Grace Okon
A group known as the Nomadic/ Almajiris has purchased the APC Presidential ticket for the former president of the federal republic of Nigeria, Goodluck Ebere Jonathan.According to Mallam Ibrahim Abdulahi who spoke on behalf of the group, he said the group want the President to continue the good work he has started in previous years.
” We are representing two groups, the nomadic pastoralists and Almajiris, and vulnerable communities in our country.We want his leadership skill back in the country”.
Mallam Abdullah recalled that during Jonathan’s era, he was the first President since the independence of Nigeria who found it magnanimous enough to remember the vulnerable populations in the country.
“He brought a comprehensive policy of reformation and integration of Almajiris into the mainstream educational system in Nigeria. It was Jonathan’s vision that if the programme will continue, the Almajiris would one day produce doctors, engineers and others unlike what is obtained today”. said Abdullahi.
He noted that unfortunately, that programme ended as soon as Jonathan left the office.
” Looking at the Nigeria situation as of now, we believe that Nigeria needs a leader like him, a leader with the level of patriotism, fairness and a leader who is ready to give every Nigeria a sense of belonging and the only person that fits that description is Dr Good luck, Jonathan.”
A few hours after this declaration, the former president Jonathan reacted through his Media Adviser Ikechukwu Eze and distanced himself from the APC presidential forms. “This is an insult to his personality since he did not authorize the group to buy any form for him, and that he can purchase the form if he chose to do so at any time.”
Eze wrote, “It has come to the notice of his Excellency Dr Goodluck Jonathan, that a group has purportedly bought presidential Nominations and Expression of interest forms of the All Progressive Congress in his name, and we wish to state categorically that Dr Jonathan was not aware of this bid and did not authorize it.”
“While we appreciate the overwhelming request by a cross-section of Nigerians for Dr Jonathan to make himself available for the 2023 presidential election, we wish to state that he has not in any way, committed himself to this request.”
“We thank the general public for their concern as we encourage citizens’ participation in the affairs of the country”.
Furthermore, Mallam Abdullahi said that the nomadic pastoralists have a voting power of almost 9 million votes, plus Almajiri who has about 5 million votes and all we need is 2 million votes from Nigerians, both home and abroad.
Furthermore, some Public Affairs Analyst had begun to wonder why a group would cough out a whole 100 million on the APC presidential forms without Dr Jonathan’s consent, and even more so, he is not a public known APC member, a party to which he lost his second term bid to years back.
“Another school of thought argued that northern power brokers want President Jonathan to rule in 2023 so that the power can return to the North in just four years, instead of eight, or someone like Tinubu or any other Southern person gets it in 2023”.
” Seems the North is not ready to give up power, they are just pretending, even Prof. Kperogi a Northerner has written about this plan, so am not saying something new”.
Mallam Abdullahi said that as Nigerians with the interests of the country at heart, Good luck will accept their plea.
“We have been pulling the resources together, and is through the selling of cows that we can raise the fund and purchase the form.
He also called on Nigerians to support the project and said no better aspirant can be compared to Goodluck Jonathan so far.
