By Hamed Sobiye
A large majority of PUNCH Online readers believe that President Goodluck Jonathan should contest next year’s presidential election.
Over 80 per cent of respondents in a weeklong online poll answered, “Yes” when asked if they believed Jonathan should stand for office in 2011.
Opinions have been divided on whether Jonathan, who assumed full executive powers after the death on May 5, of former President Umaru Yar’Adua should contest the election scheduled for early next year.
While the Peoples Democratic Party had insisted the party’s presidential ticket has been zoned to the northern part of the country till 2015, other schools of thought had argued that the former vice president has the legitimate right to vie for the highest political office in the country.
Just last week, a presidential aide hinted strongly in Abuja that Jonathan would contest the 2011 presidential election.
Briefing journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, the Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters to the President, Mr. Cairo Ojougboh, said Jonathan would fly the People’s Democratic Party’s at the election and was certain of winning.
He said, “Mr. President is a PDP president and he is a member of PDP, and Mr. President will run under the PDP.”
Ojougboh said peace in the Niger Delta would ”deepen” if Jonathan runs next year. According to him, it would also deepen Nigeria‘s democracy. He argued that the debate on the issue had been on and the general consensus was that Jonathan should run.
He also noted that the president was free to contest going by the 1999 Constitution.
According to him, ”There is no personal reason for which you can ask him not to contest. There is no moral reason for which you can ask him not to contest and so he will contest and he should contest. Personally, I will vote for him.”
Asked if he had the mandate of Jonathan to announce that he (Jonathan) would run in 2011, he had replied: ”That is not the issue; it is a general debate that is ongoing and then it is those of us who work for the President, it is our own right to join the debate and we are joining it.
”It is a debate, so it not an issue of mandate or no mandate. It is a general debate. This is not the first time you are hearing it. It is a general debate that is ongoing and then we have to also canvass it.”
The presidential aide argued that the issue is open for discussion and everyone should advance his or her own argument. He said the superior argument would win at the end of the day.
”Why we are asking him to contest, why we are urging him to contest, a lot of people have been saying the same thing; a lot of persons, in fact, very senior citizens both from the North and the South are asking him to contest and that is the issue,” he said.
Ojougboh however amended the statement, insisting that while he did not have the mandate the Jonathan to say that he would stand in 2011; the president had the right to contest.
Presidential spokesman, Mr. Ima Niboro, however said a day later the president was yet to make up his mind on the matter.
In all, 7, 667 PUNCH Online readers responded to the question: “Do you think
Goodluck Jonathan should contest 2011 presidential election? “
The readers were required to choose from three options namely: (i) Yes, (ii) No and (iii) I’m undecided.
While 6, 264 readers or 81.7 per cent voted “Yes”; 1172 or 15.3 per cent said No.
The remaining 231 readers or three per cent said they were undecided.
Source: Punch
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