Is Jonathan coasting towards 2015 endorsement?

Group Politics Editor, Taiwo Adisa, examines the emerging issues in the fold of the Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum (PDPGF) as the presidential primaries of the party for the 2015 election draws closer.
With a benefit of hindsight, observers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum (PDPGF) would want to conclude now that the incident of November 17, 2013 is a blessing in disguise for the PDP, which describes itself as the largest party in Africa.
On that day, there was gloom written all over the faces of party stalwarts, following the announcement that five of its elected governors would be defecting to the rival All Progressives Congress (APC). The opposition party was basking in the joy of the day and the possibility of its overthrown of PDP’s majority in the House of Representatives. Following the waves of expected events
, it was believed that the PDP was headed for the back seat as far as governance of Nigeria at the centre is concerned.
The defecting governors, Rabiu Kwakwanso of Kano, Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers) and Abdufattah Ahmed (Kwara), had promised to cause the defection of a huge number of lawmakers in the Senate and the House to effect a change in leadership of the two chambers. They were so sure the plot would work in the House of Representatives, at least, and that with a weakened majority of the PDP in the Senate, an impeachment process could be engineered against President Goodluck Jonathan in a way that would ensure the APC gets power ahead of 2015.
With the G5 governors insisting on a number of positions which the Jonathan-led administration and the leadership of the party under Alhaji Bamanga Tukur found impossible to implement, the protracted negotiations were brought to a halt when the defection plans were announced. It was thought that the party was on a free fall when 37 members of the House announced their defection to the APC in December 2013. It was also touted that 22 senators were set to defect to the APC in the first tranche of that exercise.
But having seen its majority in the House practically threatened, leaders of the PDP, with the active support of the remaining 18 members of the PDPGF, rallied round to save the day. The result of a series of meetings between President Goodluck Jonathan and the chairman of PDPGF, Obong Godswill Akpabio and other stakeholders, including the chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih, however, appeared to have effected the dramatic turnaround to the effect that discordant tunes that were the songs of the day as of December have become strange to the hears in the party right now.
Thus, unlike the situation witnessed under the leadership of President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003 and 2007, when governors sang discordant tunes, the PDP governors appear to be firmly united on returning Jonathan to his seat in 2015.
In 2003, the PDP experienced a baptism of fire, when a gang-up between the then Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and the serving governors nearly terminated Obasanjo’s ambition for a second term in office. The then president had to go on his knees before Atiku and a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Ghali Umar Na’Abba, who were the arrowheads of the plot to stop him. Eventually, Obasanjo scaled the hurdle with huge bruises all over his body. The scars inflicted on the former president were, however, revenged when he decimated Atiku and Na’Abba during his second term in office. He was said to have ensured that the former Speaker did not win his election that year, while also removing all the powers from Atiku’s hands as the Vice-President. There were also clear efforts at removing the number two man, but for the courts that saved Atiku. Despite that, he was denied the chance to contest the presidential ticket of the PDP in 2007 and he eventually tried his luck using the ticket of  the then Action Congress (AC).
Also in 2007, not a few governors of the PDP flagged off their presidential campaign, with governors from the North and South seeking to outdo one another. Then President Obasanjo had to ram the choice of late Umaru Yar’Adua down the throat of other party members in a military fashion, when it was obvious a free and fair primary election was not guaranteed. 
Right now, it appears that the defection of G5 has done the PDP a lot of good, as far as cohesion and unity of purpose is concerned in the party.
With the installation of  a former Governor of Bauchi State, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, as the national chairman earlier in the year, the PDP, it appears, has been moving from strength to strength. The collaboration between him and the PDPGF has so far been unimaginable. Incidentally, it was his acclaimed arch enemy in Bauchi politics, Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi, who nominated him for the post at the emergency National Executive Committee meeting.
 The attention of the 18 PDPGF members tends to be focused on how to return Jonathan to office in 2015. This much has come out at virtually all the zonal rallies held this year thus far. The chairman of PDPGF,  Akpabio, has been a major feature at all the rallies so far. Oftentimes, he spoke for his colleagues and assured that everyone was resolute in supporting the leadership of President Jonathan.
From Ilorin in Kwara State, to Kaduna, Bauchi, Enugu and Kano, the new song of support and united focus among the PDPGF in respect of the 2015 presidential ticket of the party has been unprecedented.
The governors rammed it home clearly at a recent rally in Enugu when they insisted that the rally was simply to woo Jonathan to contest the 2015 election. Earlier in Bauchi, Akpabio had told his colleagues that members of the PDPGF were doing well and that they would ensure the PDP wins the three states of the North-East; Adamawa, Yobe and Borno, to bring about the type of development the PDP had effected in Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba. He stated that incidentally, the three crisis-ridden states of the North-East were all under the control of the opposition.  
In Enugu, the Governor of Abia State, Theodore Orji, told his compatriots that the huge crowd that witnessed the rally was a show of the popularity of President Jonathan. He said that the president remained the man to beat in 2015.
His Enugu State counterpart, Sullivan Chime, stated that the rally was simply about wooing President Jonathan to contest the 2015 election. He said the people appreciated the laudable achievements of the Jonathan-led administration in the South-East.
He said: “The essence of the rally is simple: our people want to present two requests. The first is that Mr President, you should run for presidency in 2015.
Our second request is that he shouldn’t disappoint us by saying no. He must say yes!
We aren’t here to discuss your projects, but to make that request with one voice.”
The chairman of the PDPGF, Akpabio put the icing on the cake when he spoke for the forum. He said the governors were united in making the demand and that the president was expected to respond positively.
Akpabio said: “On behalf of the governors of the PDP, we want to thank the governors of PDP in South-East.
“Mr President, we want you to contest in 2015 and not to reject to contest. These are our two requests.
“They want you to complete the Second Niger Bridge. Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe completed the first Niger Bridge and another Azikiwe has started the Second Niger Bridge; they don’t want another person to complete it.
“Again, the International Airport in Enugu, they are worried that if you don’t contest, who will complete that project? The only person who can do that is the son of the South-East: Azikiwe Jonathan.
“They are assuring you that come 2015, they are going to reclaim that South-East state in the opposition’s hand, that is Imo State.”
BoT Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, was also to add his voice. He has been an advocate of a rancour-free primary process in the party in recent months. He had also advocated a situation whereby the incumbent president would be granted a right of first refusal. He, however, told the governors that the president would respond at the appropriate time. “In 2015, we shall come again to seek for your votes. The governors have asked the president to say yes; the opportunity will come very soon. When INEC lifts the ban on campaigns, we shall bring him here and he will give a response to your request.”
Though President Jonathan did not respond directly to the requests from the PDPGF, it is clear that the forum is moving in one direction, to push the candidacy of President Jonathan for a second term in office. The president could well receive an overwhelming endorsement of his party men if the momentum continues. It would be a great plus for Akpabio-led PDPGF and that would be a clear departure from the tear-down-the-wall intra-party contests witnessed in the past.