2015 Election: Jonathan Under Pressure To Run – Aide

November 8, 2013

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President Goodluck Jonathan is under intense pressure to contest the 2015 election, his special adviser on political matters, Ali Gulak has said.

The president’s ambition for a re-election was at the heart of the agitation by some northern politicians within his ruling Peoples Democratic Party PDP who claimed that he had undertaken not to seek for another term.

Jonathan, according to Gulak, has over 1665 campaign groups volunteers who are set to work for his re-election in 2015, saying however that the president would have to wait until 2014 before making his decision known to Nigerians.

The special adviser who was speaking yesterday in Abuja at a meeting of the Elders’ Advisory Council of the Goodluck Support Group (GSG),said, despite the pressure on his boss, Nigerians would still have to wait until next year for the president to decide.

He however said that the president’s only concern at the moment was to fix the nation’s economy. Gulak said, even Nigerians abroad are “burning in unquenchable desire to return to the country and cast their votes for the ruling PDP come 2015”.

According to him: “Since our last meeting, we have received various support groups being coordinated by the GSG. We have, as of today, 1665. The last to visit was the Ochendo Solidarity Movement from Abia State.

“About 150 (groups) of them came to this office. We discussed. They have called on Mr. President to declare his intention,” he said. Adding that they said that they were not flattering.

“The President had told the whole nation that his intention would only be known in 2014, as he would use all these years to work for Nigeria and work for Nigeria and work for Nigeria”, he added, noting that Nigerians in the Diaspora had been enthusiastic about the organisation when it launched its US branch, he said.

“They told us that they would not only stick to vote, but they would mobilize themselves to come back and register and also ask their relatives to vote for PDP.

“There is no alternative to President Jonathan come 2015, based on GSG interactions with different political, cultural and religious associations,’’ he said.

Similarly, the Chairman, Council of Elders of the GSG, Sen. Ibrahim Mantu, said many politicians in the country want to be identified with the good works of President Jonathan.

He said “many Nigerians are indeed happy with what is happening at the moment, everybody want to be part of the success story of the current administration,’’ Mantu said.

But at a special dinner organized by the Progressive Governors Forum in Abuja to support the candidate of the party for the Anambra governorship poll, Senator Chris Ngige, APC leader General Mohammadu Buhari said the aim of the leadership of the APC was to stop the drift and chaos that characterized the country and restore sanity back into the country.

Buhari reminded the opposition of the great task ahead of them and lamented the situation the country was pushed into by the leadership of the PDP since 1999 and called on them to forget their differences and wrestle the power from the PDP.

“Our aim is to stop the drift and slide to chaos. Our vision is to get our acts together, pull the country together, select the very best and most capable people to manage our affairs and our resources so that in due course, we will bring Nigeria out of conflict and poverty into peace and prosperity.

“We should make no mistake that this is an historic occasion and we are living in historic times. Our dear country is undergoing realignment, a re-configuration and a re-positioning of political forces. We are witnessing a landslide or a political earthquake of epic proportions. Old alliances are being questioned; new alliances are being forged, he said.