Nigeria 2015: Consider Long-Standing Alliance With Southsouth By Voting Jonathan, Anenih Begs Northerners

Chief-Tony-Anenih-300x195Ahead of the presidential election on February 14, Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, on Sunday, called on the North and the South-South to strengthen their age-long political alliance by voting massively for President Goodluck Jonathan.

Anenih, in a statement that came less than a week after the one in which he assured Nigerians in the Diaspora that the forthcoming polls would strengthen rather than divide the country, urged the North to consider the decades of cooperation given by the people of the South-South to candidates of northern extraction and reciprocate the gesture with a renewed mandate for Jonathan.

While acknowledging the right of northerners to aspire for the office of president, the PDP chieftain begged them to jettison such ambition by supporting President Jonathan’s re-election.

The statement reads, “Last week, I made a passionate appeal to Nigerians on the need for us to ensure, during the forthcoming elections, that the nation remains unified and keeps moving forward in unity.

“With a few days to commencement of the 2015 Presidential election, I find it expedient to send this appeal specifically to our brothers and sisters in the Northern States.

“The election is the most important as it is the precursor to the elections at the state level, which come up on February 28. For me, however, the critical issue in the February 14 Presidential election is justice.

“While I do not intend to wish away your legitimate right to be President, I urge you to consider the decades of cooperation given by the people of the South-South to candidates of the North”.

The former Works Minister said in all the democratic elections in Nigerian history in which a Northerner had contested, the outcome showed that the South-South often voted overwhelmingly for such a candidate.