Nigeria to hold presidential election on April 9

Nigeria will hold a presidential election on April 9, 2011, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said on Tuesday, ending months of uncertainty over the timetable for polls in Africa’s most populous nation.

Parliamentary elections will be held on April 2 and voters will elect governors in the country’s 36 states to round off the process on April 16, INEC chief Attahiru Jega told a news conference in the capital Abuja.

The presidential elections are shaping up to be the most fiercely contested since the end of military rule just over a decade ago, with attention focussed on who the nominee will be for the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Party primaries must be concluded by January 15 and can begin any time from November 26, according to the timetable.

President Goodluck Jonathan is considered the front-runner in the primaries but his candidacy is controversial because of an agreement in the PDP that power should rotate every two terms between the mostly Muslim north and largely Christian south.

Jonathan, a southerner, inherited the presidency this year after the death of Umaru Yar’Adua, a northerner who died part way through his first term.

Jonathan’s supporters say he was elected on a joint ticket with Yar’Adua and can complete what would have been the second term. His opponents say only a northerner can succeed him, leaving the ruling party divided.

A group of influential northern politicians said on Monday they had agreed on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as a consensus candidate to challenge Jonathan in the primaries, potentially consolidating the northern vote against him.

But Nigeria’s political system, heavily based on patronage, has always favoured the incumbent in previous elections, meaning Abubakar could face an uphill struggle, analysts say.

ETHNIC RIVALRIES

Nigeria is a generally peaceful country of more than 200 ethnic groups but regional rivalries and tribalism bubble under the surface and risk being exploited in the run up to the vote.

“I will run and encourage others to run a national campaign devoid of sectionalism because leaders ought to unite, not divide,” Jonathan said in a posting on his Facebook page.

“The only difference we should look for in Nigeria is between good and bad, not north and south.”

Abubakar said on Tuesday that Jonathan’s candidacy had come as a “rude shock” to many Nigerians and said his bid rode roughshod over the power rotation agreement in the ruling party.

“Those who were promoting this devil-may-care attitude demonstrated quite early that they would employ the power of incumbency and whatever means necessary to achieve their objective even if it means tearing this country apart,” he said.

Abubakar, a Muslim from the northern Hausa ethnic group who was vice president under Olusegun Obasanjo from 1999 to 2007, was one of the founding members of the PDP but his history in the party has been chequered.

He left the party after falling out with Obasanjo in 2006 and ran unsuccessfully for president as the opposition Action Congress candidate in the 2007 polls won by Yar’Adua.

The northern leaders picked Abubakar as their consensus candidate in favour of former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida, Kwara state governor Bukola Saraki and former national security adviser Aliyu Gusau.

Babangida and Gusau have both promised to support Abubakar, but analysts say his ability to unseat Jonathan in the primaries could depend on whether that consensus holds.

Atiku is Northern Consensus Candidate

ABUJA- AFTER months of permutations, speculations and political intrigues, the Mallam Adamu Ciroma led ‘’17-wise men’’ to get a consensus candidate for the north finally came up with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as the ‘’anointed aspirant.

Briefing Journalists Monday at the Yar’adua Centre, Secretary to the Consensus Committee, Mallam Abdulkadir Sabo Bello reiterated the north’s position on zoning and completing the four year tenure of late President Umaru Yar’Adua.

With the announcement of Atiku Abubakar as the northern candidate, he would then wrestle with President Goodluck Jonathan at the primaries for the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

I am humbled. says Atiku
The former vice president and beneficiary of the consensus arrangement, Atiku Abubakar has declared that he was humbled by his endorsements by the consensus committee saying that this time calls for a sober reflection on the challenges facing the country while expressing the hope that the conclusion of the concensus process would bring to an end the divisive politics that had trailed the exercise from its opponents.

In a statement issued after the exercise today , Atiku Abubakar commended members of the committee for their patriotism and sacrifice saying their decision was a product of wide consultation across the length and breadth of the country.

More details later

PDP youth leader calls for calm over Appeal Court verdict

UGHELLI—THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, youth Leader in the Delta South Senatorial District, Mr Andrew Igben, has charged supporters of the party in the district to remain calm and brace up to the challenges posed by the Appeal Court nullification of the April 2007 gubernatorial election in the state.

Reacting to the judgment, Igben said victory was sure for the PDP in the re-run election as directed by the court of Appeal in Benin City, Edo State, urging the teeming supporters of Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan to remain focused and maintain their support for him.

He said the achievements of Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan as governor between May 2007 and the day the election was nullified, speak volumes of his capacity to lead the state and lead the people to the promised land.
Enjoining youths of the state to mobilize more support for the PDP, he said he would carry out door-to-door campaign to sensitize the people on the good policies and programmes of the party.
He assured that the three-point agenda of the PDP administration in the state was on course and emphasized that the recent development has further galvanized the party to do more for Deltans.

Jonathan’s Wife Begins Her Power-Grab Career From Abia

Those who thought the exit of Hajia Turai Umar Yar’Adua automatically freed Nigeria from the manipulative claws of a power lusting Presidential spouse, need to worry about the perfidious script currently playing out in Abia State under the direction of Dame Patience Goodluck Jonathan.

It is no longer news that newly handpicked National Chairman of PDP, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo, led a band of political jobbers to go to Government House Umuahia to prostrate before Governor Theodore Orji to rejoin PDP. But what is unknown to the Nigerian public is the unseen hand of Dame Patience Jonathan, directing the macabre orchestra in Abia State.

It was Dame Patience who ordered the “Beggars’ Delegation” to officially solicit the Okija Governor’s return to “Africa’s Largest Party”, less than one month after the largely ineffective Mr Orji himself dragged the highly revered Igbo leader, Dim Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, to come to Umuahia to receive him into APGA, having been disgracefully kicked out by PPA for non-performance. Sources close to Mrs Jonathan said she does not care a hoot about Mr Orji’s notoriety or demonstrated incompetence as State Governor. That the man has failed woefully to govern the state, which has now been completely overrun by kidnappers, bank robbers and other dare-devil criminals, is of no consequence for the Hajia Turai’s successor. Like King Herod’s wife in the Bible, Dame Jonathan is hell bent on promoting Mr Orji’s candidacy to secure his support and those of Abia delegates for her husband’s Presidential ambition, which is increasingly under threat of derailment by dogged Northern opposition.

The mission of Nwodo and the “Beggars’ Delegation” would not be the first time Dame Patience would be intervening on behalf of Mr Orji. At a recent meeting with President Jonathan, at which other Niger Delta Governors pointedly accused their Abia State counterpart of being the chief reason for the incessant cases of kidnapping in the zone, President Jonathan, urged on by his wife, was believed to have refused to sanction the Abia Governor, despite the insistence of Governors Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom and Ikedi Ohakim of Imo. The President’s seeming inaction against Mr Orji, in spite of overwhelming evidence produced by the three Governors, including what Aso Rock insiders say are foolproof security reports indicting him on the kidnap saga in his state, was said to have shocked the governors who were present at the meeting held in the Presidential Villa on Tuesday June 15, 2010. The governors may have so resolved to abandon the idea of regional cooperation in fighting the kidnap saga in favor of a state-by-state action.

Very reliable reports from Aso Rock also confirm that Dame Patience thoroughly abused the spineless Nwodo for attempting to re-admit former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu into PDP “without clearance”, read, her permission, forcing the lily-livered National Chairman to recant in less than 48 hours, after publicly “welcoming” Orji. Humiliated and flustered, Orji Kalu and his stunned camp are questioning the principle in Nwodo’s turn-around performance, demanding to know why Theodore Orji is good enough for PDP and not his mentor.

Reports say Orji Kalu is spoiling for a decisive showdown with his renegade godson, a protégé he twice took to the infamous Okija shrine to ensure his loyalty and avoid unpleasant experiences like the one he is undergoing presently. From Orji Kalu’s aides come the report that as part of the total war against Theodore Orji, Orji’s Mother, Odiuko Eunice Kalu, hurriedly abandoned her medical treatment in the United States to relocate to Abuja where she is said to be contacting Professor Dora Akunyili and Mrs Josephine Anenih, to grant her access to the Abia Puppeteer, Dame Patience.

Meanwhile, stung by the unexpected snub it suffered in Government House Umahia from the cocky Governor, members of the “Beggars Delegation have relocated to Abuja to re-strategize. They have declared “Operation Bring Ugochukwu”, whatever it takes. Sources inside Government House said Theodore Orji was greatly disturbed when he did not see Onyema Ugochukwu, the PDP governorship candidate, despite the assurances he was said to have gotten from a high-ranking female National Assembly member who chairs a committee that oversights the financial sector and who was said to have been “mobilized” to “bring Ugochukwu at all costs”.

A source who was inside the close door meeting said Governor Orji told the delegation pointblank that “there are certain political leaders in the state who should be at the meeting for him to take the meeting serious”, meaning, until he secures Ugochukwu’s blessing, he would not commit. Members of the “Beggars’ delegation”, completely embarrassed, were said to have exchanged mournful glances at one another but swallowed their hurt.



A former National Assembly member who turned down the invitation to join the delegation said those from Abia who showed up in Government House “have dug their political grave”. Abians are enraged. The anger in the land gushed like a waterfall. Although most people are not shocked by the caliber of men and women who went to beg Gov Orji, considering their opportunistic antecedents, Abians are scandalized that the meeting took place at all.

Nwodo has sold himself for a penny in the state. The former legislator also confirmed that there was no chance of Ugochukwu joining forces Nwodo and company to beg Gov Orji.

“The Ugochukwu we know is stubborn and highly principled. Despite his controversial losses in the court, he is immensely popular with the ordinary Abians, so why should he go and beg TA? Nigerians must expect a repeat of the Soludo scenario in Abia should they impose Orji on theparty”.

Nwodo, already under nationwide fire for his flip-flops on zoning, and now leading a delegation to beg a governor who was expelled by his party for non-performance, to rejoin PDP, was accompanied on the infamous trip by what reads like the elite group of Abia’s Hall of Shame.

Names like Emeka Wogu, Jonathan’s Labor and Productivity Minister, dumped ex-foreign affairs minister Ojo Maduekwe, perennial ministerial lobbyist, Gen Ike Nwachukwu, Ogbulafor, Senator Nkechi Nwaogu, Dr Ihechukwu Madubuike, Hon Chinenye Ike, Hon Nkiru Onyejeocha, Hon Mao Ohuabunwa and state party chairman, Ndidi Okereke.

Gov Orji was said to have sized them up and waved them aside as “paperweights”, hence he rolled out four impossible conditions to be met before he joins PDP, knowing full well that there was no way they could meet the conditions. The cheeky Orji, aware that none of these characters parading themselves as “Abia leaders” could deliver their ward in a free and fair election, demanded the humiliating sack of the State Party exco headed by Ndidi Okereke.

Terrified about losing his job, Okereke joined the “Beggars’ Delegation” to prostrate before Orji, hoping the New Pharaoh would mercifully spare him. But sources say Orji has already made up his mind to form his own exco and rubbish the present members if he gets the chance.

Same for other elective positions. One of his most trusted aides is sure Mr Orji has lined up his men to take over after sweeping aside the PDP cadre. Apart from Okereke, whom the source said he bears a special grudge, the three senatorial positions will go to Senator Uche Chukwumerije (Abia North); Allen Nwachukwu (Abia Central) and ---(Abia South), meaning that incumbent senators Nkechi Nworgu and Enyinnaya Abaribe would kiss the dust, their coming to kneel before him notwithstanding.

Meanwhile, Mr Orji has not stopped mocking the “Beggars’ Delegation” since its shameful visit last Friday and has not missed any opportunity with visitors and cheerleaders to make a jest of how he hired a jet to bring the delegation to come and beg them and how they were scrambling for the largess he threw to them while they were leaving, their tails tagged behind legs.

Disgusted and humiliated, Abians are spoiling for an opportunity to teach Mrs Jonathan and her barefaced Abia cheerleaders a bitter lesson. Already, the bond of Eastern Unity forming between the Igbo and their Ijaw neighbors,s is under threat of a rupture, with several Igbos wondering aloud if it is still necessary to continue supporting an Ijaw President who is unable to prevail on his domineering wife from further humiliating its leaders.

In a recent radio phone-in programme monitored from Umuahia, callers could not hide their anger, pouring unprintable invectives on Mrs Jonathan over her attempt to impose Mr Orji on Abians.

“We love Jonathan but rather than help develop Igboland, he is encouraging his wife to impose an unpopular leader on Abia people.”

“They have forgotten our history and who we are. Aba women rioted against British colonialists. We fought a bitter civil war to preserve our dignity. We shall fight Mrs Jonathan and Theodore Orji.”

“If President Jonathan cannot control his wife, then he should set her destructive sights on her native Rivers or Bayelsa state. Why Abia? Is it a furtherance of the Old Ijaw Agenda to hold back Igbo progress? We have not forgotten the Abandoned Property issue and the bastardization of Ikwerre names, all premeditated Ijaw acts targeted at wiping out Igbo influences in Port Harcourt. Now they are taking the oppression to Igbo heartland. Each time people take our solidarity for a sign of weakness.”

“At a time God is about to deliver Abia from the clutches of a satanic cult holding down her progress, by putting confusion in their midst, this Kalabari woman is abusing her Presidential connections by rallying together political desperadoes and prostitutes, to impose a useless governor on Abia State, as if we have no mind of our own.”

“If Mrs Jonathan respects Igbo people, why can she not use her powers to bring projects to Igboland? Or at least leave us alone?” These are the questions ordinary people were asking.

Make special case for Jonathan, Jemibewon tells PDP

FORMER Minister of Police Affairs, Major General David Jemibewon, has suggested what he said was a way out of the present zoning controversy in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) saying that the party should make a special case for President Goodluck Jonathan in the present circumstance, while retaining the zoning policy of the party.

He made the assertion at a press briefing in Abuja, on Monday, just as the Goodluck Nigeria Group (GNG) which wanted the President to contest the 2011 election, has written to the National Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, asking him to convene a special national convention of the party to adopt President Jonathan as the party’s candidate.

General Jemibewon, who is a member of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), observed that there were merits in the arguments for and against the zoning or power rotation formula which he pointed out was a PDP affair.

He threw the matter to the national leadership of the party reminding members that it was a party constitutional matter and the constitution of the party provided avenues for the amendment of any provision.

I’m contesting in 2011, Atiku tells Jonathan •I wish you well –President •Jonathan delays declaration for further consultations

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.

Zoning is dead -Nwodo •As Orji Kalu plans to return to PDP •Suspended Reps take case to Nwodo

THE zoning policy of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is now a dead issue, going by the assertion of the new National Chairman of the party, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, who declared that it had indeed been abandoned since 1999.

Speaking to newsmen in Abuja, on Wednesday, he was emphatic that the PDP had jettisoned the policy and anyone wanting to contest for any elective position under the party was free to do so.

However, he said that if the party members wanted the issue revisited, he was prepared to set the necessary machinery in motion for a new zoning formula for the party.

Dr. Nwodo spoke, just as it was revealed that former governor of Abia State and chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Progressive Alliance (PPA), Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, was planning to return to the PDP.

Dr. Nwodo’s position is coming as agitations continue for President Goodluck Jonathan to contest next year’s presidential election against the perceived zoning of the position to the North.

He said: “I said to BBC and I repeat to you again that zoning in PDP has been jettisoned. There is no zoning on the ground right now. Absolutely there is no zoning. In 1999, there was zoning and only one northerner insisted on his inalienable right in the Nigerian Constitution to contest against the zoning arrangement of the PDP.

“The PDP put its foot down and I wrote a letter to him and returned his cheque. That is Abubakar Rimi of blessed memory. In 2003, after four years of Obasanjo, candidates sprang up from across the country. They paid; they canvassed. Nobody returned their money. Nobody wrote them that there was zoning.

“In 2007, there were more candidates from southern Nigeria than northern Nigeria and I think if that election was allowed to hold without interference; maybe anybody among Peter Odili, Donald Duke or Sam Egwu, would have won. They all paid. Nobody returned their money. Nobody stopped them.

Nobody talked about zoning. They all contested. Why zoning now? Why?,” he said.

The party boss added: “We have jettisoned it but we can revisit it. I’m not afraid about revisiting it. If we think that we need to revisit zoning today, let us revisit zoning. But the one we did in 1999, no, no, no, no, it has been jettisoned by PDP itself.

“So those who are talking about that agreement are not following the history of the party. The party has never stopped anybody after 1999 on the altar of zoning. But if they want us to zone now, we will go through the mill. We will start from the National Working Committee. We will prepare a memo on the advantages and the disadvantages of zoning. We will take the memo to the caucus,” Dr Nwodo said.

“The parliament and the government will make their inputs on which way to go. We will take it to the BOT; we drink from their wealth of experience, the conscience of the party; we will modify the scale with their inputs and then we have the final debate at NEC, which takes final decision for PDP.

“Right now, nobody can get up and tell me there was zoning or there is no zoning. If we want to zone, we have to go through this process because the earlier arrangement on zoning is not working any more,” he declared.

Meanwhile, machinery has been set in motion for the possible return to the PDP of former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia State, who, it was learnt, had made approaches to the new national chairman of the party.

A senior party source told the Nigerian Tribune, on Wednesday, that Kalu had told Nwodo his desire to return to PDP, even before he was appointed chairman, saying at the time that if Dr Nwodo emerged the party boss, he would rejoin the PDP.

The source revealed that Kalu was now set to fulfill the pledge he made by abandoning the Peoples Progressive Alliance (PPA), which had been in crisis, the latest being the defection of the Abia State governor, Chief Theodore Orji, to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

Nwodo was said to have discussed the impending return of the former governor with members of the NWC in their meeting in Abuja, on Wednesday, where they agreed to invite him to appear before them on Monday next week.

However, the national chairman of the PPA, Mr Larry Esin, has dismissed speculations that Chief Kalu was about to dump the party for the PDP.

In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Esin said though there had been negotiations with the PDP, Chief Kalu would not join the party.

According to him, “the board of trustees (BoT) chairman is not leaving the PPA. There have been talks with the PDP but he cannot join the party before the 2011 election.”

Meanwhile, members of the House of Representatives who are sympathetic to the cause of the 11 suspended members, have commenced moves aimed at recalling them, the Nigerian Tribune has gathered.

Female members of the House, who initiated the move, had been lobbying their male counterparts to put pressure on the House leadership on the need to show mercy to Honourable Dino Melaye and other members of his group.

The lawmakers were intervening because of the political realities facing the suspended lawmakers, especially the possibility that they might not be able to seek re-election in the 2011 election.

Honourable Fatimat Raji Rasaki, who is the vice chairman, House Committee on Women Affairs, led other members in the plea for the return of the suspended lawmakers, especially one of the female legislators, Honourable Doris Uboh.

On Monday, however, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Dimeji Bankole, alluded to this when he raised the hope on the possible recall of the lawmakers.

Bankole had visited the City Royal Secondary School, Nyanya, Abuja, to apologise to students of the school who witnessed the fracas in the parliament during their excursion and told correspondents that the issue of the suspended lawmakers was being reconsidered.

Moral Prefect of the school, David Sunday, had, in his opening remark during the Speaker’s visit, urged the House leadership to imbibe the spirit of humility as shown by the speaker, who came to beg the students for forgiveness and forgive the lawmakers who were suspended.