AT the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential rally recently in Enugu State, the party looked assured of the massive support of the South East for President Goodluck Jonathan. But, it also looked uncertain on how to repay the zone for that support. And in that regard, it sounded like a broken record, in a zone that had always cried of marginalisation.
One of the party’s founding fathers and Second Republic Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme narrated how the party held sway in the zone after the 1999 election. The PDP, he said scored 100 per cent in the South East as the party “controlled the councils in the zone, winning all the governorship positions in the five states.” But Ekwueme also noted that things have changed and asked, “what has happened?”
Ekwueme harped on the need to close ranks and return the party to its former glory in the South East.
Since Jonathan’s candidacy became an issue, the South East looked like it had been caught in the cross-hairs. The zone lost two national chairmen of the PDP in the cause of Jonathan’s emergence. Prince Vincent Ogbulafor was forced to resign as national chairman, allegedly because of a statement he made alluding to the fact that the party would respect the party’s zoning policy, which would have effectively kept the presidency in the North till 2015. His successor Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo followed suit over the recent presidential primary.
Now, the South East is uncertain if it wants the post. A chieftain of the PDP, Alhaji Isyaku Ibrahim has advised the zone to perish the idea of retaining the chairmanship position, as it was now open to all zones since the South East helped in violating the party’s constitution on zoning.
According to him, the zone violated the PDP constitution on zoning by voting massively for Jonathan at the primary.
On the possibility of the zone producing the president in 2015, he said such an arrangement could no longer work in the PDP, as the only way the South East could produce the presidency in 2015 would be to vote for Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in April.
Initially, one issue that stalked the 2011 presidential election was the 2015 presidential election. Would the PDP take it back to the North or would it stay in the South? Recognising the potency of the issue, some presidential aspirants from the North promised to be in office for only one term and hand over power to the South East. Recently, Jonathan promised to serve only one term, in a veiled attempt to assure the North that it would take over power in 2015, or a message to the South East that it has a chance of taking over also.
Former governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, in reiterating support for Jonathan, maintained that the clamour for Igbo presidency is “a moral issue and therefore not negotiable.”
On the April election, Ezeife had said: “We are putting all our eggs in one basket for Jonathan because since the Civil War, all the governments ignored all the roads and other federal facilities in the zone.
“For Jonathan to have emerged as PDP candidate, we have hope that all the roads in all parts of the country will be fixed because it will benefit our people who are found in large numbers everywhere.”
In 2006, after the late President Musa Yar’Adua selected Jonathan as running mate, Jonathan wrote a letter to Igbo leaders asking for support.
In the letter, Jonathan stated that his new position, “bestows on me the responsibility of representing the people of Southern Nigeria (South-East, South-West, South-South) in defining and pursuing their interest.”
He then said: “I cannot perform this duty in an inclusive and efficient manner as it concerns the people of the South-Eastern Nigeria without deep and elaborate consultation of critical groups and individuals in Igboland.
“I am from the South-South region of Nigeria and I know that relationship between those of us who were in the former Eastern region needs to be strengthened if we are going to achieve our utmost in Nigeria. It is my desire to find a collaborative way to bring the best in Igboland into productive harmony with the best in the Niger Delta for greater interest and benefit of both regions.”
The South East now looks forward to Jonathan fulfilling his promises if he wins the presidential election in April. And it is in that regard that his promises in Enugu are being accepted.
Hitherto, he made history as the first President to appoint an Igbo, as the Chief of Army Staff, Minister of Interior, since the end of the Civil War. The status of the Enugu Airport was upgraded to international standards under his watch.
In anticipation of more, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), which is a party with widespread acceptance in the South East, for the first time refused to field a presidential candidate.
The only APGA governor, Peter Obi of Anambra State, said the decision to support Jonathan was because he had the best programme that would address the marginalisation of the South East.
Even federal lawmakers in the zone stated that, “the political and even economic interests of the South East are best served by a presidency under Jonathan.”
In Enugu, Jonathan reeled out programmes for the zone, if elected president by April. Some of the programmes have been pursued by his administration and also as part of the agenda of the late President Musa Yar’Adua’s government.
Jonathan pledged to ensure that within the period of the next dispensation, poverty would be driven away from the country.
He said a stable electricity supply to boost the economy were a priority of his administration.
The president said that the government has decided to restore the old Coal Power Plant in Enugu and that “the contract for the survey has been done and we have awarded the contract and I believe that in three months or so, the result will come out. So, all those who need power to do their businesses will have enough.”
According to him, approval had been given for the transformation of the coal deposits in Enugu to enable it generate electricity, and that government had awarded N400 billion contracts for the construction of the biggest transmission station in the country.
On the biggest ecological problem facing the South East, he said that he had met with governors to find lasting solutions to the problem of gully erosion. He disclosed that about 15 contracts had been awarded at a cost of about N11.5 billion, as part of efforts to check the menace. He admitted, however, that the amount was too meager compared with the problem, but that he would do more, if elected into office.
Touching on a familiar promise, he said that arrangements had been concluded for the construction of the second Niger Bridge before the end of 2015. Jonathan said the administration had awarded several contracts for the facelift of federal roads in the zone, and that maintaining the roads when completed was a priority of his administration.
But despite his promises on the economy, Jonathan and the PDP top brass that accompanied him didn’t say any word on the 2015 presidency.
The question is whether this is another rehash of unfulfilled promises, associated with the PDP in the zone.
Like Ekwueme, Ebonyi State governor, who is also the coordinator of the presidential campaign in the zone, Martin Elechi explained that the zone remains the only one that has shown much enthusiasm in the affairs of the PDP, stressing that the people would no matter the circumstance not abandon the party.
Jonathan’s latest promises and Ekwueme’s position, has raised ante on how the zone has fared under the PDP since 1999. Has the party reciprocated the gesture of the people of the zone?
In 1999, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo campaigned in Enugu, he spoke enthusiastically of how his administration would construct the second Niger Bridge, reconstruct the federal roads in the zone which had remained death traps, upgrade the Akanu Ibiam airport, tackle the gully erosion problem in the zone as well as the rehabilitation of the Alaojii and Oji river thermal power outfits to boost the power supply of the zone.
For the eight years, none of the projects was tackled. The late President Umaru Yar’Adua made the same promises. And Jonathan has repeated them. The South East is watching.
There should be no comparing ex-President Obasanjo and the current President Jonathan
when it comes to PDP leadership. The people of South East were no fools when they gave
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo their vote of confidence. It did not come to the people as a surprise
that Obasanjo would snub a good gesture.
The people of South East acted on the principle that those who want love should first give it.
But Chief Obasanjo paid for treating the people of South East with scorn. He will never forget
his failure to win his Third Term presidential bid, which would have sailed victoriously had he
not derelicted in duty and failed to keep his promises to the people of South East.
Again, his humiliation as a president to install a governor of his choosing in Abia State, and failing,
was his political Water Loo. He was humbled thereafter to return to Bible College "to learn to know God,"
in his own words!
Nigeria must have a president. And the South East consideration for Dr. Goodluck Jonathan this
time around is based on many factors: He is well educated; he is more experienced than his fellow
presidential aspirants; he has presidential skills and sound leadership judgment.
He has less negative baggage than the other contestants whose indiscipline and military bravado have compelled them to seek running mates from the Churchyard to camouflage their past.
Except for tribal jingoism, which the yellow press is using to promote his opponents, Dr. Jonathan
virtually has no opponents.
The people of South East, having assessed Dr. Jonathan's worth, find him an invaluable president
at this auspicious time of Nigeria's taking of her honored place in the comity of democratic nations.
Indeed, for the first time, the dynamic leader Nigerians deserve has arrived.
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