‘APC ‘ll not tolerate rigging’

Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi spoke with reporters in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, on preparations for the governorship poll, campaigns and violence as well as concern for free and fair election. Excerpts:

You have gone round the towns and villages for campaigns. What has been your message to them?


Basically to thank them for their support in the past three and a half years, to solicit their support in the coming election and to highlight what the government has been able to achieve, specifically in their communities and collectively for the state.

Luckily for us, there is a track record that is palpable and tangible. When I get to any community, before I say anything, one of the things the royal father touches on is what we have been able to do to make a difference in the lives of his people.

Of course, these are not wealthy communities in terms of material wealth but they have genuine intentions.  Government has helped by giving them money for what we call community projects specifically and they have been able to make a lot of difference in their communities.

Then, of course, I tell them that this election is going to be about character, it is going to be about integrity, it is going to be between light and darkness  and the choice is with our people.

I ask them, ‘do we want a government that is driven by integrity or we want a government that is   driven by people of low moral fibre, people that do not represent the values that Ekiti has been known for over the years, people who will not be accountable to them? And the reception has been great and I really must thank God and our people for that.

Every single community that we have been to, we have not had a negative reception. We have had surprising reception in some places we visited feeling that because some opposition figures come from their, we would receive lukewarm reception. That has not been the case. The work of the government speaks for it everywhere we go.

What will be your administration’s focus in your second term?
The vision to roadmap to Ekiti recovery was to make poverty history in Ekiti   and, clearly, we have achieved a major dent on poverty; you can judge this from some of the results we are garnering from our social welfare initiative.

This is a government that is ideologically rooted in social democracy; we believe that everyone cannot be for himself.

We must have an unbreakable bond that enables society to strengthen itself and government has a responsibility to help the weak and vulnerable.

You refer to the social security benefit scheme; you refer to our free education, our free health scheme. These are initiatives tied to our anti-poverty strategy and it has achieved a tremendous difference in Ekiti State.

What we are now doing is not jettisoning any of those eight-point agenda. We are consolidating and strengthening them in a manner that they become a way of life.

We want to do it in such a way that no government will come and say security is not my priority, I don’t have money for free education, I do not have money for free health care.

We have used the last three and a half years to build infrastructure, but we now need to consolidate on that by focusing more on jobs for the people and that is why we are extending our coverage on education to ‘Ekiti Knowledge Zone, ‘ which is a free zone because education is our industry and we believe we can achieve a knowledge economy that is productive and can utilize a lot of the young people who have degrees but have no skills. We need to build them up.

We are going to focus on employment and empowerment more than what we are doing now because we have 20,000  jobs, directly or indirectly, out there in the youth and commercial agriculture, in the volunteer corps and in our various initiatives.

We have that but we believe that we can even elevate the kind of jobs we make available to our young people so that they will improve on their sense of self-worth. So you see a huge focus on employment, you see a greater focus in agriculture and an additional focus on tourism as vehicles for economic prosperity in our state.

Then, we will of course not shy away from the education sector. However, we are going to introduce free meals in primary schools. Our enrolment in Ekiti is good, our enrolment figure is the highest in the country but we still feel that there is a lot of dots to connect in terms of nutrition of our young people so that they grow at the rate they are supposed to grow, their brain develops at the rate it is supposed to develop and we also create an economy around the feeding of our children who go to school.

How have you steered APC members from eschew violence?
As a rule, we do not get involved in violence in APC, we are very clear on that. We even developed a code of ethics which really makes our abhorrence of violence indisputable and equivocal.

That we have done at the level of a baseline and this is the minimum irreducible for us. We held a mega rally and not one incidence of violence was recorded because we do not have a culture of violence and we do not tolerate it.

 However, even when you do not have a culture of violence and violence is brought to your door step by people who belong to other political tendencies, how do you restrain people from reacting when they are attacked? This is a challenge and it is a challenge I cannot tell you I have an answer to. I cannot continue to tell my people to turn the other cheek when they are being attacked. I am the governor; I could unleash massive force on many of these characters who do these things.

If I were not to be the person I am, we would have really seen a degeneration even worse than some of the skirmishes you have noticed but because of who I am and because I believe leadership also calls for restraint, I have been a major restraining influence on my campaign, on party members, who are attacked unprovoked since almost a month that we have spent traversing the length and breadth of this state.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has allegedly reduced the voters’ strength for both Ekiti and Osun states. Do you suspect any foul play?,
Well, I do not know if there has been a reduction in the voters’ figure in Ekiti. I know that INEC released a figure recently and I know that the draft was released to parties and it is pretty close to what we used to have in Ekiti even in 2011.The voters’ figure is 762,000 or thereabouts and that is sizeable; even if those in that register vote, it would amount to a significant number.

I know, however, that from what I have read in the newspapers and from what my own monitors have told me, from card collection across the local government areas, the collection rate is not what we would like it to be. We are closer to 60 per cent now.

Our problem with the INEC is not that; our problem is the credibility of this Permanent Voter’s Card that has not been used without electronic readers and that is the point we have consistently made. As advocates of one man, one vote, the only way a Permanent Voter’s Card becomes interesting to some of us, is if it can be machine readable and that it can detect multiple voting, multiple registration and fake user of the card.

That is the relevance of the Permanent Voter’s Card. If it is not going to be used in a manner that the Presiding Officers and the party agents can detect that ‘this card does not belong to Kayode Fayemi, so why is he using it?’, I do not see the big deal in a Permanent Voters’ Card.

I think INEC should listen to us because if you cannot use a PVC in a machine readable manner for an election as tiny as Ekiti and Osun states, how are you going to pilot for 2015 when you now claim you want to use it?

I do not find that believable, I do not find it credible and our party’s position is very clear, we have said it consistently that the only condition that would reduce the level of fraud in this election, is to use the machine because we have believable information that these PVCs are being cloned.

These cards are like ATM cards. What is the beauty of an ATM card? If you have N500,000 in your account and you remove N20,000, the time you removed the N20,000 and the amount you removed is there. That is the beauty of the card reader. You cannot now come to your bank and deny that you did not take the money.

So, this is common sense because almost every village has an ATM machine. When you put the card that they give you in your bank to use in an ATM, it records the time and the amount you collected money, it reduces it from your money in your account.

This is what we are saying Professor Jega should do because these PVCs are like ATM cards. Why do people like treating us as if we are still in the stone age? It is only people who are afraid of genuine voters that would not want an electronic machine reader used for this election.

Does that form part of your fears for this election?
We have concerns; we do not have fears because we build scenarios. I am saying that this election will be easier fought, by all concerned, and it will give the INEC greater credibility, if they conform to the basis of issuing PVCs.

The only relevance of the PVC is it enhances the credibility and integrity of the process and there is only way it can do that and that is if it is read by the machine. So, it is a concern, it is not a fear and the onus is on INEC to convince us as to why they cannot use the card reader.

How many machine readers do they need for Ekiti and Osun states because the elections will not take place the same day? Let us assume they will need 3,000 machine readers, will that make them sacrifice the credibility  of the election? I believe it is in Professor Jega’s interest to listen to us because we are even his best advocates by insisting that things should be done properly.

Former Governor Segun Oni has defected to your party. How do you see his support for you?
What most people do not actually remember is that, of all the people who were on the PDP side, way back in 2007, the one person that I had the closest affinity to was Governor Segun Oni. It is not just because we were members of E-Eleven, a group of Ekiti stakeholders, but also because of his mien.

I have had cause to tell people over the last few weeks since he moved over to us, that even in the heat of the moment when tempers were flaring all over the place, I never had a personal negative word against Governor Oni. I always talked about his party and his government and not him because I have always known him to be a decent person. This is not a contradiction.

What he has even done now has really shown how much of a leader he is because he has gone beyond personal issues and pettiness. There are a lot of people who will not do things for you because you have gone to say hello to them in their house.

Governor Oni has gone way beyond that and if you listened to his speech, it was the most impactful at our rally because it demonstrated sincerity, candour and not being petty. He said we are erecting a new platform and it is about the future of our children and our state, it is not about us. Nobody is perfect.

It comes back to what I have been saying that this election is not going to be about performance because performance is not in doubt. Nobody challenges whether Fayemi has performed or not anymore, I think the icing on the cake is going to be about character.

That is the point Governor Oni made in his remarks that character matters and, particularly in Ekiti, our people cherish integrity and they are not going to leave a gold standard to follow sand; they are not going to leave a dual carriage way and go into the bus.

I can tell you that Governor Oni’s coming has shifted the dynamics in critical local governments, he remains a factor because you cannot be governor for three and a half years and not have anchors of people. So, on number base, it is a plus, on character  definition, no one can do a better job than him.
As the election draws near, what are your expectations?
My expectation from the police and security agencies is that they will do everything to protect the integrity of the election. I know that, once INEC has done its own job, the police and critical segments of the security agencies will be involved in protecting the integrity of the election. If they are not allowed to do their own responsibility, it can be a problem.

‘APC ‘ll not tolerate rigging’

Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi spoke with reporters in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, on preparations for the governorship poll, campaigns and violence as well as concern for free and fair election. Excerpts:

You have gone round the towns and villages for campaigns. What has been your message to them?


Basically to thank them for their support in the past three and a half years, to solicit their support in the coming election and to highlight what the government has been able to achieve, specifically in their communities and collectively for the state.

Luckily for us, there is a track record that is palpable and tangible. When I get to any community, before I say anything, one of the things the royal father touches on is what we have been able to do to make a difference in the lives of his people.

Of course, these are not wealthy communities in terms of material wealth but they have genuine intentions.  Government has helped by giving them money for what we call community projects specifically and they have been able to make a lot of difference in their communities.

Then, of course, I tell them that this election is going to be about character, it is going to be about integrity, it is going to be between light and darkness  and the choice is with our people.

I ask them, ‘do we want a government that is driven by integrity or we want a government that is   driven by people of low moral fibre, people that do not represent the values that Ekiti has been known for over the years, people who will not be accountable to them? And the reception has been great and I really must thank God and our people for that.

Every single community that we have been to, we have not had a negative reception. We have had surprising reception in some places we visited feeling that because some opposition figures come from their, we would receive lukewarm reception. That has not been the case. The work of the government speaks for it everywhere we go.

What will be your administration’s focus in your second term?
The vision to roadmap to Ekiti recovery was to make poverty history in Ekiti   and, clearly, we have achieved a major dent on poverty; you can judge this from some of the results we are garnering from our social welfare initiative.

This is a government that is ideologically rooted in social democracy; we believe that everyone cannot be for himself.

We must have an unbreakable bond that enables society to strengthen itself and government has a responsibility to help the weak and vulnerable.

You refer to the social security benefit scheme; you refer to our free education, our free health scheme. These are initiatives tied to our anti-poverty strategy and it has achieved a tremendous difference in Ekiti State.

What we are now doing is not jettisoning any of those eight-point agenda. We are consolidating and strengthening them in a manner that they become a way of life.

We want to do it in such a way that no government will come and say security is not my priority, I don’t have money for free education, I do not have money for free health care.

We have used the last three and a half years to build infrastructure, but we now need to consolidate on that by focusing more on jobs for the people and that is why we are extending our coverage on education to ‘Ekiti Knowledge Zone, ‘ which is a free zone because education is our industry and we believe we can achieve a knowledge economy that is productive and can utilize a lot of the young people who have degrees but have no skills. We need to build them up.

We are going to focus on employment and empowerment more than what we are doing now because we have 20,000  jobs, directly or indirectly, out there in the youth and commercial agriculture, in the volunteer corps and in our various initiatives.

We have that but we believe that we can even elevate the kind of jobs we make available to our young people so that they will improve on their sense of self-worth. So you see a huge focus on employment, you see a greater focus in agriculture and an additional focus on tourism as vehicles for economic prosperity in our state.

Then, we will of course not shy away from the education sector. However, we are going to introduce free meals in primary schools. Our enrolment in Ekiti is good, our enrolment figure is the highest in the country but we still feel that there is a lot of dots to connect in terms of nutrition of our young people so that they grow at the rate they are supposed to grow, their brain develops at the rate it is supposed to develop and we also create an economy around the feeding of our children who go to school.

How have you steered APC members from eschew violence?
As a rule, we do not get involved in violence in APC, we are very clear on that. We even developed a code of ethics which really makes our abhorrence of violence indisputable and equivocal.

That we have done at the level of a baseline and this is the minimum irreducible for us. We held a mega rally and not one incidence of violence was recorded because we do not have a culture of violence and we do not tolerate it.

 However, even when you do not have a culture of violence and violence is brought to your door step by people who belong to other political tendencies, how do you restrain people from reacting when they are attacked? This is a challenge and it is a challenge I cannot tell you I have an answer to. I cannot continue to tell my people to turn the other cheek when they are being attacked. I am the governor; I could unleash massive force on many of these characters who do these things.

If I were not to be the person I am, we would have really seen a degeneration even worse than some of the skirmishes you have noticed but because of who I am and because I believe leadership also calls for restraint, I have been a major restraining influence on my campaign, on party members, who are attacked unprovoked since almost a month that we have spent traversing the length and breadth of this state.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has allegedly reduced the voters’ strength for both Ekiti and Osun states. Do you suspect any foul play?,
Well, I do not know if there has been a reduction in the voters’ figure in Ekiti. I know that INEC released a figure recently and I know that the draft was released to parties and it is pretty close to what we used to have in Ekiti even in 2011.The voters’ figure is 762,000 or thereabouts and that is sizeable; even if those in that register vote, it would amount to a significant number.

I know, however, that from what I have read in the newspapers and from what my own monitors have told me, from card collection across the local government areas, the collection rate is not what we would like it to be. We are closer to 60 per cent now.

Our problem with the INEC is not that; our problem is the credibility of this Permanent Voter’s Card that has not been used without electronic readers and that is the point we have consistently made. As advocates of one man, one vote, the only way a Permanent Voter’s Card becomes interesting to some of us, is if it can be machine readable and that it can detect multiple voting, multiple registration and fake user of the card.

That is the relevance of the Permanent Voter’s Card. If it is not going to be used in a manner that the Presiding Officers and the party agents can detect that ‘this card does not belong to Kayode Fayemi, so why is he using it?’, I do not see the big deal in a Permanent Voters’ Card.

I think INEC should listen to us because if you cannot use a PVC in a machine readable manner for an election as tiny as Ekiti and Osun states, how are you going to pilot for 2015 when you now claim you want to use it?

I do not find that believable, I do not find it credible and our party’s position is very clear, we have said it consistently that the only condition that would reduce the level of fraud in this election, is to use the machine because we have believable information that these PVCs are being cloned.

These cards are like ATM cards. What is the beauty of an ATM card? If you have N500,000 in your account and you remove N20,000, the time you removed the N20,000 and the amount you removed is there. That is the beauty of the card reader. You cannot now come to your bank and deny that you did not take the money.

So, this is common sense because almost every village has an ATM machine. When you put the card that they give you in your bank to use in an ATM, it records the time and the amount you collected money, it reduces it from your money in your account.

This is what we are saying Professor Jega should do because these PVCs are like ATM cards. Why do people like treating us as if we are still in the stone age? It is only people who are afraid of genuine voters that would not want an electronic machine reader used for this election.

Does that form part of your fears for this election?
We have concerns; we do not have fears because we build scenarios. I am saying that this election will be easier fought, by all concerned, and it will give the INEC greater credibility, if they conform to the basis of issuing PVCs.

The only relevance of the PVC is it enhances the credibility and integrity of the process and there is only way it can do that and that is if it is read by the machine. So, it is a concern, it is not a fear and the onus is on INEC to convince us as to why they cannot use the card reader.

How many machine readers do they need for Ekiti and Osun states because the elections will not take place the same day? Let us assume they will need 3,000 machine readers, will that make them sacrifice the credibility  of the election? I believe it is in Professor Jega’s interest to listen to us because we are even his best advocates by insisting that things should be done properly.

Former Governor Segun Oni has defected to your party. How do you see his support for you?
What most people do not actually remember is that, of all the people who were on the PDP side, way back in 2007, the one person that I had the closest affinity to was Governor Segun Oni. It is not just because we were members of E-Eleven, a group of Ekiti stakeholders, but also because of his mien.

I have had cause to tell people over the last few weeks since he moved over to us, that even in the heat of the moment when tempers were flaring all over the place, I never had a personal negative word against Governor Oni. I always talked about his party and his government and not him because I have always known him to be a decent person. This is not a contradiction.

What he has even done now has really shown how much of a leader he is because he has gone beyond personal issues and pettiness. There are a lot of people who will not do things for you because you have gone to say hello to them in their house.

Governor Oni has gone way beyond that and if you listened to his speech, it was the most impactful at our rally because it demonstrated sincerity, candour and not being petty. He said we are erecting a new platform and it is about the future of our children and our state, it is not about us. Nobody is perfect.

It comes back to what I have been saying that this election is not going to be about performance because performance is not in doubt. Nobody challenges whether Fayemi has performed or not anymore, I think the icing on the cake is going to be about character.

That is the point Governor Oni made in his remarks that character matters and, particularly in Ekiti, our people cherish integrity and they are not going to leave a gold standard to follow sand; they are not going to leave a dual carriage way and go into the bus.

I can tell you that Governor Oni’s coming has shifted the dynamics in critical local governments, he remains a factor because you cannot be governor for three and a half years and not have anchors of people. So, on number base, it is a plus, on character  definition, no one can do a better job than him.
As the election draws near, what are your expectations?
My expectation from the police and security agencies is that they will do everything to protect the integrity of the election. I know that, once INEC has done its own job, the police and critical segments of the security agencies will be involved in protecting the integrity of the election. If they are not allowed to do their own responsibility, it can be a problem.

Brazil immigrations seize Supporters club’s food items

The Secretary-General of the Nigeria Football Supporters Club (NFSC), Samuel Ikpea, has assured that the club would ensure the recovery of its members’ food items seized by Brazilian Immigration officials.

Brazilian Immigration officials at the Sao Paulo International Airport had on Monday seized Nigerian food items carried by members of the NFSC to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the food items included large quantity of garri, semovita, vegetable oil, fried meat and fish and food seasoning and spices.

NAN reports that Brazilian Immigration officials at the airport insisted that bringing in food items without official notice was prohibited in the country.

However, Ikpea said the club’s leadership has stepped up action towards ensuring the food items were returned to their members.

“We are going to be here for almost a month and we need our local food to sustain members of the club who are here to cheer the national team,’’ he said.

NAN reports also that the club’s President-General, Rafiu Oladipo, had contacted Nigeria’s Ambassador in Brazil to assist towards the possible recovery of the seized food items.

One member of the club who spoke to NAN on condition of anonymity claimed she spent over N50,000 in buying and preserving the food items.

“It has always been our practice to travel abroad in support of the national teams with our national food items.

“I hope we are able to recover these food items, because many of them were already paid for by some members on the trip,” she said.

Some of the members of the club, who mostly love eating Nigerian food, told NAN that staying in Brazil would remain difficult for them without Nigerian food.

They said they would have to start eating foreign foods which they were not used to, if they were going to survive the situation.

NAN reports that members of the Nigerian supporters club are in Brazil to cheer the Super Eagles who are in Group F at the 2014 World Cup finals.

It has always been the practice of the club’s members to travel with Nigerian food items to every international football competition they were attending.

Eagles Eagles to get $5000

In a sustained effort to boost their morale and drive the Super Eagles to victory, Guinness Nigeria PLC, makers’ of Nigeria’s number one premium brand, Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, has declared an increase in the dollar reward per goal offered to Super Eagles in the group stages from original $2,000  to $5,000 dollars, thus further demonstrating its position as the number one supporter of the Super Eagles and by providing innovative ways for millions of Nigerian fans to show their support for the team at the World Cup in Brazil. This came not too long after, the brewing giant renewed its sponsorship of the national team as the Official Beer sponsor of the Super Eagles for the next 4 years

Austin Ufomba, the Director of Marketing and Innovations at Guinness Nigeria said that the increment was necessary to encourage the players to give more than they normally would. “We are confident in the ability of the Super Eagles despite their performance with the Iranian team and we urge all Nigerians to share in this confidence and this is the reason why we have decided to reassure Nigerians by upping the stakes for the team to also let them know that they have the support of Nigerians at this time” Ufomba stated.

Guinness also launched the ring-back tune version of their official theme song for the Super Eagles to give an identity to authentic Super Eagles fans nationwide as they stand and show their support for the Super Eagles in all their matches. The ring back tune is available for download on the Etisalat network. To show your love and support, simply text 1759 to 251 (Etisalat) and download the caller tune. Song download costs 50 Naira only.

Ufomba also stated that fans and consumers should also watch out for Guinness Ref, a kind of connection that links fans and consumer with their passion-football during match days in bars across key Nigerian cities. There, he revealed, Guinness will be giving out fantastic prizes to knowledgeable football fans. Super Eagles supporters can also leave their goodwill messages to them by visiting www.facebook.com/guinnessvip. They can also join the conversation on twitter with the hash tag #FLYWITHTHEEAGLES. Only fans who are 18 years and above can participate.

The company’s flagship brand – Guinness Foreign Extra Stout has been the official sponsor of the Super Eagles for over 7 years, keeping faith and consistently supporting the dreams and passion of the Super Eagles and its over 150 million fans because they believe that the team and its fans are truly made of more. Guinness believes that every Nigerian should step up to cheer the national team, our beloved Super Eagles, to victory at every stage during the round leather fiesta holding in Brazil.

UPDATE: Why we shut OAU indefinitely – Management

The students protested a hike in their tuition fees.

The Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, has been closed down indefinitely and students ordered to vacate the school premises.

The school’s management took the decision to shut down the school following three days of continuous protest by the students.

The school’s Public Relation Officer, PRO, Abiodun Olanrewaju, told PREMIUM TIMES that the school was shut down because of the continuous protest by the students of the University.

“The university administration has decided to shut down the school because of the persistent student demonstration which led to the breakdown of law and order,” he said. “We have decided not to allow further break down of law and order and to protect the sanctity of lives and
property.”

Mr. Olanrewaju said the students were directed to vacate the university premises and hostels by Thursday.

The students, since Monday, have been protesting to demand a reversal of the hike in school fees as announced by the management.

For several hours on Wednesday, several administrative staff of the school were held up in the Senate building, as students barricaded it seeking audience with Bamitale Omole, the Vice Chancellor, VC.

It is not clear if Mr. Omole, was inside the building; but he had earlier on defended the fee hike.
“The charges being paid by the OAU students were not only the lowest in the entire Nigerian University system but also the most ridiculous in the entire tertiary educational system in Africa,” he said at a press conference.

Also standing by the decision to hike the tuition fees, the PRO, Mr. Abiodun, said the decision is not negotiable at the moment, hence, students should go home to be with their parents.

“Well the school fees in not a negotiable issue at the moment. The governing council of the university has given the go ahead that the student in science, art, physical and pharmacy should pay N19,700, N30,700 and N33,700 respectively,” he said.

Mr. Olanrewaju said the university administration does not consider the sums exorbitant and lamented that the students insist on paying the old fees
“The university says no. If the kids will be doing this, then they should go and meet their parents at home,” he said.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the school management has brought armed police officers to the school gate, perhaps to bring them in on Thursday to force the students to leave the school.

The use of armed security operatives to quell students protests is common in Nigerian higher institutions sometimes leading to the death of students including in OAU in 2004.

Mr. Abiodun did not comment on the armed security officials but said the university’s Senate will re-open the only when it sees calm return.

“The closure is indefinite,” he said.

I was present when Jonathan struck single-term deal with PDP leaders, governors — Ex-Governor Adamu

“By running he is absolutely reneging on an agreement,” former Governor Abdullahi Adamu said of President Jonathan’s plan to run for president again.

———————————————

A former governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Adamu has insisted that President Goodluck Jonathan entered into agreement with the leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to spend a term of four years in office.

He said at a meeting with party leaders at the Conference Room of the Office of the First Lady, Presidential Villa, the President agreed not to seek re-election after conceding that it was the turn of the north to produce the president on the platform of the ruling party following the demise of former President Umaru Yar’Adua.

According to him, at the meeting, which he attended in his capacity as the then Secretary of the PDP Board of Trustees, virtually all the PDP governors then were present.

Mr. Adamu, currently a senator representing Nasarawa West Senatorial District, spoke as a guest onStraight Talk with Kadaria Ahmed, a popular talk-show on Channels Television.

“I believe it is the right of every Nigerian within the Constitution of the federal Republic of Nigeria to run for the highest office in the land,”Mr. Adamu who has since defected to the opposition All Progressive Congress, APC, said. “I cannot deny him that constitutional right. But I do know of the philosophy that it is not everything that you can do that you do. I know that as a fact.

“And I was party to the incident. Our president, His Excellency Goodlcuk Jonathan was in the meeting. I was in the meeting in the Villa, in the First Lady’s Conference Room when the issue of zoning came, when the issue of whether he would be allowed to contest in the first place came.
“This was after he had taken over and was completing Yar’Adua’s tenure.”

Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State had last year triggered a political storm in the country when he argued that Mr. Jonathan was ineligible to contest the 2015 presidential election having allegedly agreed not to.

Speaking in an interview with an independent radio station Liberty FM, Kaduna, the governor claimed the president signed a single-term pact with the PDP governors in 2011.

The president and his aides however debunked the claim, saying it was a “frivolous allegation.”
Mr. Adamu however said after Mr. Jonathan succeeded his late boss in May 2010 and the president was given the opportunity to contest, it was clear the presidential slot, in line with the zoning principle of the ruling PDP would return to the northern part of the country.

Mr Adamu explained, “He was given the opportunity to contest and it was clear it would come back to the North because the rotation is north and south. That is the rotation essentially.

“As far as PDP was concerned, Yar’Adua had the northern slot so to say and he didn’t go that distance. He, as vice president, took over which is okay. After taking over he wanted another shot. He was allowed the slot.

“As a party, the party produces its candidate and before he was produced there was some caucusing. And the Caucus agreed that he should be the candidate of the party. Before the Convention, a decision is usually taken that this is the person to support, maybe one or two candidates or so. He was out there. He was an incumbent president.

He defeated Atiku. And he agreed to do only one term.”
Asked to name those who attended the meeting, the former governor said, “I was there. I was the Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the party.

 The president himself was there. Some state governors were there. Samuel Ogbemudia was there. Virtually all the PDP governors were there.”

Mr. Adamu said Mr. Jonathan would be violating the agreement if he decides to enter the presidential contest which holds in February next year, saying, “By running he is absolutely reneging on an agreement.”

He stressed, “I am saying I was in PDP. I was part and parcel of an agreement for the power shift. I’m saying our dear president was part of that agreement.”

The lawmaker said the dynamics of Nigerian politics makes the zoning of political offices necessary.
“The constitution of the country does allow it. It is not for me as an individual to say to hell with the constitution,” he said.

“To say to hell with power balancing in Nigeria, no politics in the world is precluded from having these forces that determine the shape of leadership or the location of leadership at any point in time.”
Since Mr. Aliyu opened the issue of the controversial single-term pact, others have joined the fray to insist that Mr. Jonathan should excuse himself from the impending presidential race.

The Adamawa State Governor, Murtala Nyako, a few months ago asked the president to keep his promise instead of dragging Nigerian into another civil war.

Mr. Nyako, who also said he was at the meeting, claimed there was an earlier agreement in 2003 that the north would produce the president between 2007 and 2011 and that Mr. Jonathan, who was the deputy governor of Bayelsa State, signed as number 73.

The governor said when he was approached to sign the new agreement in 2011 that Mr. Jonathan would not contest again in 2015 he was reluctant to do so because he (President) did not respect the 2003 agreement.

He said he was subsequently prevailed upon to sign.

“In the first place, when that agreement was brought for me to sign, I told them that this President (Jonathan), in the agreement signed in the year 2003, he was number 73,” Mr. Nyako who defected to the APC last October, said.

“Did we not agree under (ex-President Olusegun) Obasanjo that the term 2007 and 2011 belong to the North?

“He was number 73 as deputy governor of Bayelsa State, so when they came, they said I should sign, they said he had agreed that he would not contest in the year 2015.

“In the first place, I said I did not believe him because he didn’t give his pledge for the agreement signed in the year 2003. They said ah, ah, Baba Maimangoro. I said ok, I will sign. So I signed.”

“After that, the Niger State governor took the paper to Jonathan and he signed. Obasanjo can confirm that he came here with Jonathan and pleaded with me to support Jonathan to contest the 2011 Presidential election.”

The governor explained that it was Mr. Aliyu, Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State and others he did not name that brought the agreement to him to sign.

He also stated that former President Olusegun Obasanjo accompanied Mr. Jonathan to prevail upon him (Nyako) to back the president who had already agreed to serve for one term.

He said, “Obj (Obasanjo) will tell you, he came here and pleaded with me to support Jonathan in 2011. He came here and virtually took an oath to serve only one term.”

The Adamawa State governor claimed his Niger State counterpart was in possession of the said agreement even as he lambasted Mr. Jonathan for not being a man of honour.

He said the president’s behaviour was capable of plunging the nation into another civil war.
“The Niger State governor has the agreement. We want to deal with people with honour, not people who want to drag us into civil war because of impunity, because of lawlessness, because of not fulfilling their pledges that will only take us to civil war,” he said.

“Leaders must be honest with their colleagues and the greater society. I have my craw-craw from the first civil war and if there is need to develop another craw-craw in another civil war I will stand by.”
The Presidency has repeatedly said Mr. Jonathan did not sign a single-term agreement and challenged those claiming he did to bring it out.

Shortly after Mr. Aliyu announced the existence of the alleged pact, the then Special Adviser to the President, Ahmed Gulak said, “President Goodluck Jonathan did not win the presidential election in Governor Aliyu’s state. Anybody who has a presidential ambition, it is such a person’s constitutional right to have ambition.

“He should however go about his ambition without coming up with frivolous allegations. President Jonathan did not sign such an agreement with anybody to the best of my knowledge.

“The alleged agreement only exists in the figment of the imagination of somebody with presidential ambition.”

During a media chat sometime in 2012, Mr. Jonathan said that he was yet to decide whether or not to contest in 2015.

He said his decision on whether he would contest or not would be made known in 2014. The president is yet to do so.

The alleged pact is believed to be remotely responsible for the crisis that engulfed the ruling PDP between last year and early this year.

The crisis led to the formation of the defunct New PDP with seven of the governor and others as members.

The governors are Mr. Aliyu (Niger), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara), Musa Kwankwaso (Kano), Chibuike Amaechi (Rivers) and Mr. Nayko.

The splinter group, led by Abubakar Kawu, a former acting National Chairman of the PDP, has since fused into the All Progressives Congress, APC, with five of the governors joining the opposition party.

Messrs. Aliyu and Lamido stayed back in the PDP.

At the peak of the PDP zoning controversy in 2011, which allegedly led to the alleged pact, Mr. Jonathan had said the ruling party never zoned the presidency to any part of the country.

“This is the first time I have to comment on zoning,” Mr Jonathan said at the PDP national secretariat. “I have decided to talk about it, but at the appropriate time, you will know a little more. But either by virtue of the PDP constitution, or in practice, the presidency of Nigeria has never been zoned to any part of the country. It has never been zoned or maybe I would read some sections of our own constitution too.”

He added, “The office of the President and other elective offices like Senate Presidency, Speaker and National Assembly Officers, PDP has reasonable control as long as we are in the majority.

Those offices could be zoned. But before you zone those offices, the President and the Vice-president would have first emerged.”

BATTLE OF PANTANAL CUIABA Enyeama bothers Bosnia coach

If there is one person that is giving Bosnia’s coach migraine ahead for their clash against the Super Eagles on Saturday at the Arena Pantanal Cuiaba, it is  goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama.  Enyeama according to Safet Susic is not only an asset to the team but a safe hand whose ability should not be underrated by opponents.

The coach who no doubt paid close attention to Nigeria’s unimpressive draw against Iran on Monday, did not express surprise that the Nigeria’s number one remains a force to be reckoned with noting that he was equally on fire in the French league before hitting Brazil for the World Cup.

Aside from the Enyeama factor the Bosnia coach is equally tinkering with the idea of coming out with the best format to checkmate Nigeria after confessing that he could not really give an opinion about Nigeria’s match against Iran because it was a bit difficult to understand the pattern of play.

“Really, it’s very difficult to find some opinion after the last match,” Susic said.

“As for me I felt the Nigeria national team were playing with a (middle) three plus one… (up front) and it’s very, very hard to give opinion on the match.

“Also you have to take into consideration that they have a very good goalkeeper (Vincent Enyeama), he is from France’s top league and he didn’t concede any in his last 11,” he said

Susic is however not expecting an uncoordinated Super Eagles when both teams clash on Saturday, noting that there is tendency for every team to attempt to better the last performance, insisting that Nigeria can play better

“Nigeria know how to play and they can play much better.”

The format against Eagles he further added will depend on what happens in the course of training ahead of Saturday

“I think I may change the squad but it depends on the situation. Our players will train in different formations and combination.

“I (am) not going to announce the team before the coming match because I’m still thinking about howto play it and which formation to use.”

Susic sprang a surprise against Argentina, choosing not to play two up front – as he usually does – and leaving Vedad Ibisevic on the bench.

Izet Hajrovic, Zvjezdan Misimovic and Senad Lulic were preferred as a trio behind lead striker Edin Dzeko but Susic may be tempted to bring

Ibisevic back into his starting XI versus Nigeria.

Dzeko and Ibisevic combined for 18 goals in qualifying Bosnia-Herzegovina for the World Cup.