The Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, and others of like mind, have been challenged by the Presidency, to produce an agreement reached between them and President Goodluck Jonathan to serve a single term in office.
The presidency threw the challenge, yesterday, following fresh assertions by ACF to the president to honour the terms of the alleged agreement purportedly reached prior to the 2011 presidential election.
ACF spokesman, Anthony Sani, reacting to the agitation by five northern governors for Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to address their concerns, had told a national newspaper in an interview published yesterday: “Our understanding of the G-5 governors is that they want governors to be carried along in the management of their party.
“They want an end to divisions and entrenchment of internal democracy in the party, and for President Jonathan to respect agreements he entered into voluntarily with stakeholders.”
However, responding to the assertion, political adviser to the President, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, told Vanguard yesterday: “There was no agreement President Jonathan had with anybody for a single term.
“I have challenged them before and not even the governor of Niger State that started the debate could prove it.”
Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State raised the issue last February, during a live radio interview, when he claimed that the President agreed to serve a single term as a condition to get the support of governors, especially those from the north.
He had said: “I recall that at the time he was going to declare for the 2011 election, all the PDP governors were brought together to ensure that we were all in the same frame of mind.
“And I recall that some of us said given the circumstances of the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua and given the PDP zoning arrangement, it was expected that the North was to produce the president for a given number of years.
“I recall that at that discussion, it was agreed that Jonathan would serve only one term of four years and we all signed the agreement.
“Even when Jonathan went to Kampala, Uganda, and also said he was going to serve a single term.” [Vanguard]
It is not surprising that Gulak would say this. What do u expect of a govt that entered agreemt with Asuu only to turn round to say they cannot fulfil their own part of d agreement? What do u think such a govt would do where u don’t hv a written agreemt. Even where it is written they will still deny. I’ve never seen a conscienceless govt like this.