* Tinubu
By Pathfinder Reporter
Saturday August 24, 2024
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As the anti-Bola Ahmed Tinubu campaign begins in the North for the 2027 general election championed by a political group identified as “Let Nigeria Breathe Again”, a joint ticket of former President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Ahmadu Fintiri ticket has been proposed by the group.
The group’s leader, Mustapha Aliyu Lere, believes this pairing offers the best chance for unity, peace, and progress in Nigeria.
Lere praised Jonathan’s leadership and integrity, noting that he has committed no sins against anyone since leaving office in 2015.
He also commended Fintiri’s transformation of Adamawa State during his five-year tenure as governor.
He appealed to the PDP to unite and support Jonathan’s potential candidacy, citing the need for experienced leadership to address Nigeria’s challenges.
However, attention has been drawn to certain sections of the Nigerian Construction 1999 as amended,d which outrightly forbid Goodluck Jonathan from seeking re-election.
Accordingly, Jonathan, who ran for a second term in 2015 and lost to Buhari, is not qualified to run courtesy of the 2018 Bill of the National Assembly signed into law by President Buhari.
The bill, which limits the tenures of vice presidents, and deputy governors who succeed principals, was signed into law on June 8, 2018.
Specifically, the Constitution Amendment Act Number 1 provides that a vice president or a deputy governor who succeeds and completes the tenure of a president or governor can only run for office one more time.
By the provisions of the law, no one can take the oath of office as president or governor more than twice.
Before this amendment, vice presidents or deputy governors, after completion of their predecessors’ term could run for office for another two terms.
This was the case with former President Jonathan, who succeeded President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2010, contested and won the presidential election in 2011, and still contested the same office in 2015.
The new law prohibits this, he. Hence, Jonathan is not eligible to run as president in 2027.
* Why North doesn’t want Tinubu re-elected
Although Tinubu played a critical role in the emergence of President Buhari in 2015, northerners opposed to Tinubu said he had betrayed the North that helped him to power.
They also accused him of mal-treating northern politicians on whose support Tinubu rode to power.
Several northern political figures and groups have expressed dissatisfaction with Tinubu’s administration, citing a range of issues from perceived neglect of northern interests to concerns about governance and security. They also pick holes in his appointments, which they described as sectional.
According to them, since independence, no ethnic group had held, at once, major slots like the President, Petroleum Minister, Finance Minister, Chief Justice of Nigeria, Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Inspector General of Police, Chief of Army Staff, Interior Minister, Power Minister, Solid Minerals Minister, Transport and Marine/Blue Economy Minister, Attorney General of the Federation and Justice Minister, Controllers of Customs, and Immigration, and Chairman of Federal Internal Revenue Service, FIRS, among others. Today, they said under Tinubu, the Yoruba, one of Nigeria’s three major ethnic groups, is holding the above positions.
One of those leading the move against Tinubu’s re-election is a prominent northern socio-cultural and political group, the Northern Elders’ Forum.
A member of the group, Prof. Usman Yusuf, reportedly said the North regretted supporting Tinubu during the 2023 general poll. He described the past year of Tinubu’s administration as “deception, destitution, and hopelessness.”
He lamented: “People have lost hope. It pains me to see our people lining up to collect cups of palliatives. Renewed Hope has turned into hopelessness. People have lost hope.”
The NEF Spokesman, Abdulaziz Sulaiman, also reportedly said the North made a mistake by supporting Tinubu in 2023, adding that they would not repeat the mistake in 2027 but would strive to select a candidate who would unite the country and govern in the best interests of all Nigerians.
In like manner, the North-East Governors’ Forum accused the Tinubu-led Federal Government of neglecting the region in the provision of capital projects.
The forum’s Chairman and Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, complained of blackout in the zone and alleged that road and rail connections between the South-East and North-East had been abandoned.
Considered the electoral power bank of Nigeria, it is difficult to beat a United North in political contests in the country. The leaders are aware of this hence the ongoing realignments.
The perceived northern gang-up against Tinubu came to the fore after the meeting of the immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir el-Rufai and the candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party in last year’s presidential election, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso; and the visit of the former governor of Sokoto state and a serving senator, Aminu Tambuwal, led by a former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, to former President Buhari in his Daura country home in Katsina State.
Although, Atiku said he visited Buhari to pay him Sallah homage, analysts insist that the visits were connected with posturing for 2027.
Although, el-Rufai, who could not make it through the Senate as TInubu’s ministerial nominee, has not openly declared war against Tinubu’s government, his son, Bashir, in a message to Tinubu, said: “Nobody is too big to be voted out of office by the people. It will happen and wallahi, nothing will happen. So, forget all this intimidation flying up and down. Let us be patient.
* Niger-Delta agitators urge Southerner solidarity
Meanwhile, the Niger Delta Ex-Agitators Forum has kicked against the northern gang-up against Tinubu and called for solidarity among southern political leaders to demand justice, and equity and end the marginalization of southern politicians in governance affairs.
Addressing a press conference in Port Harcourt, the Chairman of the group, Ambassador Alban Paulinus, also known as General Skillar, said that Niger Deltans must come together to deal with the issues threatening the political stability and unity of Nigeria.
Going down memory lane, the ex-agitators noted that the tenure of former President Jonathan was also characterized by injustice, which led to his being denied a second term.
”A similar pattern is emerging with President Tinubu, as some Northern groups are already calling for his removal barely a year into his administration,” the group said.
It observed: “This starkly contrasts with the attitude of northern leaders during the administration of former President Buhari, who served two full terms despite significant security challenges.
The forum decried this disparity as a destabilizing force and called for an immediate end to this trend of undermining Southern leadership, warning that continued provocations might leave them with no choice but to take decisive actions to protect their region and identity.
The Niger Delta Ex-Agitators expressed support for President Tinubu’s “Renewed Hope Agenda,” which they described as a robust blueprint for national development.
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