President Goodluck Jonathan in a Group Photograph with Members of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Jos Crisis after the Submission of 3rd Report Monday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

By Henry Umoru
ABUJA—SPECIAL Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on National Assembly Matters,  Alhaji Mohammed Abba Aji, yesterday, declared that his boss would declare his presidential ambition for the 2011 election, after the Ramadan period.

Abba Aji who was fielding questions from newsmen at the meeting of “Friends of Democracy”, a political group for President Goodluck Jonathan, noted that governors of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, cannot be a threat to Jonathan’s ambition.

He said: “We are not threatened by the action of the PDP Governors. They are very important leaders of our party in their various states and in the governance of the country. They know that this is the turn of Jonathan because as a sitting Vice President, it would take thoughtlessness to suggest that somebody other than him should be given the chance.

“We have no fear at all, we know that our Governors will support the President in due course. Many of them are doing that already. Right now, I am sure that we have majority. Over two thirds of the governors are with us, and not that the rest are not with us but they are yet to declare. They will declare for the President in due course.”

On the date for President Jonathan’s declaration, Abba Aji said the date was chosen because President Jonathan was presently fasting with the Moslems across the country.

The presidential aide said that whether Jonathan would contest the election was no longer the issue, stressing: “The President will certainly run and he will declare after Ramadan. He is fasting along with us. He is fasting throughout the month of Ramadan.

“This is not something that he started now, he started it since he moved to Abuja as Vice President. Because of this he is holding on, but as soon as the Ramadan is over, he will declare for the Presidency. There is no doubt about that.

“We will take a convenient date after the Sallah and you will be duly notified. Don’t believe those who are saying President won’t run, don’t believe them. The President will run. It is the desire of every politician to aspire to the highest level.

“We have made it abundantly clear that President Jonathan has inherited all the political fortunes of late President Yar’Adua. Were he to be alive he would have been automatically entitled to a second chance. That chance is the entitlement of President Jonathan.”
Omehia appeals

Also in another development, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, former governor of Rivers State, Sir Celestine Omehia has appealed to Nigerians especially the people from the north to support President Goodluck Jonathan for the 2011 Presidential election.

In a statement he signed yesterday in Abuja, Omehia  who noted that change was permanent, stressed that it has become imperative for the North to support President Jonathan against the backdrop that as human beings, it may not be possible for us to have all that we desire, adding that, sometimes, we make sacrifices for the overall good of the society.

According to him, if the present debate on zoning was not resolved in favour of the people from the South South, the people from the zone will feel betrayed by their big brothers from the North, adding, “and if that happens, it will not only harm existing bonds of unity but destroy the traditional mutual trust between the North and South-South.”

The former governor who urged the North to take into account the existing cordial relationship between the North and the South-South, said they must reciprocate the traditional support which the South-South region had always given to the North in the past, adding that the bond between the North and South-South will be strengthened by a Jonathan presidency if he decides to contest.