President Goodluck Jonathan insisted yesterday he has yet to decide whether to seek a fresh presidential term in 2015, in reaction to recent reports of subterranean campaign launched by Presidency’s foot soldiers.
The issue of whether the President will run has become a politically explosive subject because of the reported pledge he made in the run up to the 2011 election that he was standing for one term only.
Recent reports said Jonathan’s men have been working behind the scene to set up campaign structures, implying that the President has already made up his mind to run.
In a statement in Abuja yesterday, presidential spokesman Reuben Abati said Jonathan would like to be left alone in the 2015 calculus as he was focused on matters of state.
“President’s Jonathan’s stated
wish to be left alone to focus on delivering on his promise of good governance and national transformation without unnecessary distractions should be respected,” Abati said.
“Political jobbers and their collaborators in the media should stop heating up the polity with baseless speculations and falsehoods revolving around imaginary plans and schemes by the Presidency for the 2015 elections.”
An anonymous advertorial has been running in the papers recently, under the heading ‘We, the people’, saying Jonathan has the constitutional right to stand for re-election.
Also, a newspaper report at the weekend said a 21-member committee has been set up by Jonathan’s associates to consider the viability of the President’s 2015 ambition.
“This is totally untrue and without any basis in reality,” Abati said in the statement.
“As he has truthfully declared on several occasions, President Jonathan has not yet taken a decision on whether or not he will seek re-election in 2015 and has therefore not mandated any individual, committee or organisation to start working on his behalf for the 2015 elections.”
Abati also disowned the purported Jonathan campaign posters, as well as a governorship candidate in Anambra State who run a newspaper advertorial creating the impression that he has been endorsed by the President.
“The Presidency has also observed what seems to be an emerging trend whereby persons with their eyes fixated on political opportunities in future elections are beginning to use President Goodluck Jonathan’s name to promote themselves and their vaulting ambitions.
“It was clearly in this regard that some unscrupulous persons began to print 2015 campaign posters with President Jonathan’s photograph whereas the Independent National Electoral Commission is yet to announce the commencement of campaigns and political parties are yet to conduct any primaries for the selection of candidates,” the statement said.
“For the benefit of the unwary, the Presidency emphatically states that President Jonathan has not endorsed any candidate for any position whatsoever ahead of the 2015 general elections neither has he commissioned persons to start campaigns for his own candidature.
“As a leader who respects the rule of law, President Jonathan respects the fact that there are laid down procedures, defined by INEC and the political parties, for the selection of candidates for any election.
“As a law abiding citizen, President Jonathan will not engage in any act, symbolic or direct, that runs counter to laid-down procedures. As a loyal party man, he will equally not do anything that will amount to the usurpation of the party’s structures and powers to conduct primaries and choose candidates for elections.
“We therefore disown the claims and allegations of Presidential endorsements or the commencement of 2015 campaigns. The general public and affected stakeholders are advised to be wary of the kind of opportunism, misrepresentation and mischief that usually arise ahead of elections in general.
“The Presidency seizes this opportunity to warn all 2015 political office seekers, and their sponsors, friends or collaborators, to desist from unconscionable exploitation of President Jonathan’s name in the service of jaded antics of self-aggrandisement, promotion and positioning.”
One term only
Although elections are two years away, the issue of Jonathan’s candidacy has come to the front burner of political discourse, stoked by Niger State Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu’s recent statement that the President had agreed with governors in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2011 that he was going for one term only.
Jonathan’s aides denied any such agreement. During his 2011 campaign, Jonathan was quoted to have told an audience of Nigerians in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that he was standing for a single term only.
But the President’s lawyers have repeatedly told courts in Abuja that he has the constitutional right to seek re-election, in response to suits challenging his eligibility.
One of the cases has been decided in the President’s favour, while the second is still being heard by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
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