Online voters have said the single term pact President Goodluck Jonathan allegedly signed before the Presidential election of 2011 should not be the basis for disqualifying him from seeking re-election in 2015.
In an opinion poll on whether or not the pact should be the basis for disqualifying the President from contesting in 2015, posted on the Punch website, 370 online users responded to the question tagged, ‘Should single term pact be the basis for disqualifying Jonathan in 2015?’.
Of the number, 194 respondents, representing 52 per cent of voters, voted ‘No’ while 158 voters, representing 43 per cent of the respondents, voted ‘Yes’.
In other words, many of the respondents believe that the pact should not be the basis for disqualifying Jonathan in the 2015 poll.
The poll did not however ask respondents to indicate what should be the yardsticks for measuring Jonathan’s eligibility for a re-election.
Eighteen voters, representing five per cent of respondents, are however undecided as to whether the purported single term pact should be used to disqualify Jonathan or not.
A group of Northern politicians had alleged that the President signed a pact with the Peoples Democratic Party governors to spend a single term of four years in office.
The politicians further alleged that following this, the region supported Jonathan ahead of the 2011 presidential election.
Niger State Governor, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, who particularly asked the President to abide by the terms of the pact, said Jonathan would not be qualified to contest the 2015 presidential election.
However, Jonathan’s aides said he did not sign any pact with any group not to contest in 2015. They also observed that the President was not thinking of 2015 election at the moment, but was concentrating on governance.
Last Tuesday, a former Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Chuka Odom, urged those insisting that President Jonathan signed an agreement to serve a single term, to seek an amendment to the nation’s constitution.
Odum, who spoke in Abuja on Tuesday, said even if such a pact existed, it ran contrary to the provisions of the 1999 constitution as amended.