2015: Group uncovers plot by north to foment crisis

By Joe Nwankwo / Assistant Editor, Abuja

The Southern Mandate, a coalition of socio-political groups, has cautioned against a fresh plot by some northern leaders and elites to oust President Goodluck Jonathan from office at all cost in 2015, just as it alleged that the northern leaders have declared that it would plunge the nation into a crises of unimaginable proportion.

Reacting to the resolutions at a meeting of some northern groups including the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Northern Union {NU}, Arewa Reawakening Forum {ARF}, Project {ARDP}, and Middle Belt Forum {MBF}, held on Friday in Kaduna, the group described the North’s resolve that Jonathan’s re-election will not be in its interest as myopic and selfish.

The northern groups had reportedly insisted at the meeting that the region must produce the president in 2015, while blaming the disunity and crises in the area on the second term ambition of Jonathan.
“Our position is very clear on this renewed demand. There was an agreement on rotating the Presidency and now, we want to warn that if the parties to the pact fail to adhere to it, the North will use its numerical strength to ensure that power returns to it in 2015. That is the position arrived at the meeting”, one of the participants was quoted as saying.

But in a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja and signed by its National Coordinator, Tito Zuokumor, the Southern Mandate said the renewed move by the North was aimed at setting the nation on fire and stampeding the President out of office by next year.

While noting that the division and crises in the North, including the Boko Haram insurgency, predated the Jonathan presidency, the group said rather than seeking for a culprit, northern leaders should bury their heads in shame for their failure to provide purposeful leadership while they held on to political power for over three decades, during which the common folk in the North were deliberately impoverished.

“At a time when the entire nation, and indeed, the world is in pain and agony over the abduction of over 200 school girls from the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, by the Boko Haram insurgents, it is baffling and a display of the highest level of insensitivity for northern leaders to be holding meetings and plotting how to seize power in 2015, instead of being at the forefront of efforts by the Federal Government, international community and well-meaning Nigerians to rescue the girls from captivity”, the group said.

DAILY INDEPENDENT