Updated: President Jonathan declares interest to run in 2011
By NigeriaPlus May 12, 2010
234NEXT reports that Goodluck Jonathan has declared his interest to run for the 2011 presidential elections.
Cairo Ojougboh, the president’s special Adviser on National Assembly Matters, made the revelation on Wednesday while briefing journalists in Abuja.
“Mr President is a PDP president and he is a member of PDP, and Mr President will run under the PDP,” Mr Ojougboh said.
He, however, added that despite the zoning policy of the party, President Jonathan will run and they are certain he will win.
“There is no moral justification to ask Jonathan not to run,” he said.
The news comes as a surprise to Nigerians. The surprise is not the fact that the President is going to context next years elections. Rather it is the fact that Nigerians were expecting the president to make an announcement, formally nominating a Vice President.
There had been speculation in several quarters that whoever got nominated as Vice President would become the presidential flag bearer for the ruling PDP, come next year, based on the party’s rotational formula.
Sources at Aso Rock have informed NigeriaPlus that President Goodluck Jonathan may have been compelled to declare his ambition prior to the vice presidential announcement, so as to avoid any ambiguities arising from such speculation.
UPDATE:
Several hours after the above annoucement, Mr Cairo Ojougboh retracted his initial pronouncement in a follow-up release, saying that he was speaking in his personal capacity but not on behalf of the president.
As much as these contradictory statements may seem confusing to the average Nigerian, NigeriaPlus gathers that the end purpose of the original announcement has been achieved.
In the coming days, opinion writers, bloggers and the generality of Nigerians would begin to air their views on a “formally announced” Goodluck Jonathan candidacy. Not only has the political atmosphere been cunningly tested, the original announcement further serves as a subtle warning to the Vice President-to-be, not to be over-ambitious.
NigeriaPlus gathers that the President may have decided to bow to pressure from some political groups to depart from his original choice of a Vice President. Not knowing the extent of the loyalty of the new choice may have informed this ridiculous series of events.
via NEXT. Additional Reporting by NigeriaPlus
