North has no consensus presidential candidate, says ACF Despite the growing agitation for the presidency in 2015 by northern leaders, the apex socio-cultural group in the North, the Arewa Consultative Forum, has ruled out the possibility of choosing a consensus candidate to challenge President Goodluck Jonathan, who would most likely seek re-election. Several groups and individuals in the North had at different times argued that it should be the turn of the region to produce the President in 2015, considering that the South has held the position for 12 years out of the 15 years since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999. In an interview with our correspondent, the spokesman for the ACF, Mr. Mohammed Ibrahim, said the forum, which is the most respected in the North, would not choose any candidate for the presidency. Ibrahim expressed doubts over the possibility of the North endorsing a candidate for the 2015 presidential election, saying the forum could only advise candidates from the North to cooperate with one another in order for the region to have a better chance of winning the election. He said, “When you talk about presidential candidate or anything that has to do with governance, you are talking about political parties, not a socio-cultural group like the ACF. We are not a political party, so we cannot say this is our candidate for the North. It shouldn’t be mixed up; we are not a political organisation. “In the ACF we have members of the Peoples Democrative Party, the All Democrative Party, and members of other parties. If we try to do that, our members will be divided. As much as possible, we don’t want to dabble into that. But, for instance, if there are 10 candidates from the North, we can only advise them that it is not in their interest to have 10 candidates. But we cannot say this our candidate. No, we are not a political party.” Ibrahim added that as a socio-cultural organisation, the ACF was only interested in the peace and development of the North and not politics. He also said the forum was not certain of the possibility of the North producing the next Nigerian President in 2015, noting that the choice of candidates in the next presidential election was beyond the control of the ACF or any other group in the region. He said, “Once you don’t have control over something, it is difficult to say this is what you want. So, we cannot say for certain whether or not a northerner will become the President in 2015. We cannot force all political parties to field northerners, because we don’t have control over political parties. “The political parties have their own rules and regulations that guide their operations. We are only concerned with the peace, unity and development of the North and the corporate existence of Nigeria. We trying to limit ourselves to these ideals.”
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 11:19:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015