 who ever wins d primary oda dan him, 2day ther is blood sheddin everywher in d north even in ur home town ther in yobe, yet we ar all nigerians, hw ar u puttin eye on d govt of Jonathan 8months wen d north spend as much as 38yrs wit out anytin to show 4 it, oda dan a country full of terrorism, killings, bombing, hatred, anarchy and all sort of evil tracing its origin frm d north, Ciroma do u luk 4ward 2 c oda messiah oda dan Jonathan, den 4get it, in my own opinion, d north is more beta in d hand of d southerns, and we will kip supporting dem, u pple can no longer decive us again.
Thank God that you now know. It is a shame to hear all these from you. Are you not part of those who ruin Nigeria politics through corruption, avericiousness, greed and egocentrism? Don’t say a word.