OBJ, IBB to Jonathan: You must not run in 2015

More details have emerged on why there has been so much unease in the Presidency after the meeting President Goodluck Jonathan called on September 1, 2013 to douse the tension that trailed the formation of a parallel National Executive Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party under the leadership of Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje.
The Presidency is said to be bothered by the positions of a former military President, retired General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, and former President Olusegun Obasanjo that Jonathan should not seek re-election in 2015.
The meeting, which had in attendance governors loyal to Jonathan, some governors elected on the platform of the PDP but who are now with the Baraje-led faction and some members of the National Executive Committee of the party under the leadership of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, was said to have been tense because of the positions taken by Babangida and Obasanjo.
The two former leaders were said to have told Jonathan that unless he wanted the country to breakup, he should never give seeking re-election a thought.
Their argument was hinged on the fact that at the time he took up the leadership of the country, it was the turn of the North to have produced the president.
But beyond that, they argued that Jonathan failed to manage the political end of his presidency well as those he ought to have courted he did not owing to ill advice from some of his kinsmen, especially Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark.
The source told The Eagle Online: “Their contention was that if Jonathan had managed things well by effectively reaching out to the North instead of giving the impression that he was running a government for largely Ijaw people with the ill-advice of people like Clark, the situation would have been different.
“Rather, they see him as fighting virtually everyone to please a cabal largely made up of people of his own ethnic stock.
“More so, they are of the opinion that the country has not been more divided than now.
“They also believe that Jonathan has lost grip of the PDP, which was a dangerous development to the polity as it was the ruling party in power at the centre and in most states of the federation.”
According to Obasanjo and Babangida, if they could risk their lives to keep the country one by fighting in the civil war, then they are ready to sacrifice more to ensure the country remains one.
The Eagle Online had exclusively reported a part of the meeting where Obasanjo and Babangida told Jonathan that the country had not been more divided that under his watch (http://theeagleonline.com.ng/news/babangida-obasanjo-to-jonathan-nigeria-has-not-been-more-divided-than-under-your-government/).
Among those who attended the meeting were 16 governors loyal to the President, Tukur, Clark and some of the governors now with Baraje.
A follow-up meeting could not hold as the dissenting governors insisted that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar must be invited.
The Presidency turned down the proposal.
Another reconciliation meeting spearheaded by Obasanjo, Babangida and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih, also failed to resolve the matter.
However, on Sunday night, Anenih told Jonathan to declare his interest in the 2015 race between now and October 2013.