THE core North cannot stop President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 if he decides to seek second term due to four main reasons,the national Vice-President of Ijaw National Congress, Mr Ebieridei Ambaiowei, has said.
The congress, an umbrella body of all Ijaws, recently decided to dialogue with other ethnic associations on the 2015 presidential election, even though the president had not declared interest in seeking a second term in office.
Speaking on recent decision of Ijaw leaders to reach out to other nationalities on 2015 in an interview with the Nigeria Tribune, the Ijaw leader stated that the core North could not be asking for return of power to the north in 2015, as according to him, “Nigeria is a democracy, not a military dictatorship, where a clique takes decision on power transfers.
“The people must decide through the ballot. The era of a clique deciding for the people is over. Nigerians will judge the president by his performance. People should stop living in the past, or else the train will leave them in the station,” he said.
According to him, “the North is losing the argument over 2015 because it overlooks the drastic change in the political landscape of the nation, which now favours records of performance rather than primordial sentiments of ‘power-must-come-to-us.’
“First, we are reaching out widely through consultation on behalf of our son,the president. We are not relying on guns, but dialogue. That was what we did in 2011. We are now reaching out to the Middle Belt, the North East and even the North West, including the Yorubas and the Igbos.
“Two, we have seen records of the president’s performance in key sectors of the economy and when the time of campaign comes,his score sheets will silence the core north and his other critics. The president is not discriminating against any section of the country in term of implementation of governments projects. If they were the one,we know what they would do.”
“Three,the north has failed its own people by refusing to support amendment of the constitution for true federalism. You cannot cling to my resources and still claim that I cannot seek second term in office as prescribed by the constitution,” the jaw leader said.
