AS President Goodluck Jonathan gathers his campaign team for the 2011 presidential poll, former vice-president, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, last Thursday, met with the president in Abuja and informed him of his bid to also contest the forthcoming poll.
Sources, who spoke to the Nigerian Tribune on condition of anonymity, said the parley took place at the Presidential Villa, noting that it was part of the consultations that the former vice-president had been engaged in to launch his presidential ambition.
Abubakar, who contested the 2007 presidential poll on the ticket of the Action Congress (AC), the party he joined from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but lost to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, was said to have met President Jonathan on his ambition as leader of the party.
The president, after listening to Atiku on his resolve to contest the 2011 presidential election, was said to have wished him well, even as he reiterated his commitment to free and fair polls in the country.
According to a source, the parley was said to be the high point of consultations that the former vice-president had been having with party members and leaders, emirs and traditional rulers and key stakeholders in the country.
However, Nigerian Tribune gathered that Alhaji Abubakar would be adopting a different approach to sell himself and not engage in open campaign for now, as he was said to be focusing attention mainly on the party’s primaries coming up before the end of the year.
The source stated that the former vice-president reasoned that the primaries would come before the general election and it was where the party would pick its standard-bearer for the 2011 elections and, therefore, the need for him to stay away from engaging in open campaign.
“Atiku will not be seen printing or pasting campaign posters and billboards or sponsor radio or television jingles for now. He would also not be seen addressing political rallies. This is not the focus now, because the target is the PDP primaries and how to win,” the source said.
Nigerian Tribune gathered that the former number two man was continuing with his consultations and that he had already set up his campaign team, among other things.
Alhaji Abubakar served under former President Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007, but was denied membership registration by the PDP due to irreconcilable differences between him and Obasanjo, a development which made him to dump PDP in order to contest the last presidential poll on the ticket of the AC.
Meanwhile, it emerged in Abuja on Monday that President Jonathan has, so far, refrained from declaring his interest in the 2011 presidential race, because of the need for further consultations, especially in view of the divisive tendencies being exhibited by some politicians across the country.
Sources in the government said that President Jonathan had assured his close aides that he would not encourage any debate that could put one section of the country against the other.
The president was also said to have held a strategic meeting with close aides at the weekend, where he assured them that he was intensifying consultations on the possibility of his joining the presidential race.
A source close to the meeting told the Nigerian Tribune that Jonathan believed that the most important assignment before him was to keep Nigeria united and reduce all divisive tendencies to the barest minimum.
“This is a country of 150 million people with diverse interests and peoples. Several interests are playing up but it is our duty to maintain a united nation, a united front and avoid orchestrating issues that only widen the gulf between the sections of the country,” a source close to the administration quoted the president as saying.
As a result of the need to further intensify his campaigns, Jonathan was said to have directed all his aides involved in the 2011 campaign to withdraw forthwith and face issues of governance.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Research and Strategy, Mr Oronto Douglas, who spoke with newsmen in Abuja on Monday, also confirmed the ban on the president’s aides as regards the 2011 elections.
“He stated at a briefing: “I am aware that Mr. President had told all of us, his aides, to steer clear of partisan politics and commit ourselves to governance,” Douglas said.
He also declared that President Jonathan had made up his mind not to encourage disunity in the land.
The president’s aide further said: “The president has said that he wants to consult with Nigerians on the 2011 issue. He is still consulting. In fact, I am aware that he has intensified his consultations and he has ordered all his aides who have been linked with the clamour for him to contest to steer clear of politics and allow the president to finish his consultations.”
Douglas said that the president was a man who cherished Nigeria’s unity and would never condone anything that threatened the all-important national item.
“I can assure you that Nigeria’s interests will be paramount in terms of offering himself for continuous service to the nation.
“I know that the president is an inclusive person, consultative and broadminded. He will anchor his decision on the total interest of Nigeria. He believes that the journey of Nigeria is not an individual affair; it is not a sectional affair; it is not a religious affair; it is a national matter. The Nigerian character is not exclusive,” the president’s aide said, adding that those orchestrating division along sectional lines needed to have their commitment to Nigerian’s unity examined.
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