Goodluck Jonathan's campaign strategy to remain in power beyond May 29 2011 has taken a “spiritual” dimension with a secret meeting with Pastor TB Joshua, the controversial Nigerian pastor who claimed credit for the electoral triumph in Ghana of President Atta Mills.
Goodluck Jonathan's campaign strategy to remain in power beyond May 29 2011 has taken a “spiritual” dimension with a secret meeting with Pastor TB Joshua, the controversial Nigerian pastor who claimed credit for the electoral triumph in Ghana of President Atta Mills.
Pastor Joshua also claimed to have helped Ghana win the junior FIFA world cup last year, a credit that was quickly dismissed by the players and coach of the Ghanaian national team.
Prior to Mr. Jonathan’s meeting with the pastor, his wife, had visited TB Joshua in his Lagos church one week earlier. The hush-hush meeting between the Pastor and the President took place, however, in Dodan Barracks in Lagos, once the seat of Nigeria’s military dictatorships.
Sources told Saharareporters that the meeting was kept secret in order to avoid any kind of negative connotations that could affect his widely publicized spiritual jamboree at the annual "Holy Ghost Congress" of the Redeemed Christian Church of God at its headquarters off the Lagos -Ibadan expressway.
Last week, Mr. Jonathan secured the dubious endorsement of 20 governors of the troubled People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for one term in office. Informed political sources as well as some of the governors in attendance said it was however all done to assuage Jonathan’s feelings temporarily after they had wrested from him the re-ordering of party primaries which was putting them at a disadvantage in the political scheme of the upcoming 2011 general elections.
"The so-called endorsement is not worth more than the cost of one the newspapers that reported it,” one of the governors told Saharareporters last week.
But in a game that is yielding surprises and re-engineered alliances daily, Jonathan’s hunt for a “spiritual” edge is to bolster his determination to stay in office for seven years, if he gets elected in 2011, not just for the four-year tenure he was reportedly endorsed for.
SaharaReporters sources revealed that contrary to what is being touted in public, Jonathan has secretly cobbled together a team of strategists and manipulators that include “Mr. Fix-It” Chief Anthony Anenih and Jerry Gana, with the objective of putting together a blueprint for one-time 7-year tenure for Jonathan as soon as the elections are over in April 2011.
The plan, which is akin to the third term campaign by President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2006-2007, will be bankrolled from excess campaign funds now being generated.
Jonathan had told a delegation of the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) led by Pastor Tunde Bakare that he was opposed to elections every four years, claiming that it was too expensive.
As of last week, some governors that had “come on board” had been persuaded with the argument they would also benefit from the 7-year tenure project.
A close source to Jonathan said the governors, who were fooled by his "meekness" during a NEC meeting of the PDP last week, disclosed that Jonathan would roast them as soon as he wins the 2011 election and that all of them would be in for a shocker from a man believed is as vindictive as his mentor, former president Obasanjo.
The use of high powered religious figures and high profiled religious events has become the hallmark of Nigerian politicians. The seat of federal power, Aso Rock Villa, is known for notorious fetish activities starting from the days of General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. It became even more so during the reign of terror of Sanni Abacha when he reportedly hired marabouts to bury live cows in the premises.
When Olusegun Obasanjo came to power, he built a chapel on the premises, which became the back door through which he engaged in dalliances with several women, as well as, in some accounts, an avenue for contractors to give kickbacks. During the Umaru Yar'Adua years, the return of expatriate marabouts in their hundreds was well documented by SaharaReporters.