Emerging reports suggest that the Presidency is very optimistic that should President Goodluck Jonathan decide to run for a second term in 2015, no individual or group can stop him from doing so.
This was the view expressed on Saturday in Abuja, by Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Barrister Ahmed Ali Gulak, who said the constitutional right of President Jonathan to contest the 2015 presidential election is non-negotiable.
He stressed that Jonathan would perform better in the North than in the 2011 elections, if he decided to run in 2015 and that all stakeholders, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, have no choice other than to support Jonathan for a second term in office.
On the Obasanjo factor, Gulak said, “Nobody is God, nobody should play God, no one is indispensable. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, no doubt, is a well-respected leader who has played his part in developing the nation; he is a well-respected man who is like a father. But the truth is that just as people say he is a benefactor of the president, others have been his benefactors, too.
“You know you come you go. When your time comes and goes, so be it; only he cannot pick a leader for this nation because Nigerians have not conferred on him the right to pick their leaders for them. This is more so when Nigerians are right-thinking people whose brains work. So, when people continue to express certain views as if the president and the former leader are at war to the extent that such can affect his chances of returning for a second term should he decide, it baffles me.
“There is no war at all, and in fact, there are many individuals who can play roles, not a single person making it work. There is no doubt the former president has influence, but it is limited to a certain level. The truth is that as a member of the PDP, as a former president under the party, as a former chairman of the party’s BoT, and as a member of the same body, former President Olusegun Obasanjo will eventually have no choice than to support a second term should Mr. President decide to run both before the primary and after the primary.”
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