By EMMA AMAIZE
Leaders of the South-South, under the aegis of the South-South Peoples Assembly (SSPA), yesterday, replied those in opposition to their position that President Goodluck Jonathan is free to seek second term in 2015, insisting that re-election for the president is a constitutional issue.
They dismissed the notion that their position was an attempt to mislead the president.
The national chairman of the SSPA, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and head of the group’s reconciliation and harmonisation committee, Prof. B.I.C. Ijomah, slammed the critics of their position.
Odigie-Oyegun, a one-time civilian governor of Edo State and Ijomah, a philosopher, told Sunday Vanguard exclusively that those who described South-South leaders as deceivers and sycophants for saying the truth fired a wrong salvo.
The Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, Save Nigeria Group, Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, and other groups had criticised the South-South leaders, who, last Thursday, in Warri, Delta State, threw their weight behind Jonathan for a second tenure.
President Goodluck Jonathan and Chief John Odigie-Oyegun
Odigie-Oyegun said: “Constitutionally, he is qualified to contest for the office in 2015. That is what we have said, that he is free to contest and we are behind him. Nobody can fault the position and it remains our stand. We have not changed”.
The SSPA leader went on: “However, the truth is that he (Jonathan) has not told us (South South leaders) that he is going to run in 2015, but we are seeing the moves to intimidate and harass our son. When he tells us, we will tell him what we think he should do, but nobody should deprive him of his constitutional right.
“I think the outburst against South-South leaders is myopic, how can they say we are deceiving him when it is his right to do so. Like I said, he has not taken the decision, when he takes the decision that he wants to, we will back him, and he is our son.
“And if I may ask, why all the red herring about our position, are we supposed to deny our son his constitutional right as others want to. In fact, it is too early in the day for us to put pressure on him to contest, but what we are saying is that when the time comes, nobody should stop him, he has the privileges”.
Ijomah, who spoke in the same vein, said, “Constitutionally, Dr. Jonathan is qualified to run for the election, which is what we are saying. If you say he is not doing well, that is another thing all together. What we have said and we stand by it is that it is his right to contest. Legally and constitutionally, he can contest for a second term.
“We are not deceiving him , he not even told us yet that he is going to contest for a second term, but we are saying that the law allows him, but if he does not want to contest, that is another thing”, he stated.
Sunday Vanguard learnt that the leaders of the zone want Jonathan to increase the tempo of his performance, not only in the zone, but also in all the geo-political zones of the country so that his acceptance for 2015 would be automatic by the people.
Intimidation
One of the leaders said, yesterday, “The truth is that some northern leaders and groups, want to intimidate intimidate him to admit that he will not seek a second tenure even when the time has not come. On our part, we want him to perform so that when the time comes, we will have positive performance indices in terms of tangible projects to say that this is why we are supporting him.
