Allegations from the Northern Governors Forum Chairman and Niger State Governor, Alhaji Babangida Aliyu that President Goodluck Jonathan had entered into a pact with Northern Governors to do a tenure has divided politicians from the North.
Governor Aliyu of Niger State had said in a Radio Interview in Kaduna that the President reached an agreement with PDP governors in 2011 to serve for one term only.
Top Northern Politicians believed that Governor Aliyu was being over ambitious and economical with the truth with his claim that he was present at a meeting when the alleged pact between President Jonathan and Northern Governors was signed.
Governor Aliyu had said: “I recall that at the time he was going to declare for the 2011 election, all the PDP Governors were brought together to ensure that we were all in the same frame of mind.
But a former Senate Chief Whip and a stalwart of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, Senator Kanti Bello who claimed to be at the said meeting and had asked the President of his possibility of doing a one term in office said never did the President agreed or signed any agreement to that effect.
According to Senator Bello, “He (Aliyu) is being economical with the truth. You see, I will explain clearly what happened.
“When we were having a meeting, then I was in PDP, we were there at the National Headquarters of the Party, we the principal officers of the Senate, governors and some members of the National Working Committee of the Party.
“A discussion arose and President Jonathan complained about the sequence of elections and lack of support as an executive President and member of our party.
“Then, finally I raised the issue that it is not a question of election, you want to run but since you want to run, some of us feel what you want to do is unconstitutional but since a decision has been taken and a primary has taken place, the majority of the people say run so democratically, there is nothing anybody can do since there has been a convention and nobody objected at the convention about your running.
“ I asked him, what are we going to take in return to our people, what do we tell them? Even if we want to convince our people, we have to take something to them, can you please confirm to us here and now that you are only going to run for one term?
“To be fair to Jonathan, he did not utter a word. You get it clear? He didn’t say a word, he kept quiet and that is where we stopped.
“But later, Governor (Shehu) Shema of Katsina State, and his friends, out of mischief, went and wrote a communiqué that Jonathan was running for only one term. He didn’t say it, but they wrote a communique, I challenge anybody to say that was not what happened.
“You cannot say based on that you have an agreement with Jonathan, you cannot say it. Writing a communiqué on behalf of somebody who didn’t utter a word, I cannot see it as an agreement. That was exactly what happened.
“The governors under Shema, particularly Shema being the one who is a lawyer, thinks he is smart. He was the one who wrote the communiqué and gave it to the press, that this is the communiqué of our meeting but to be fair to Jonathan, he didn’t utter a word and it was me who asked that question with Governor Danjuma Goje there at that time.
“He was the one who was even saying Mr. President, we are with you but I was the one who bluntly asked him if he was going to run so that we can go and tell our people.”