There were strong indications on Friday that the Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, may be under intense pressure from some of the country‘s power brokers to resign.Those behind the move, sources say, want to ensure that the delicate power sharing arrangement between the North and the South, which some military chiefs and politicians agreed upon in 1998, is preserved. Under the zoning arrangement agreed upon by the politicians of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, power is expected to rotate between the two regions at the end of two presidential terms.
Saturday Punch investigations on Friday revealed that the pressure, which started when the President made his first medical trip abroad in 2007, increased this week after the President departed for Saudi Arabia for another round of treatment.
The plan of those pressurising the VP, Saturday Punch learnt, is to create a situation where he would resign for the Senate President, David Mark, to take over for three months and then organise elections, in the event that the President is unable to complete his term.
However, at about the time that Saturday Punch completed its investigations on Friday, the Presidency issued a statement saying that Nigeria‘s president will not resign despite currently undergoing treatment in Saudi Arabia.
The Cable News Network quoted a presidential press statement as saying that, ”President Umaru Musa Yar‘Adua and the vice president will continue in their respective roles and the latter will not assume presidential duties.”
But a source who spoke to our correspondent on the basis of confidentiality said those who were mounting pressure on the Vice President to resign wanted to ensure that there was no loose ends. Specifically, he said the VP were under pressure to sign an undated resignation letter.
”They are saying that it is the only way to preserve the peace and unity of the country. The North would not accept a Southern President so soon after former President Olusegun Obasanjo and that the powerful elements in the region believe that the former President set up the North. They believe that Obasanjo knew that Yar‘Adua was too ill to complete his term, so he foisted him on the region so that power would return to the South.”
The undated resignation letter, which can become binding in the event of the President being unable to continue in office, has thrown the Vice President into a serious dilemma.
Saturday Punch made efforts on Friday to get the Vice President‘s reaction to the development, but he was unreachable. His spokesperson, Ima Niboro, was also unavailable. Calls made to his telephones were not picked, and he did not respond to the text messages that our reporter sent.
But a reliable source who is close to the Vice President and who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity said Jonathan was fine and he was not under any pressure. Another highly placed politician within the Vice President‘s circle who was contacted to confirm the report declined, but only after he had said that it was ”75 per cent true and 25 per cent a rumour.”
Watchers say that some of the happenings in Abuja on Friday were related to the pressure. On Friday, the presidency issued a statement, which was carried by the international media, that the president would not be resigning.
Also on Friday, sources told Saturday Punch that the Vice President had summoned an emergency meeting of Ijaw leaders to deliberate on what his response to the pressure should be. Leaders of the Ijaw National Congress, the umbrella body of the VP‘s Ijaw ethnic group in the Niger Delta, were said to have been invited for a closed door meeting with the VP to deliberate on the issue.
Meanwhile, the President of the Ijaw Monitoring Group, Mr. Joseph Evah, who acknowledged that Jonathan was under some form of pressure, has warned politicians not to frustrate Jonathan out of office.
He challenged those involved in the project to join Nigerians to pray for the health of the President who according to him, would survive the current health challenge.
He said that a group had claimed before that they might give Jonathan the treatment they gave to the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election, Chief Moshood Abiola or Chief Ernest Shonekan, who was compelled to hand over power to General Sani Abacha.
He warned that the people of the Niger Delta and the Nigerian people would not fold their arms to watch people perpetrate heinous illegality.
He said, ”We are alive, there is a group that is behind this thing and Jonathan is not even helping issues. We are not new to the position of the North. We are praying for the President to be alive and he will survive the sickness. Honestly, we want him to live.
”However, we are aware of the type of meetings being carried out by this clique. We urge them to please pray for Mr. President instead of preoccupying themselves with such issues.”
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