2015: Jonathan Raises An Army Against G-7 Govs

Under pressure from his loyalists to make his position on the 2015 race known on time, President Goodluck Jonathan has enlisted certain prominent individuals to checkmate the G-7 governors who have been up in arms against him. In the latest move, former speaker of the House of Representatives Alhaji Ghali Umar Na’abba and a few former governors are to be empowered by the presidency to mobilise support for Jonathan ahead of the crucial election year. LEADERSHIP further gathered that the former governors enlisted for the new task are Boni Haruna (Adamawa) and Peter Odili (Rivers). It was also gathered that a meeting of some former governors was held in the Asokoro District of Abuja in the early hours of yesterday to firm up their strategies in the support for Jonathan. According to a presidency source, Jonathan is not contemplating an immediate cabinet reorganisation. LEADERSHIP also learnt that the president has equally instructed the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, to put in place measures that would bring back all leaders of the party who were either complacent before now or might have been shoved aside by internal politics in some states. The source disclosed further that the latest move by President Jonathan was coming on the heels of an interim report of one of the three special committees. The source said: “The issues are becoming more and more complex as if we will not see their end. For now, the president is open to reconciliation but he will not rely on any assurance from any of the so-called aggrieved governors because, severally, there have been settlements but they do the opposite of what was firmed up with them. “I can tell you that Mr President is not against reconciliation but he won’t trust them again; and when we had an appraisal of the situation in most of the states, especially the seven states, it was because Mr President deferred to the governors that most leaders of the party either abandoned the party or even dumped the party. “There are several examples but if you look at Kano, for instance, the party lost Na’abba because of the governor; the situation is the same in Rivers as Odili was shoved aside by the governor. I think there is need to bring back all these persons who have been sidelined by the attitude of the governors; we can’t lose all. The leaders have to be relevant in the scheme of things in the party and national politics too.”